When it comes to City Pop album covers, the one for Miharu Koshi's（越美晴）1980 "On the Street ~ Miharu II" is one that stands out. Maybe it's just the way that the singer-songwriter is crossing the road in that white pantsuit. It just seems so disco for some reason although the disco days were pretty much over by then.
I've yet to get this one. The only Koshi albums I have thus far are the ones from her techno/New Wave era onwards although I was able to purchase her "Golden Best ~ RCA Years" BEST album which includes those early City Pop/AOR numbers between 1978 and 1981.
One track that is on both "On the Street" and that BEST album is "Tsuioku" (Reminiscences). Written and composed by Koshi, it has that light bossa in the City Pop with an intro that reminds me of Gino Vannelli and the keyboard Haze effect, that representative sound for 1970s City Pop. "Tsuioku" sounds oh-so-elegant although the lyrics rummage up a scene of a poor embittered fellow walking along the dark pier wondering what went wrong with a past romance. On the bittersweet level, this chocolate has at least 80% cacao in there.
I bought this album years ago. There were a few notable tracks but I don't recall them offhand. Perhaps I'll investigate later. Synth-pop with a sprinkling of AOR, probably closer to city pop.
ReplyDeleteI've listened to a few tracks from "Miharu II" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytjYyCYc5RQ). Nothing that grabs me as of yet aside from the ones that I've already heard but there have always been albums that took time to grow on me.
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