Another gorgeous spring day out there and I've heard that things have been pretty good out in Japan as well outside of the occasional rains and earthquakes.
Last night, as I was writing my final article for Friday which was the weekly Yutaka Kimura Speaks ~ Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100 segment, I noted that I couldn't write about Kimura's No. 5 selection because I hadn't covered it yet (which really shouldn't stop me, but still...), so I jumped over to No. 6 with the late Nobuo Ariga（有賀啓雄）. Well, this is the article for No. 5.
Kazuhito Murata（村田和人）, who himself sadly left this mortal coil back in 2016, had come up with "Ano Nami wo Tsukamaete" (Get That Wave) as a track for his 3rd album "My Crew" in July 1984. With Yoshihiko Ando's（安藤芳彦）lyrics overlaying Murata's melody, "Ano Nami wo Tsukamaete" isn't so much of a City Pop song than it is a song in that subset of City Pop, known as Resort Pop with the thematic feeling that folks from the city will hit those seaside resorts for a weekend before heading back.
It is indeed a relaxing hammock-worthy song with that slow rhythm and Murata's laconic delivery. The above video has Murata giving an English-language version which sounds like its title should be "Veronica". Fine and appropriate visuals for the song.
Resort Pop? This is the first time I have heard of that genre. Think I would like to hear more of this type of music
ReplyDeleteMaybe some other examples of Resort Pop can be found via Fujimal Yoshino, Haruko Kuwana and Bread & Butter during their City Pop phase beginning from the late 1970s.
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