Taeko Ohnuki -- Sunao ni Naritai（素直になりたい）

 

I just selected this Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）song out of the backlog on a whim, and as it turns out, it was pretty prophetic since we're only a week away before the famed singer-songwriter celebrates a birthday on November 28th.

With a lot of fans often focusing on the early part of her solo career in the 1970s and early 1980s (and it's also a time period that I adore as well), it's still nice when I can explore beyond that heyday. As such, I've discovered this pretty peppy number written by Ohnuki and composed/arranged by Takeshi Kobayashi（小林武史）for her 15th studio album "Drawing" released in February 1992.

Ohnuki and Kobayashi provide a funky pop tune in "Sunao ni Naritai" (I Want to be Honest) which I can also say has some of that 90s City Pop essence. One other thing that I've noticed in Ohnuki when I compare her singing from the mid-80s onward to that vital period between her Sugar Babe days and her collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）up to the mid-1980s is that her voice, though still high and unwaveringly clear, has become a little richer and lower. It's almost as if she realized that she could ease up a tad and relax that precious larynx of hers. I think that it makes for an interesting contrast within her very long career. As for "Drawing", it peaked at No. 14 on Oricon.