For the first time in quite a long while, I put singer-songwriter Akiko Kobayashi's（小林明子）November 1985 debut LP "Fall In Love" on the record player again. Of course, 40 years after buying it at Wah Yueh, it's sounding a bit reedy now but I still enjoy the ol' tracks.
I never did an album article on "Fall In Love", instead once more going along the individual track route, so along with the title track, I have covered "Diary"（ダイアリー）, "Misunderstandings" and "Stardust Memories" for example. And now I come across this song that I had completely forgotten about.
Starting off Side B is "Mou Nido to Himitsu no Koi Nanka Shitakunai" (I Never Want to Have a Secret Romance Again) which has one heck of a long title but the message is about as non-cryptic as one can get. Composed by Kobayashi and arranged by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）with lyrics by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, it's got quite the rollicking tempo and seems to shift between slightly melancholy and then more hopeful parts of the melody. I remember first hearing this and thinking that this wasn't going to be one of my favourite Kobayashi tunes and it still isn't (there are lots of other tunes throughout her discography that will be further in front of the line) but I think I have a better appreciation of "Mou Nido to Himitsu no Koi Nanka Shitakunai" now than back in the 1980s, especially with that bass that almost drags the song into City Pop territory.
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