Asagaya Romantics -- Hitorigoto（独り言）

 

Recently, NHK News featured a vlogger by the name of Masashi Okudaira who has his own channel on YouTube titled "Okudaira Base" on which he features a bit of the relaxing slow life within the metropolis (not sure whether it's Tokyo or elsewhere). Basically his videos center on his inexpensive but very comfortable apartment where he shows his cooking skills for one. I would put up one of his videos here but considering that he welcomes business inquiries, I'm not sure if he would be too thrilled if I did that, so I will just leave a link.

I was doing my usual maintenance on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" when I came across the article that I did on the band Asagaya Romantics（阿佐ヶ谷ロマンティクス）back in the summer of 2018. "Yukari"（所縁）from 2017 seemed like a perfect example of some of their sound which includes elements of rocksteady, reggae and even 1970s New Music.

That was the only article that I had on them so I decided to show off another song by them, a more recent single called "Hitorigoto" (Talking to Myself) from December 2019. Written and composed by Asagaya Romantics guitarist Tomoya Kishi（貴志朋矢）, "Hitorigoto" strikes me as being quite a bit more different in the arrangement in that it feels like a fresh fusion of British soul and 1970s City Pop with the lyrics coming across as someone living alone in an apartment like Mr. Okudaira and being rather pensive about a significant other to whom he/she may have yet to confess feelings. Not to say that I think that Mr. Okudaira himself is in that situation. However, I also think that from watching one of his videos, this song would make for an ideal accompaniment but my feeling is also that he probably prefers the quieter music that he puts on at the end.