My Favourite Five Yellow Magic Orchestra Songs

 

After all these years of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" in which I have highlighted a lot of the works of technopop masters Yellow Magic Orchestra and putting them on various Author's Picks articles including a 10th anniversary special last year and Part 2 of my favourite technopop tunes, I was somewhat gobsmacked to realize that I had yet to put up an Author's Pick on YMO itself. I ought to smack my head a few times with a Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer.

Wikipedia

On second thought, maybe I won't. It's simply too expensive (at $1,195 USD). I will settle for my open hand.

I'll just go in temporal order with my favourites.

Firecracker (1978)

Once again, I will utter the phrase "You never forget your first." when I mention the cover of Martin Denny's exotica tune. "Firecracker" was indeed the first YMO song that I encountered along with the then-mind-blowing music video. All that twinkly synthesizer sound changed my life around.

Simoon (1978)

From being initially mystified as to why Yellow Magic Orchestra would concoct a synthesizer-based tribute to a 1940s Hollywood adventure soundtrack to my acceptance and joy at this underrated masterpiece, "Simoon" does make me swoon. It was a realization that the band had also wanted to have some fun with various genres via their "computer music". Thank you, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）.

Behind The Mask (1979)

Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）was behind this awesome and epic first song via my brother's gift of the audiotape "YMO Best One 1982". It's been covered by a number of folks including Michael Jackson and Eric Clapton as you can read on contributor Jari Lehtinen's article about "Behind The Mask". It could adorn any televised segment ranging from the state of Japanese society to goalie masks.

Rydeen (1980)

The late great Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）was behind "Rydeen", a song that has basically become the theme for not only Yellow Magic Orchestra but also for any documentary focusing on Japanese life in the early 1980s. It's one heart-pumping creation by the band that has made its way to everything from an Italian game show to an anime about a high school band, and not surprisingly, other budding musicians have been happy to have their go at it.

Perspective (1983)

Generally, my favourite YMO songs have hovered in the early half of the band's initial existence but Sakamoto's "Perspective" has continued to hit me as a wistful paean to a man's look back on life. Maybe in a way, this was also YMO's look back on their half-decade.