Meiko Nakahara -- Melancholy Tea Time（メランコリーTea Time）

 

Perhaps it's time for that long-delayed eye check. I was scanning through the Wikipedia article for singer-songwriter Meiko Nakahara（中原めいこ）when I came across what I'd thought was a blurb stating that the lass was active again as of 2019. For someone who had pulled a complete disappearing act from the music industry in the early 1990s, I thought that this was news. However as it turned out, I misread the statement and it was actually a tribute band called Lotos that started up in 2010 and was still active as of 2019. 

Ah, speaking of Lotos, I'm showing off this track from her July 1984 4th album "Lotos no Kajitsu"（ロートスの果実...Lotos Fruit） which can also be called just "Lotos". It's the same album that contains what is arguably her most famous song, the fun and whimsical "Kimi Tachi Kiwi Papaya Mango da ne"（君たちキウイ・パパヤ・マンゴだね。）. "Melancholy Tea Time" sounds a bit more mature and considering that it was 1984 when folks first got to hear this one, the champagne-and-caviar sound of Bubble Era City Pop seems to have already been filtering into Nakahara's music before the midway point of the 1980s.

Written and composed by Nakahara, there is some disco and there is some jazziness, and something woven into the arrangement reminds me of the theme from "A Summer Place". Sure enough, the singer tells the story of a couple by the beach ruing the fact that it's the end of the summer which therefore means the end of their relationship. Maybe the two are having an illicit affair but otherwise, I'm not sure why a seasonal change has to mean a romantic death.😕 And yet, the swinging melody offsets the so-called melancholy mood in the seaside café. Anyways, wherever the singer is right now, I'm hoping that she's doing all right.

By the way, my friend Scott has his latest episode up on "Holly Jolly X'masu" which includes Nakahara's brassy and happy "Funky Christmas". Give that a go.