Orangeade -- Watashi wo Hanasanaide（わたしを離さないで）

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I've written about singer-songwriter Minami Kitasono（北園みなみ）a handful of times already on the blog, and I've enjoyed his works because of his style of bringing together a number of styles whether it be City Pop, Shibuya-kei and even Fashion Music. It's his own style since like a really desperate and fidgety little mouse, I can't manage to hold it down to one category. But that has been a good thing and it's been enough for me to get his 2014 album "Promenade" . The last time I wrote about him was back around Xmas 2020 for his "Hisan na Christmas"（ひさんなクリスマス）.

Little did I know that Minami Kitasono was a stage name for Kentaro Ohsawa（大沢建太郎）. During his time in the 2010s coming up with his own eclectic discography as Kitasono, he had a brief dalliance with Yosuke Kurosawa（黒澤鷹輔）and Nozomu Sato（佐藤望）of the duo caméra-stylo（カメラ＝万年筆）within a trio called Orangeade. The band lasted under that name from early 2018 to late 2019 after which it changed its name to conte with a new musical style.

During its Orangeade phase, Ohsawa and company released four singles. The first from February 2018 was a self-titled one that was only available online and at concerts, but the following has been considered to be their bona fide first one called "Watashi wo Hanasanaide" (Never Let Me Go) from later that September. It's an interesting title since Ohsawa/Kitasono released a December 2015 mini-album called "Never Let Me Go" although there was no title track.

Written and composed by Ohsawa, "Watashi wo Hanasanaide" is a smooth and happy-go-lucky tune with a certain UK 1960s pop feeling. I could almost say that it's like a Flipper's Guitar ditty without the overt Shibuya-kei influences. The site Spincoaster has even compared the group's work to that of Sugar Babe（シュガー・ベイブ）, Kirinji（キリンジ）and Happy End（はっぴいえんど）. Fine company, indeed.