Friday night plans? Back in university, they were a constant. Go out for dinner following the monthly JCSA meeting and then head out for either karaoke or disco dancing. I mentioned this incident before, but for one Xmas edition, I went too heavy on the libations and ended up getting driven home and poured out of my friend's new car before I risked "painting" the cream-coloured interior. Thankfully, that was the first and last time that happened...in Toronto.
Friday Night Plans? Ah, this time I'm referring to a solo act represented by a Tokyo-based singer named Masumi who specializes in R&B and pop. According to J-Wiki, her mother is a singer who has had a penchant to sing a lot of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston tunes and that rubbed off on Masumi who went onto practice at vocal school for several years during high school and university. Her time as Friday Night Plans began in earnest in 2018, and from her Wikipedia article, she chose this unusual stage name as a reminder of the excitement of getting together with buddies years before.
Her December 2019 single was "HONDA", and to be honest, when I first saw the name of the act and the title of this particular song, I had assumed that "HONDA" was the singer and Friday Night Plans was the song name. Moving on though, the tune was written and composed by the singer with Dr. Pay helping out with the melody. "HONDA" is a nighttime-friendly soulful number with the protagonists being either a couple or a couple of buddies forgetting the hardships of the day or the week and enjoying some well-earned hedonism. The official music video is a bit ironic in content because it looks like the night went a little too hedonistically for one fellow and he needs to be poured out of the Honda. Luckily, his driving buddy and Friday Night Plans are there to help out. At least, the fellow looks a whole lot better than I did after my unfortunate and innocent binging on Screwdrivers and Creamsicles.
Ah, talk about having a wonderful title for a song! Friday Night Plans' "HONDA" managed to become the campaign song for the Vezel line of Honda cars.
About a year before the release of "HONDA", Friday Night Plans even released her own cover of Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Plastic Love" in December 2018. For me, nothing is gonna beat the original, but FNP does a fine cool and mellow contemporary take, and I do love the setting of Studio Tanta for the performance of one of City Pop's greatest.
Seeing that Vezel commercial with the car driving over Tokyo's Rainbow Bridge and then hearing FNP's "Plastic Love", I'd have to say that this would also be something splendid to hear in a car while driving at night throughout Japan's capital city. It does make me wonder about an Author's Picks article about truly drive-worthy City Pop tunes since I did have a conversation about such a thing a few months ago with JTM.
Again nice post J-Canuck! I am guessing that 'JCSA' means the Japan Canada Student Association.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Brian. Yep, the initials mean that now. Back when I was in the club, though, it actually meant Japanese-Canadian Student Association but the demographics changed.
DeleteThanks for the little bit of history! When, I first searched for "JCSA" I kept running across the, Japan Clay Target Shooting Association but I wasn't sure they had a branch in Canada.
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