Hitomi Yaida -- Look Back Again

A few weeks ago on "Uta Kon"（うたコン）, there was a welcome back of sorts for singer-songwriter Hitomi Yaida（矢井田瞳）. It's hard to believe that it's been 20 years since Yaiko made her very energetic presence known in J-Pop with "my sweet darlin'" in October 2000.

I guess before the arrival of Shiho Ochi（越智志帆）, aka Superfly, later in that decade, I'd seen Yaiko as the carefree 21st-century version of a hippie in the Japanese music world. Plus, she has that distinctive delivery for pop/rock including spurts of falsetto.

Well, her appearance on "Uta Kon" brought back her June 2001 4th single "Look Back Again" which was actually a double-A-side single alongside "Over The Distance". As would be the case for a Yaida song, it comes in on a head of steam and guitars as she sings about someone in some current doldrums being encouraged to look back on the good ol' days to create some future good new days. With a melody that hearkens back to the good ol' days of perhaps the 60s and 70s, the singer is more than happy to kick open the doors and let the gloom out of the house

Peaking at No. 3 on Oricon, "Look Back Again" ended up as the 45th-ranked single for 2001 and is currently still Yaida's most sales-successful song. Apparently the music video was filmed in Rio de Janeiro with some of the famous sites being featured front and centre such as the Catedral Metropolitana and Pão de Açúcar.