Miki Imai -- elfin (album)

 

Well, it's been a couple of years since I wrote about one of my favourite singers, Miki Imai（今井美樹）, and that's primarily because I had already written quite a lot about her in the early years of the blog, including articles on whole albums. So, I've gone over her CDs including "Mocha (Under A Full Moon)", "Retour" (my personal favourite) and even her very first BEST compilation, "Ivory", which happens to be my very first purchase of an Imai album. 

Therefore, I decided that I should go over one of her earlier albums and so I'm going with her 2nd release "elfin" which came out in September 1987. Actually, four of the ten tracks already have representation via their own articles: the playful "Futari de Splash"（ふたりでスプラッシュ）, the first track "Doshaburi Wonderland"（どしゃ降りWonderland）, along with "Pole Position" and "Yasei no Kaze"（野性の風）, the latter two of which have been talked about in the "Ivory" article.

Most of the tracks were written by lyricist Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）with a small variety of composers helping out. For example, "Club Lonely Hearts Exotica"（クラブ・ロンリーハーツ・エキゾティカ）was composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）, and this one comes in as Track No. 3 following the aforementioned "Doshaburi Wonderland" and "Pole Position". 

Although I know that Imai has done her share of upbeat songs such as "Pole Position", I've always seen her as being a singer behind love ballads and calming tunes. It was with some initial surprise then that "Club Lonely Hearts Exotica" has that feeling of a Saturday night in a Roppongi or Shinjuku dance club. In a way, it sounds like something more for Yoko Oginome（荻野目洋子）.

The following track "Omoidashita dake"（思いだしただけ...Just a Memory）, composed by arranger Jun Sato begins sounding like a Fashion Music tune via synthesizers before it goes into a mid-tempo pop song with a bit of Motown soul in parts. It's not my favourite Imai tune, but at least her vocals reminded me why I've enjoyed her music over the years. The lyrics relate a tale of remembering an old relationship.

Track No. 7 is the dramatic "Sayonara no Yukue"（SAYONARAの行方...Where Goodbye Goes） was written by Keiko Aoki（青木景子）and composed by Ken Sato（佐藤健）, and it has that rumbling rhythm throughout which could mean a fast ride through the highways and byways of Tokyo. However, the song was actually used as the ending theme for an NTV quiz show, although I think that it could have made for a good theme song for a suspenseful anime.

"Hikari no Yume"（光の夢...Dream of Light） is a pleasant ballad about a couple of friends, one of whom has discovered to their delight and giddiness that the feelings have gone deeper, so to speak. And there are hints that the buddy is thinking the same thing. Junko Sato（佐藤純子）was the lyricist while none other than Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）came up with the melody which made a nice fit with Imai's style.

The penultimate track also happens to be the title track "elfin". I'm familiar with it since it was also included as one of the tracks on "Ivory". Written by Imai herself and composed by Tohru Yamazaki（山崎透）who was part of the rock band PaPa, "elfin" is a soothing soundscape for a couple taking an evening stroll or a swim along the shore, and it comes with its sounds of waves.

My final song doesn't have its own video on YouTube and can only be found as part of the video of the whole album. But if you can search for 24:15 above, there is "Last Sequence"（ラスト・シークエンス）, another nocturnal rumbler by Aoki and Sato that kinda straddles pop and City Pop, although in support of the latter genre, there's something about the arrangement that had me thinking of the duo Airplay. A couple in a car are playing the silent treatment on each other after perhaps an argument.

"elfin" has some good tracks in there although it won't supplant "retour" as my favourite Imai album. However, what it probably did at the time was get listeners' attention to Imai's ability with music since if I'm not mistaken, she had been known more as a model and actress. Her first album, "femme", only got as high as No. 75 on CD (No. 47 on LP), but "elfin" was the first time that Imai enjoyed a Top 10 album by peaking at No. 5 on Oricon. The album also enjoyed becoming one of the year's best at the Japan Record Awards in 1987.