Sing Like Talking -- Ai wo Tomerarenai（愛を止められない）

 

Another Friday night is here and I'm sure that there are folks who are going to cherish their evening out at their favourite watering hole, although because of the second wave of COVID-19, restaurants and bars will have to close up shop earlier than before to stem the infection tide as of midnight tonight. But the music here is still available 24 hours a day (provided that the powers-that-be are kind).

How about some Sing Like Talking to start things off for City Pop/J-AOR night? "Ai wo Tomerarenai" (Can't Stop Love) is one of the coupling songs for the band's 17th single "Kaze ni Dakarete" （風に抱かれて）that was released in August 1994 (forgot to mention in the original article that it had been released as a single...only that it was part of the SLT album "Togetherness"). "Ai wo Tomerarenai" has got a bit more funky bounce than the A-side which makes it fine as an accompaniment for a night out on the town. 

With SLT members Chiaki Fujita（藤田千章）and Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）providing the words and music, it's another one of those songs that is a sure thing for me whenever I see those names in the liner notes. It feels both nostalgic (some 70s soul added to that funk?) and contemporary at the same time. I don't know if "Ai wo Tomerarenai" ever got onto a BEST album but I'm pretty sure that it wasn't included on an original one, so it's one thing again to keep an eye on those B-sides. Some pretty nice gems can be found among those as well. It's just too bad that the above video cuts off rather abruptly.