BLU-SWING -- Last Scene

 

Readers of "Kayo Kyoku Plus"...allow me on this Saturday night the 3rd of December 2023 to inform you once again that we have reached our 1000th article of the year! Unfortunately, we really couldn't get a cake to commemorate the occasion, but if you've got something sweet in the fridge, feel free to nosh on it right now.🍰 I'll wait.😉 Anyways, let's see if we can break another record by the end of the year for highest number of articles.

It has been almost three years since I put up my most recent article on the groovy group BLU-SWING, but I'd like to actually go all the way back to February 2018 when I posted their "FLASH", the first song that I discovered of them. Vocalist Yuri Tanaka（田中裕梨）and her group have been classified on J-Wiki as being a band specializing in club music, City Pop and jazz, and I do agree with the assessment, and I listen to the incredible "FLASH" as a song that has incorporated all three musical descriptors.

"Spectre" is BLU-SWING's newest album which was released in May 2023. It's their first album in almost 7 years and we have here one of the tracks "Last Scene". With lyrics by Tanaka and keyboardist Yusuke Nakamura（中村祐介）and melody by Nakamura, there's something about this particular song that sounds quite 1970s City Pop. I realize that Tanaka's got some technology affecting her voice, but it's quite light and airy. Adding to the nostalgia is the nighttime jazz sax solo...a nice time was had by all in the city.