Kiyotaka Sugiyama -- This Song's for You

 

Kiyotaka Sugiyama（杉山清貴）is a singer that I usually associate with his old band Omega Tribe（オメガトライブ） through such City Pop classics as "Summer Suspicion". In fact, I could only see a few entries on KKP where his name was the only one on the byline...one example is his contribution to Christmas, "Saigo no Holy Night"（最後のHoly Night) from 1986.

Maybe it's not fair for me to say so, but I have assumed that Sugiyama and his contemporaries at the time have been doing more in the realm of nostalgia tours or popping up on the odd kayo kyoku TV show to perform their old classics. However, I think now at least a few of them including Sugiyama are still putting out the fresh stuff, and that is indeed the case with the former Omega Tribe leader. Back in May 2018, he released his 26th solo album "My Song My Soul" with one of the tracks being "This Song's For You".

If this song is indeed for me, then I'm honoured. In comparison to his summery and silky songs from those 1980s, "This Song's For You" has him going sophisticated jazz/pop as if he were not traveling alongside the Pacific Coast of Japan but booming through the skyscrapers within West Shinjuku one night. Sugiyama's no longer walking on the beach in an Aloha shirt and flip-flops but is tripping the light fantastic in a bespoke suit as a middle-aged gentleman.