Yuki Aso -- Passing Love

 

I've found another obscure 1980s aidoru with the briefest of careers in that genre thanks to the good work of YouTuber nothingmuch;). From what nothingmuch;) has said, Yuki Aso（麻生由妃）started out in the late 1980s as a model and a TV personality before releasing the one-and-done August 1988 single "Passing Love". Also according to the website Idol.ne.jp, Aso was born Yukiyo Seki（関由妃代）in Tokyo in 1969. From the early 1990s though, she took on the name Yuki Takahara（高原由妃）and became not only a jazz vocalist but has also become a backup singer for a lot of acts including Mai Kuraki（倉木麻衣）and B'z.

As for "Passing Love", yup, it's Eurobeat, a genre that was gaining traction in Japan during the Bubble Era, and as written by Miyuki Nagai（永井美由紀）, composed by Jou Asano（浅野嬢）and arranged by Seikou Nagaoka（長岡成貢） (the man behind a very atmospheric anime theme and turn-of-the-century club dance music), it's pretty reminiscent of Kim Wilde's "You Keep Me Hangin' On" and Bananarama's "I Heard A Rumour". As the Idol.ne.jp website put it, Aso's talent finally blossomed in the 1990s but even with "Passing Love", she doesn't sound too bad here either.