Gotta admit that the first time that I listened to this one, I was left scratching my head a little.
I've already given my two pennies on Minami Kitasono（北園みなみ）as a cool singer-songwriter for a mix-and-mingle of groovy beats and jazz which sparked me to get his 2014 mini-album "Promenade".
"Hisan na Christmas" (One Miserable Christmas) is a track from his December 2015 mini-album "Never Let Me Go", and it's certainly got that whirlwind of styles in there as usual, but initially, when I gave this a go, I kinda thought whether Kitasono had a little too much rum in his egg nog when coming up with this one. It's got the jazz and groove plus a recurring theme of what sounds like a Xmas toy soldier march while the lyrics seem to cover a tragicomic romance gone awry during the Holidays, which is a popular theme for J-Xmas songs.
However, it's been like that first dip into a steamy hot spring in Kusatsu. That first time is gonna ring all sorts of alarm bells through your nervous system because of the temperature but once your body gets used to things, it's not too bad at all and you can soak to your heart's content (although you may want to pay attention to your actual heart when entering waters that hot). "Hisan na Christmas" gets better thanks to the groove once you get used to the ups and downs and sudden gear shifts. Hopefully, the fellow in the song has found some similar resolutions.
Great song. I think the horns are what does it for me. I might have to track down a copy. "Promenade" is on iTunes, but "Never Let Me Go" isn't. They're pretty hit or miss, and mostly miss, when it comes to Japanese music.
ReplyDeleteHi, Scott.
DeleteGlad that you've been able to cotton onto "Hisan no Christmas" a lot more readily than I have, although as I've mentioned, it's growing on me steadily. I've heard that Spotify has been getting a lot of Japanese tunes recently.