Kyoko Endo -- Hitori Narcissist（ひとり・ナルシス）

 

Singer-songwriter Kyoko Endo（遠藤響子）is someone that I haven't covered in well over a year so I had been thinking of covering her "Douka, Kokoro Tojinai de"（どうか、心閉じないで）from her 1993 album "Koibito ni Naritai"（恋人になりたい...I Want to be Your Lover）, quite the City Pop tune of that final decade in the 20th century. However, I found out to my surprise that, lo and behold, I had already written about it back in late 2022.

Well, not willing to quite let Endo go, I did some more searching about. By the end, I discovered her 3rd single "Hitori Narcissist" (Narcissist of One) which was released in October 1982, and according to her J-Wiki file, it was from this release that her full title of singer and songwriter began as compared to her first two singles including her debut "Kokuhaku Telephone"（告白テレフォン）which had Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）as the composer. 

Endo took care of both words and music with this intriguing "Hitori Narcissist" which was arranged by keyboardist and sci-fi author Hiroyuki Namba（難波弘之）. Beginning with this snarl of AOR guitar playing and progressing into some light funk and pop, the song even hits upon the old-fashioned pop sounds of the 50s and 60s. Lyrically, there is perhaps some resemblance to Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや） "Plastic Love" as a woman does the Tokyo party circuit and puts on the happy face although she is feeling anything but happy. She just has to be seen to be seen.