B’z -- Taiyou no Komachi Angel (太陽のKomachi Angel)

 

*I haven't payed attention before but my fellow friend J-Canuck had already written an article for this song years ago, so click here for his original "Taiyou no Komachi Angel" post. Anyway, since I had already finished writing up mine, I'll just add the Follow-Up tag.

I never thought I’d ever like B’z, but here I am enjoying a good portion of the duo’s early songs. Before listening to them, a more serious and heavy rock style always came to my mind when I thought about the music created by Koshi Inaba (稲葉浩志) and Takahiro Matsumoto (松本孝弘). I’m not totally wrong, though, since they really focused in a more guitar-driven sound after some years, but by the late 80s and early 90s they were still doing this blend of rock with synthpop that was very reminiscent of TM NETWORK (well, Takahiro Matsumoto played for TM NETWORK, so he just went along with this type of sound when B’z was formed).

The epic and stadium-ready anthem “BAD COMMUNICATION” is a great example of their early hits, but it’s “Taiyou no Komachi Angel” that really caught my attention. Released as the duo’s fifth single in June 1990, this chart-topper song (their first one) is a Latin-tinged and bouncy pop song with a ferociously catchy chorus. Besides the verses, the song is almost entirely built around this main melody, since the synth arrangement even follows it. In the end, when Inaba is not singing the chorus, we can still hear it through the synths, making this a great and fun pop song.

“Taiyou no Komachi Angel” reached #1 on the Oricon charts, selling 464,000 copies. An English version was included in the duo’s second mini-album, “WICKED BEAT”, also released in June 1990. Lyrics were written by Koshi Inaba, while music was composed by Takahiro Matsumoto. As for the arrangement, Masao Akashi (明石昌夫) was the responsible.

Luckily, I was able to find an used copy of this mini-album here in Brazil a couple of weeks ago.