Hiromi Iwasaki -- Shi-Teki-Kuu-Kan（私・的・空・間）, Part 2

 

Well, in another case of "Ach, my memory's going!", I completely forgot that I'd promised to have Part 2 of Hiromi Iwasaki's（岩崎宏美）"Shi-Teki-Kuu-Kan" (Personal Space) up by a few nights ago on Monday following Part 1 the previous Monday. I would have done it last night but Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell kept me busy at their movie. Allow to make amends by taking care of things now.

Part 2 will logically go into Side B of the original LP although I'm basing this article on the 2007 issue of "Shi-Teki-Kuu-Kan" with its extra tracks. To start off, here is "Kotozuke" (ことづけ...Sending Word) which is a gently rolling pop ballad of a remembrance over a past romance. Although there doesn't seem to be any direct mention of sending messages to the old flame, Hiromi is singing that all's well with her and she hopes that the same is true of her former paramour. Mieko Arima（有馬三恵子）was the lyricist with Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）composing and Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）arranging.

Just seeing the title "Morning Breeze" had me assuming City Pop and/or J-AOR or a Febreeze spray scent. It's once again Tamaki and Hagita on composition and arrangement duties but the interesting thing is that the City Pop feeling tends to undulate throughout the song; at one point, it feels like a straight pop tune but then the chorus kinda kicks things into City Pop mode, and then the coda suddenly shifts into a different key, perhaps showing a bit of uncertainty in the romance department. This time, it's Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）providing the lyrics of a couple enjoying the early hours rising from bed and then having breakfast. 

"Ikigai"（生きがい...Raison D'etre） has that undercurrent rhythm which reminds me of "Joanna" by Kool & The Gang, but otherwise, it's a wholly different animal. The rotation of songwriters continues here with lyricist Arima back with arranger Hagita but this time it's prolific Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）handling the melody. There's something of the Douglas Sirk melodrama imbued in "Ikigai" but if I've understood Arima's lyrics correctly, it may deal with a man and a woman...perhaps colleagues in the same company...who are sharing some secret personal time after hours but cannot afford to reveal their tryst.

The final track on the original Side B is "Higure no Martini"（日暮れのマティーニ...Martinis at Sunset） has Arima and Tsutsumi working together again but the arranger is Keiichi Oku（奥慶一）. Sounding like an elegant ballad from the 1970s powered by a piano, the heroine here is sharing that titular martini with a new friend and she suddenly has this deja vu. Maybe love has come around once again? 

As I mentioned in Part 1, there are five bonus tracks on the 2007 issue of "Shi-Teki-Kuu-Kan". I covered one of them already there. Another one that I will talk about here is "Waiting" which was the B-side to "Suteki na Kimochi"（素敵な気持ち）, Iwasaki's 30th single that I covered some years ago (and you can find the link to that article in the third paragraph from the top of Part 1. It's another grand contemporary pop ballad that the singer could do in her sleep with Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）behind the lyrics and Shinji Kawahara（川原伸司）as the composer under his pseudonym of Natsumi Hirai（平井夏美）.

The other bonus track is "Yoake no Tenshi-tachi"（夜明けの天使たち...Sunrise Angels） and it's another B-side, this time for Iwasaki's 31st single "Shinjuu no Period"（真珠のピリオド...Pearl Period） that was actually described as the first track of "Shi-Teki-Kuu-Kan" in Part 1. Only two minutes and forty-nine seconds long, it ends rather abruptly but it's still pretty sweet and snazzy with some of that disco/City Pop and I'll always love those horns. Tsutsumi was behind the melody with Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）handling the lyrics. For both bonus tracks here, Hagita took care of the arrangement.

Well, again, sorry for the delayed article and hope you enjoy both parts.