Yuki Okazaki -- S-O-O-N

 

It's been a while since I wrote up an article on Yuki Okazaki（岡崎友紀）, and to be honest, that cover of her 1981 album "So Many Friends" isn't too hard on the eyes either.

Back in 2020, I contributed an article on the second track of "So Many Friends", "Sweet Joke" which I also found on one of my "Light Mellow" compilations. The first track happens to be "S-O-O-N", a pretty jovial start to the album which kinda straddles the line between City Pop and regular pop or New Music. It's been described as having that West Coast sound but the lyrics by keyboardist Hiroyuki Sumino（住野裕之）has some shoutouts to the cities there such as Santa Monica and San Francisco.

The sunshine-y music and arrangement are provided by Kenji Iwakura（岩倉健二）, the guitarist for the band First Brand which includes the aforementioned Sumino. First Brand acted as the backing band for Okazaki and they even have their own entry on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" via "The Other Side of Life", a track on their one and only album "Lovers In Office" that was also released in 1981.