Chika Ueda -- That's Why You Can't

 

It's been a little over a year since the untimely and surprising death of singer-songwriter Chika Ueda（上田知華）at the age of 64, so I thought that I would end the usual Urban Contemporary Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with one of her songs.

This one created and performed by her is certainly different from her Fashion Music days with Karyobin over a decade previously. "That's Why You Can't" is a track from Ueda's November 1992 album "Asa Hiru Yoru Hare"（朝昼夜晴れ...Morning, Noon, Night and Sunny）, and it's a sexy and sultry soulful strut down Shinjuku Avenue delivered in the same way. Lyrically, it comes across as someone who has a secret so dangerous that it would probably be lethal to divulge anything to anybody...or at least that's the perception. The basic catchphrase for the song would be "The walls have ears! Be on your toes!". 

From Ueda's liberal usage of "yeah, yeah, yeah" and "no, no, no" and simply on how she sings "That's Why You Can't", I'm wondering whether she was trying to channel some of the more swinging 1960s female singers such as Nancy Sinatra or Lesley Gore. It's quite a different sound by her.