Chika Ueda -- Calendar（カレンダー）

 

My first melodic image of Chika Ueda（上田知華）came about when I purchased her 1991 CD single "I Will" which was a classic torch song as a theme for a TV drama. Then, I discovered her other styles such as her early Baroque Pop touch with the group Karyobin in the early 1980s and then she dove into the City Pop style going further into the decade.

I didn't have any idea that heading toward the end of the century that the singer-songwriter would also come up with a song with some of those pumping dance beats in there, but that's what indeed happened when she came up with "Calendar". This was a coupling song to her January 1999 single "Time To Say Goodbye" and was the final track on her March 1999 album "la la la".

With words and music by Ueda, she was definitely going for some of that urban contemporary sultriness with the organ, the wacka-wacka guitar and the percolating percussion. Perhaps she was inspired by a good night at the dance club. In any case, it's a new sound from her.