Reimy -- Niji no Asa Kaze no Sora（虹の朝 風の空）

 

The late 1980s for me in terms of Japanese pop music meant a lot of things: overt diversification of the genres as we moved from kayo kyoku to J-Pop, a fresher and brasher type of aidoru in the form of Shizuka Kudo（工藤静香）and Miho Nakayama（中山美穂）as examples. And also, the emergence of female pop singer-songwriters coming up with some very mellow and eminently listenable material. Of course, I think of Miki Imai（今井美樹）, Midori Karashima（辛島美登里）and the young lady of note here, Reimy Horikawa（堀川麗美）.

But I have to admit that this final track, "Niji no Asa Kaze no Sora" (Morning Rainbow, Windy Sky), from Reimy's 3rd album, "Pansy", from May 1985 is perhaps one of the earliest examples of this breezy girl pop that I've discovered. With the melody by Reimy herself and then lyrics by Shun Taguchi（田口俊）and arrangement by Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）, the singer's oh-so-adorable and comforting vocals are the maraschino cherry on top of this swooning sundae that can actually induce images of morning rainbows and windy skies, and nope, nothing pharmacological is involved. Nice touch with the steel pedal guitar, too!