KANA -- OSAKA ~ Yuugurete（夕暮れて）

 

Usually when it comes to Osaka, my image will go to loud and boisterous people with plenty of tasty food in many restaurants. But then when it comes to music, especially the kayo kyoku stuff, it often but not always brings out the tenderhearted feelings in folks.

Case in point is "OSAKA ~ Yuugurete" (Osaka at Dusk), the coupling song to the November 2021 single by singer KANA, "Dare yori Itoshii Hito"（誰より愛しいひと...Someone I Love More Than Anyone Else）. KANA is a singer that I first mentioned back in 2019 with a February single from that year, "Shiokaze no Machi"（潮風の街）which is more along the lines of a contemporary Mood Kayo.

 "OSAKA ~ Yuugurete" has a sweeping arrangement to Hirokazu Kobayashi's（小林宏和）original melody accompanying Chihiro Fuyumi's（冬弓ちひろ）lyrics. It pretty much demands that a recently heartbroken lady strides over to the nearest river in Osaka and cries under the moon. I probably would have preferred real strings instead of the synthesized version heard here, though. 

One thing that I didn't mention about Kobayashi, who had also composed the aforementioned "Shiokaze no Machi", in the first article is that he is actually KANA's older brother. Back in their high school days, she used to sing over Kobayashi's music on his demo tapes which finally got her noticed, leading to her debut in the late 1990s.