Rie Aono -- Rain Rain

 

Another singer that I discovered through kinuzure's "Tamaranaku, AOR Kayo"（たまらなく、AOR歌謡...Irresistably, AOR Kayo） blog which I had mentioned earlier today on Kroi's "Atami"（熱海）was singer-songwriter Rie Aono（青野りえ）.

Hailing from Toyama Prefecture, Aono first entered The Voices of Japan gospel group in 1996 being involved in a couple of their albums. Afterwards, she worked with other singers such as Ken Hirai（平井堅）and Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）which led to numerous stints at concerts, television shows and commercials. She then pursued a solo career after her time with The Voices of Japan. She also joined a City Pop unit by the name of aoyama in 2007 along with her participation in other projects.

So far with her solo career, a couple of albums have come out: "Pastoral" in 2017 and then "Rain or Shine" in March 2022. One of the tracks on the latter album is "Rain Rain", a groovy and funky piece which has some different influences in play here. For some odd reason, there is a "cameo" of what sounds like a YMO synthesizer buzzing about like a fly, but throughout "Rain Rain", there's a feeling of 1970s City Pop that the chorus work really enhances. Then in the last minute or so, the song is joined by samba percussion and perhaps some actual rain before some jazzy piano takes us all home. Basically, there's a lot to keep our ears busy.

Yoshihiko Seki（関美彦）composed "Rain Rain" while Aono took care of the lyrics. I'm not 100% sure but the cover of the album might have the singer contemplating life right by Tennozu Isle, a community on the Sumida River in Tokyo. I have an old friend living in one of the condos there.