Singer-songwriter Seri Ishikawa（石川セリ）has made herself at home on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for some years now, but still when compared to some of the other singers and bands, she's still relatively new and unknown to me. But my impression of her is that she approaches some of the art pop that Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）and Miharu Koshi（コシミハル）created from the 1980s. There's nothing cookie-cutter about Mrs. Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）.
Case in point, the track "Suishou no Kabe" (Crystal Walls) from her October 1982 album "MÖBIUS". Her light and floaty voice helps in that image of her as an art pop chanteuse (as it did Ohnuki and Koshi) and with "Suishou no Kabe", there are some other elements such as the rich rolling piano intro, the outro featuring the sitar-like instrument and a wistful melody and arrangement by Makoto Yano（矢野誠）that flirts at New Wave and reggae. If David Bowie or Kim Carnes had decided to go really pop in Japan, then perhaps this could have been the result. By the way, the lyrics were provided by Ishikawa herself under her married name of Seri Inoue（井上セリ）.
Hi there, big fan of the blog! I was wondering if you could give your thoughts on the song "The Manpower!!!(THE マンパワー!!!) by Morning Musume? I recently listened to it and it's such a fascinating and weird song, even by MM and Tsunku standards. Even the MV, especially the "Another Version" version, matches the song as well with its weirdness. And yet, I was shocked when I learned that this was a cheering song for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles baseball team! What a song to choose from!
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