Kirinji -- Good Day Good Bye（グッデイ・グッバイ）

 

The lyrics for the song of this article had me pondering about the ideal town to live in. And as such, I threw this question into the Google search engine: Where is the happiest town in the world? Well, as of April 2023, the answer is Tampere, Finland. The above video, by the way, was uploaded five years ago by YouTuber Honest Guide. 

Considering some of the urban woes that my home city of Toronto is suffering right now: rising crime, moribund downtown life, long-delayed construction and repair projects being undertaken in one big mass, etc., I have thought about where a nice town to reside would be. In the province of Ontario, the university city of Kingston a couple of hours' drive away has been indicated. But wouldn't that be the thing? Happy industrious citizens, booming economy with a plethora of interesting shops and restaurants, safe and clean streets and the whole ball of wax. 

I really have to stop assuming that amazing music unit Kirinji's（キリンジ）early works were all about the love balladry, just from the moving "Aliens"（エイリアンズ）. That was my introduction to Takaki and Yasuyuki Horigome （堀込高樹・泰行）and it's been a grand journey so far. But this particular song by the Horigome brothers had actually been released as their 4th single in April 2000, half a year before "Aliens" came out.

"Good Day Good Bye" is an uptempo song that was created by the Horigomes with Tomita Lab（冨田ラボ）helping them out in the arrangement as well. And it's one of those scrumptious songs that I don't think is that easy to categorize in one Label. I hear some Motown and Shibuya-kei (some Santana and even Chicago thrown in there?) in this tune that seems to describe the eccentric but fun antics in an ideal town. The wonderful thing is that I've discovered another splendidly catchy Kirinji song.

The video featuring the brothers along with a heartbroken customer, a café owner and his lone waitress looks like it had been created in the 1980s. It's a very sumptuous video for me because I've always appreciated those Mom-and-Pop coffee houses in Tokyo with the owners whipping up the home-cooked dishes by themselves. And I've had some lovely tuna salad sandwiches over the years in one particular establishment. I didn't exactly have the staff pull off a dance suddenly in the middle of the place, though. Incidentally, the single peaked at No. 54 on Oricon.