Nami Hirai -- Shiroi Kasa（白い傘）

 

Back in 2018, I wrote a couple of articles on a singer by the name of Nami Hirai（平井菜水）from Nagasaki Prefecture who started releasing singles and albums right at the beginning of the 1990s. I'm not an expert on Hirai by any means but from what I've heard so far via "Kagayakitai kara"（輝きたいから）and "Tayumanai Yoru ni"（たゆまない夜に）, she seems to have delved into the urban contemporary. 

Additionally, from those two songs, the City Pop involved here has bumped borders with Mood Kayo and maybe even some Fashion Music. When it comes right down to it, those softer songs have struck me as what I have heard as the 1990s brand of the genre: something smoother and more elegant, belonging to the upscale hotel restaurants and penthouses of Tokyo.

However, this time around, Hirai's opening track from her June 1994 3rd (and final one to date) album "Cavendish no Oka to Kumo"（キャヴェンディッシの丘と雲...The Hills and Clouds of Cavendish）, "Shiroi Kasa" (White Umbrella), is a fair bit more uptempo but still very much in the urban contemporary category. The oomph behind "Shiroi Kasa" comes from the addition of that dance club beat, so the couple here may have decided to hit a disco for this Friday night. Pop-crooning singer-songwriter Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）had been responsible for the melodies of those first two songs that I've mentioned, but for this one (completed with a sax solo in the coda), it was City Pop stalwart Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）with Chihiro Sawa（沢ちひろ）in charge of the lyrics.