Anzen Chitai -- V (Suki sa, Side 2)

 

Gonna have to be less forgetful if I can help it since the last time I wrote up the most recent section of Anzen Chitai's（安全地帯）mammoth 1986 album "V", i.e. the A-side of the "Suki sa" LP, it was back in early October around Canadian Thanksgiving. And now, Xmas is around the corner.

Seeing that Side 2 actually has the title track, I felt honour bound to put it up here even though I wrote an article on the band's hit all the way back in 2013. Another track from Side 2 was described about in the original article for "V" even earlier in 2012, the supremely upbeat and downtown "Kon'ya wa YES"（今夜はＹＥＳ.....Tonight's YES!）which begins the side.

However, we start out here with "Ano Toki..."（あのとき……That Time）, one of my memorable touchstones from the entire album. Once again created by the team of Goro Matsui（松井五郎）and Anzen Chitai frontman Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）, "Ano Toki..." is lyrically something to which Barry White or Isaac Hayes would have nodded in approval since it seems to describe the afterglow scene following a night of a roll in the hay, so to speak (well, the hay did have a label tagged "Serta"). But the music is all dreamy and woozy J-AOR/City Pop punctuated with a a repeated keyboard riff and one relaxing saxophone solo. I would probably think that a lot of the audience members attending the "V" concerts concocted some erotic thoughts about Tamaki when he sung this one.

"Machikado"（まちかど...The Street Corner） is a bittersweet ballad with a late Beatles feel as a man notices a woman on a distant corner. It sounds like at one point in the past that they had some sort of confidential connection but the stress is on the fact that it is now history. However, there are some residual pangs of longing and he would even appreciate a smile of recognition from her although it doesn't look like it's coming.

"Koe ni Naranai"（声にならない...No Voices） is as sweet and peaceful as a fawn scampering across the sylvan glade as a couple is probably in that forest right now silently enjoying themselves and nature. Tamaki is at his whispery and high-toned best here and what sounds like a mandolin really sets it apart from the rest of the many tracks on "V".

However,"Koe ni Naranai" glides smoothly into the final track, the instrumental "Yuugure"（夕暮れ...Dusk） by Anzen Chitai guitarist Yutaka Takezawa（武沢豊）. It does indeed sound like a sunset as the couple makes its way from the forest and back into the lodge for a good night of hearty supper and each other's company. On another level, with the quiet passages and crescendos in "Yuugure", I can also envision it accompanying a filmic montage of a character evolving over the years into a more content person by the end. It's a lovely guitar solo by Takezawa together with the breezy strings behind him.

There's more of a potpourri in Side 2 but basically I think that it has that melodic variety that Side 1 also has.  There's a party, suspense and various facets in relationships being shown.