Thursday, September 22, 2022

never young beach -- Yasashii Mama de(やさしいままで)

 

Wow! Talk about plastic love. Sorry...but I have to admit that I don't think I've ever come across a premise like this in any movie. Back in early 2020, screenwriter and director Yuki Tanada(タナダユキ)released a film titled "Romance Doll"(ロマンスドール)which features a young couple whose husband has a job as a producer of sex dolls, a part of his life that he has yet to tell his wife.

However, it wasn't the trailer at the top that cottoned me onto "Romance Doll". It was actually its theme song that I discovered first. "Yasashii Mama de" (Kind as Ever) was performed by the three-piece band never young beach. With vocalist/guitarist Yuuma Abe(安部勇磨), bassist Keigo Tatsumi(巽啓伍)and drummer Kento Suzuki(鈴木健人), never young beach is known as a rock band on J-Wiki but just judging from this calming song, "Yasashii Mama de" has me thinking dream pop or shoegaze. The sound of the guitars and keyboards seems to flow into the headphones like water from a babbling brook. It's all very comforting.

Released as a January 2020 single, the J-Wiki listing of their discography is way behind, stuck at their 4th single from 2019 since never young beach's website did announce their most recent single coming out a couple of weeks ago. The Tokyo-based band has been around since 2014, and back to their website, they've been treated as the second coming of legendary rock group Happy End. Along with their own recordings, never young beach has also contributed music for commercials, movies and television shows.

The interesting thing that I found out is that vocalist Abe's older brother is actor Issei Takahashi(高橋一生)who has the lead role in "Romance Doll".

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