Happy Sunday! As I mentioned in "Kokuhaku Telephone" （告白テレフォン）, singer-songwriter Kyoko Endo's（遠藤京子）debut single from November 1981, the Shizuoka-born artist ran the gamut between City Pop and jazz by my reckoning in terms of her discography. With "Kokuhaku Telephone" being a good example, her music has often shown to be dipping its fingers into a number of genres without one being particularly dominant, although her albums have shown up on my beloved book "Japanese City Pop".
"Kokuhaku Telephone" was also a track on her debut album "Operetta" released a month later and it shares space with "Koi Suru Lonely Girl" with words and music by Endo. She was barely into her twenties when she started out in the music business, and yet this song really struck me as one stylish tune as it makes its way from beginning to end with hints of City Pop, Carole King-friendly 70s pop and some soul for good measure. And on top of that, she mixes in Japanese and English into her lyrics.
Once again, I've got to put in the straight pop label but also New Music since I think that Yuming（ユーミン） would be very proud of "Koi Suru Lonely Girl". Endo really displays her voice along with her songwriting chops here with a sometimes growly confidence. I'm not sure if she ever did but I could imagine her busking at subway stations as a teenager just armed with a guitar and plenty of spunk. Loopy and humourous might be two descriptions for "Kokuhaku Telephone", but with "Koi Suru Lonely Girl", I'd say that wholesome and grounded would be the tag words here.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feel free to provide any comments (pro or con). Just be civil about it.