Anri -- V.S. Space Power

 

Beijing's Winter Olympics are pretty much on our doorstep, so my memories go back to 1998 when the Winter Games were being held in Nagano Prefecture. How could I ever forget? It was also the time when I smashed my ankle at the Export-Import Bank of Japan going down the stairs and I was stuck at home for three weeks.😭 Fortunately, I was able to see the nation's ski jump team win Gold live as it happened because I was cooped up on my sofa.

One other thing that I remembered although the Opening Ceremonies took place before the accident was seeing singer-songwriter Anri（杏里）take to the stage to sing a song. But let's not remind ourselves that a lot of us are in a bitter winter. Instead, why not get that summer feeling that Eiko Kawashima usually brings us? Therefore, here is "V.S. Space Power" from her June 1990 No. 1 album "Mind Cruisin'".

I'll be honest when I say that on seeing that title for the first time, I was scratching my head for a while (luckily Head & Shoulders shampoo cleared that up). Was that nomenclature for some starship? Still, it was darn catchy and funky enough which her go-to triumvirate at the time in the late 80s going into the early 90s: herself as the composer, Yumi Yoshimoto（吉元由美）as the lyricist and Yasuharu Ogura（小倉泰治）as the arranger, was handling here. As it turns out, once I finally read through Yoshimoto's lyrics, "V.S. Space Power" stands for "versus space power", as in encouraging those young lovers out there to not get caught in those fortune-telling traps (the titular space power) such as horoscopes and to rely on themselves to generate that sustainable love. 

Also, have a go at the title track for the album which later became the No. 5 album of the year.