Shiho Nanba -- Pool no Ao wa Uso no Ao（プールの青は嘘の青）

 

I wrote about singer Shiho Nanba（南波志帆）a little over two years ago through her "Cobalt Blue" （コバルトブルー）of 2016, a mellow pop song whipped up by one of the current crop of J-AOR darlings, Blue Peppers（ブルー・ペパーズ）. 

One thing that I found out about Nanba through her J-Wiki bio is that she'd been described as someone with that "magic voice" which was airy but clear. However, she'd initially held onto the mantra that a singer's voice had to be powerful which, considering how she has sounded, gave her a bit of a complex. But then an author and a drummer/music producer by the name of Hiroyasu Yano（矢野博康）from the band known as Cymbals offered some advice in which she ought to just take that breath and sing with a lot of air to help her...somewhat like whispering.

I don't think that Nanba has a voice which will blow out speakers in any concert hall, and that's perfectly fine since I find her singing perfectly fine. From what I've heard of her music so far, that light breathy voice of hers fits marvelously with those relaxing melodies.

Take for example, "Pool no Ao wa Uso no Ao" (The Blue of the Pool is the Blue of Lies) which is a track from her 2nd album in her indies days "Kimi ni Todoku ka na, Watashi."（君に届くかな、私。...Will I/It Get to You?）released in September 2009. That's quite a ways back from "Cobalt Blue" but it looks like Nanba took Yano's advice to heart in those days as well. Takaki Horigome（堀込高樹）of Kirinji（キリンジ）fame, another light and mellow veteran, wrote and composed this heartwarming mid-tempo number which seems to deal with someone perhaps visiting the ol' alma mater and reminiscing of past days.

As for the title, even Nanba and Horigome treat the title with something far less than the philosophical seriousness that it might initially feel like. Perhaps the protagonist was more pompous/pretentious in the teenage years but with the passage of time, things have mellowed out considerably. The melody by Horigome, by the way, has kinda struck me as being somewhat reminiscent of a modern version of Sunshine Pop. We can certainly make do with some of those tunes right now.