Yumi Kojima -- Comme Des Garcons（コム・デ・ギャルソン）

 

Let me self-quote from the end of one article that I wrote back in August 2021: "I've just heard one track on YouTube from that album, and I will cover it next month."

Now, allow me to give myself multiple Gibbs slaps! Yup, once again, I broke a promise about providing an article since it is now March 2022 and I've yet to cover singer-songwriter Yumi Kojima's（児島由美）"Comme Des Garcons" that I said that I would do in September last year.

That article in 2021? It was for Kojima's rendition of the cute and jazzy "Feel so Nyan-Nyan" which had Kojima at her kittenish best, and so I said back then, I would cover "Comme Des Garcons". Well, better much later than never. In any case, this was Kojima's debut album from April 1979.

I did mention this song in that "Feel So Nyan-Nyan" article, but Track 2 from Side A is "Yume no Tabi"（夢の旅...Dream Trip） which wasn't her debut single but the song that she had won a prize for at the Yamaha Popular Song Contest. It's a happy-go-lucky pop song about a couple getting that travel to far-flung places such as America and Portugal among many other places. To add to that exotic feeling, there is even an instrumental bridge with what sounds like a mandolin in there.

Her debut single was "Otoko no Ko Mitai ni"（男の子みたいに...Like Boys or Comme Des Garcons）, and as that French translation indicates, it's the title track for the album. It starts off the album and it does have that rather intriguing intro with a slight hint of progressive rock before jumping into something like 1970s piano pop and a thimble of disco. What also strikes me is how Kojima's lower-range vocals here remind me of another Yumi from a slightly earlier age: Yumi Arai（荒井由実）.

The shocker though is this video which has two tracks from "Comme Des Garcons", and it was this video that has the track that had me promising to write about this album in the first place. That track is "Sexy Shade"（セクシィシェイド）, Kojima's 2nd single which was released in July 1979. After listening to "Feel So Nyan-Nyan" and then coming into the romantic bossa-tinged City Pop of "Sexy Shade" with the singer's more velvety and huskier vocals was quite the revelation. Following this song on the video is the languid "Doukei"（憧憬...Longings） that has more in common with the string-laden Fashion Music of folks like Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）and Chika Ueda（上田知華）.

From what I'm guessing is that "Comme Des Garcons" may have quite the variety of songs and genres thanks to Kojima. It's a good New Music album to finish off the decade.