Kyosuke Kusunoki -- Just Tonight (album)

 

Back on Monday, I wrote about singer-songwriter Kyosuke Kusunoki's（楠木恭介）old band Camel Land（キャメル・ランド）and their single "Koi no Café Terrace"（恋のカフェテラス）when I said that I would have to finish off the remainder of Kusunoki's June 1985 album "Just Tonight". Well, tonight's the night, and it's a good thing, too. I've already written on over half the tracks individually: "Come To Me Again", "Sugar Dance", "For Our Love", "Nagisa ni te ~ Close To You"（渚にて）and "Get Down".

(14:42)

I've just got four more tracks to go before completing the album, so without further adieu, we start with the title track itself. "Just Tonight" begins with an entrance reminiscent of ol' 1970s soul, and Kusunoki does take on a bit of Bobby Caldwell in his delivery. It sounds like the type of smooth balladry that would be played at the end of a dance party when it's just the tired romantic couples on the floor before the janitor finally begins clicking the lights on and off to shoo away the stragglers. Gotta have the bluesy sax to finish things off. Kusunoki was responsible for the melody, Jessie Rein took care of the English lyrics and the late Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）arranged this one and the next two tracks.

(24:59 in the above video.)

The uptempo "Love Devotion" mixes in some Dazz Band and maybe some George Benson guitar canoodling. Plus, Kusunoki does some soaring vocals here along the lines of Gino Vannelli. Rein once again provided the lyrics while Yoichiro Kakizaki（柿崎洋一郎）composed the funkiness. Methinks that I would have loved to have seen a performance video of Kusunoki and this one. It's "Love Devotion" that convinced me that Kusunoki chose wisely when he decided to switch genres from folk to urban contemporary.

Oooh...some dreamy 80s Quiet Storm with "Yoru wo Wasurete"（夜を忘れて...Forget The Night）. Kusunoki composed this urban contemporary lullaby with Kyoko Utsumi's（内海鏡子）lyrics as the singer almost whispers these sweet nothings into our ears. Past the midnight hour is probably the optimal time to hear this in one's dreams.

The final track doesn't have its own video so I've brought in the entire album here where it's situated at 37:58 above. Titled "Chizu Naki Mirai (Yukute)"（地図なき未来(ゆくて)...Future Without A Map ~ One's Path）, this is actually the Japanese-language version as well as the B-side to the singer's lone single under his stage name of Kyosuke Kusunoki, the English-language "High Time" which was released in February 1985, just a few months before the release of "Just Tonight". Probably the only track on the album that doesn't have that overtly R&B sound, it kinda hovers over that Eagles' AOR area. Makoto Mitsui（三井誠）composed and arranged the song as Kathleen Dares wrote the English lyrics while Junpei Matsunaga（松永順平）took care of the Japanese lyrics. The video below is of "High Time".

(Sorry but the "High Time" song has been taken down.)

If "High Time" and "Chizu Naki Mirai" sound particularly life-affirming and inspirational, you can be well assured that the former was used in a commercial for Citizen's Club La Mer watch. And on that note, I close the file on "Just Tonight". For anyone who has the album, you have my envy.