Sing Like Talking -- Reunion

 

All the way back in 2013, I profiled versatile band Sing Like Talking's second BEST album "Second Reunion" which was released in September 1998 and showed off their love for the genres of R&B and AOR among others. With their very first BEST album, "Reunion" from December 1992, there was already some of that wide range there although I think in the early years, Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）, Chiaki Fujita（藤田千章）and Tomohiko Nishimura（西村智彦）were really enjoying their funk and perhaps some New Jack Swing.

Let's look at the lineup:

1.STREET 

2.FIND IT(IN YOUR HEART)〜初夏の印象(イメージ)〜 

3.DANCIN' WITH YOUR LIES 

4.LOVERS 

5.未来のために 

6.CITY ON MY MIND 

7.11月の記憶〜RAINING BLUES〜 

8.FRIEND 

9.TRY AND TRY AGAIN 

10.LIVIN' FOR THE BEAT 

11.IS IT YOU 

12.STAY GOLD(LIVE) 

13.心のEVERGREEN(EXTENDED VERSION) 

Unfortunately, I won't be profiling too many songs here since a number of the tracks have already had their own articles written about them and can be accessed through the appropriate links above.

"Find It (In Your Heart) ~ Shoka no Image" (Early Summer Image) is actually SLT's 5th single from April 1990, and it's an interesting one to listen to from their early days since there's a mélange of influences in there, I think. I hear a Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）bass, a wailing rock electric guitar solo, an Omega Tribe synthesizer in the intro and even some Airplay AOR. The overall effect is quite 80s despite the release date of the single, and the song is a track on their 3rd album "III" which came out in the same month as "Find It". The above version is a live take.

I was kinda surprised that I hadn't featured "City On My Mind" on its own since it's been a title that I have heard over and over again for Sing Like Talking. Ah, well, my bad. The single is SLT's 3rd from June 1989 and the title track from their 2nd album which was released a month later. For me, "City On My Mind" has that band style of cool-and-groovy that I've always associated with Chikuzen and company.

The final track that I've got here is "Livin' For The Beat" has that early SLT R&B sound that would have made Bobby Brown smile somewhat. For those neophyte Sing Like Talking fans who've known the band for their mellow AOR numbers, "Livin' For The Beat" may be a bit of a revelation since Sato and the music funk pretty hard. The song also got onto "III", but the first time I heard this one was through the full album "THE REMIX OF SING LIKE TALKING" which came out in February 2000.

Sing Like Talking's "Reunion" hit No. 10 on the Oricon weeklies.