Yumi Seino -- Itte Mon Amour（いってモナムール）

 

Several years ago in 2017, I posted the first article on singer Yumi Seino（清野由美）, and it just happened to be "Katamuku"（傾く）,  a track from her January 1983 album, "Continental". I would later find out from her earlier albums that Seino had been one for the City Pop boom but perhaps within "Continental" and specifically "Katamuku" itself, there was a transitional feeling between that City Pop and a more refined sophisticated pop with a European flair...along the lines of what Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）was doing at around the same time.

A little over a week ago, one commenter was wondering about the rest of "Continental" and I had to answer the person that I didn't know since at the time, there was perhaps only the one example of the album on YouTube, which was "Katamuku", and for some reason, other videos with the tracks simply didn't show up on my recommendations although at least a few of them have been around since 2020. But the commenter did point out that they are up now, and so I've opted to try one more track from "Continental" out.

I should have realized from the Impressionistic art on the cover and the title itself that this wasn't going to be a straight-out City Pop release from Seino. And indeed, the one track "Itte Mon Amour" (Tell Me, Darling) is far away from the streets of Tokyo and probably out somewhere in France, Italy or Spain in some techno cabaret. Masami Sugiyama（杉山政美）came up with the lyrics while a number of others including Seino herself had a hand in the composition of the melody which strikes up images of slow dances and tangos on the evening ballroom floor. Yet at the same time, in the chorus of "Itte Mon Amour", there is still something kayo kyoku in its heart since I could hear something like this on some old Japanese music-variety show from the 1950s to the 1970s.