Ai Furihata -- Ai wa Kokoro no Shigoto desu（愛は心の仕事です）

 

Since first discovering singer-songwriter Ai Furihata（降幡愛）and her brand of 80s synthpop and City Pop amid the backdrop of Vaporwave aesthetics a couple of years ago, I've been charmed into purchasing her debut mini-album "Moonrise" which came out in September 2020. As well, earlier this year, Furihata released her first mini-album of cover tunes, "Memories of Romance in Summer", which includes her take on Meiko Nakahara's（中原めいこ）classic "Kimi Tachi Kiwi Papaya Mango da ne" （君たちキウイ・パパヤ・マンゴだね。）.

Just by pure dumb luck last night, I found out that Furihata will be putting out a second mini-album of cover tunes "Memories of Romance in Driving" which won't be due out actually for a few more weeks. The release date is September 28th. However, one of the tracks' music video is out now and before I knew about the source album, it took me half the song to realize that "Ai wa Kokoro no Shigoto desu" is a cover of late 80s band RAMU's debut single from 1988.

Also to remind folks, RAMU had aidoru Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）fully envelop that City Pop sensation to become the group's vocalist. I had my own translation for "Ai wa Kokoro no Shigoto desu", but I actually prefer the translation given under the YouTube video: "Love Is A Work Of Mind". The RAMU original had been created by lyricist Masao Urino（売野雅勇）and composer Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常寛）, and basically the arrangement by Akimitsu Honma（本間昭光）follows the same pattern but there seems to be more of a ramp-up in the spacey synths, and the music video is the Vaporwave anime that no one saw coming but has arrived triumphantly nonetheless. Another point that characterizes this cover is that contrasted with Kikuchi's famously breathy delivery, Furihata packs a fair amount of punch into her singing, especially when she sings out "I My Me Mine, My Boy".

Furihata on her YouTube channel has also provided a tasting platter video for "Memories of Romance in Driving", so enjoy the tidbits.