Citrobal -- Reutlingen

 

Commenter BasicallyHuman was asking about singer-songwriter Miyako Yoneyama（米山美弥子）, aka Citrobal for the last article that I wrote about her earlier this morning and what has become of her. I dutifully checked out her website and blog, and frankly if dust could exist online, then I think that there would be a fairly thick layer there since nothing seems to have been written in several years. To add insult to injury, I accidentally referred to her as "Cristobal" when I gave my response. Of course, I corrected myself as soon as possible.

That last article was for "Signal" which I wrote up in 2021 and then there was the first article for Citrobal, "Celluloid" (both songs of which appear on her 1999 album "My Caution Line") which I provided in 2019, so I've been rather biannual with my entries on her. In any case, being reminded of her again, I decided to seek out another song of hers. Luckily, that wasn't too difficult and I did find "Reutlingen". However, unlike those two tracks, "Reutlingen" actually appears on a compilation album "rabid chords compilation vol. 1 -standby for "action"-" which also came out in 1999. I don't know whether the album specializes in Shibuya-kei and it appears that it has long been discontinued.

Citrobal has once again cooked up some really happy pop here and at first thought, I'd assumed that this was more straight pop but on listening a bit closer, there was some of that Bacharach-inspired rhythm coursing through its veins, so I ended up throwing in the Shibuya-kei label, too. It's just a cheerful sunny Sunday tune. Her lyrics talk about some schlub with a huge cloud over his head that simply isn't dissipating when a young lady comes by to insert a ray of sunshine in his life. 

The title does pop up in Yoneyama's lyrics and apparently it's some unpopular literature by an author named Reutlingen. However, I couldn't find any evidence of there being a real author by that name. Instead, Reutlingen is a city located in southwestern Germany that boasts the world's narrowest street, Spreuerhofstraße, according to the Guinness Book of World Records (I guarantee that there would be a major tragedy if I tried to traverse that street). It's also the hometown of racing driver Michael Krumm who was once married to Japanese tennis player Kimiko Date（伊達公子）. I actually noticed the former couple from afar when we were all at the same Xmas party years ago in Tokyo. Allow me some namedropping.