Mayumi -- Summer Illusion

 

Well, after a cool beginning to the week, things are heating up and the humidity is definitely rising as we head into the weekend. Summer is definitely encroaching upon us, and it's time to open up the patios. I could sure use a peach smoothie like the ones I used to make back in Ichikawa with the glass that I got for free from the Tokyo branch of Bubba Gump.

So to start off City Pop/J-AOR Friday, I've got a silky smooth but strutworthy number here by singer-songwriter Mayumi called "Summer Illusion" from her January 1986 album "MAYM". Heck of a time to have a track like this but perhaps Mayumi Horikawa（堀川まゆみ）wanted to remind folks shivering in cold Tokyo and elsewhere at the time that the hot season was on it way. I love the horns and the kittenish way that Mayumi delivers the song as if she were taking her sweet time in the downtown parts of the city that she basically owns. While the singer composed "Summer Illusion", Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）took care of the lyrics.

With a title like "Summer Illusion", the song comes across as something that would have been ideal for a cosmetics commercial. Just my opinion, but in a way, the arrangement also hits me as if Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）was behind it, and I could also imagine someone like Kanako Wada（和田加奈子）behind the mike in recording.