Going into urban contemporary Friday, I just wanted to give a shoutout to City Pop guru Van Paugam who recently guested on a Yacht Rock podcast, "Out of the Main". I've always figured that City Pop and Yacht Rock would have a meeting of the minds somewhere in the cybersphere, so I'm happy that it finally did happen. If you're interested, you can check out this link.
Last weekend, Rocket Brown of "Come Along Radio" was good enough to re-introduce me to an album titled "EYES" which came out in 1979. It was veteran composer/arranger Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）who was responsible for this, his first album under the full name of Shiro Sagisu with Somethin' Special. This is actually just Sagisu's second entry on KKP with him on the title line since he's usually been in the "back office" here, so to speak, providing other artists with his music. Reading some of the comments on YouTube for some of the other examples showing off "EYES", there have been a modicum of shock and awe about this particular album, since he's also been known for his later soundtracks for famous anime such as "Evangelion" and "Megazone 23". However, looking at his works on J-Wiki, he's pretty much done everything outside of enka and Mood Kayo, I wager.
The first track on "EYES" is "Hitobito ni Ai wo" (Love for the Masses) which comes across as a disco anthem. Composed by Sagisu with singer-songwriter Kohei Oikawa（及川恒平）helping out on the lyrics, The vocalist is Keiko Sugai（須貝恵子）pumping out this up-with-people tune that gets me these "Let The Sunshine In" vibes. It probably wouldn't get folks on the dance floor despite the disco arrangement but perhaps out on the pavement to march proudly around Shinjuku in preparations for a musical.
As for another track from the album, have a gander at "Fly!".
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