Ami Suzuki -- Our Days

 

Singer and actress Ami Suzuki（鈴木亜美）appeared on NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）a couple of days ago but it wasn't to sing anything or to promote a new movie or TV show. Instead, she came on the show's cooking segment to rustle up some ginger-infused meatballs in a sauce, and I recall last year, she whipped up another recipe on the show.  I have to say that despite her being 44 years old according to her J-Wiki profile, she still looks like that sparkling wide-eyed teenager from the late 1990s.

Considering the Komuro Steamroller that ran through the Japanese music world throughout most of the final decade of the 20th century, I gather that Suzuki's time with music producer Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）was one of the last examples of one of his proteges making a big mark on the charts. I saw Suzuki as a more girl-next-door type tackling the Komuro music compared to the dance club-friendly Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）and Tomomi Kahala（華原朋美）from earlier years.

With Suzuki, it was more about the upbeat stuff including "Be Together" (which I heard repeatedly on the "Asaichi" segment as a running gag), so it was interesting to hear "Our Days", a ballad which served as her 8th single from September 1999. I barely remember it and indeed it was written and composed by Komuro with Mitsuko Komuro（小室みつ子）also helping out on the lyrics. I can't say that she had the most polished delivery with this ballad which might explain why I tend to remember her happier songs but then again, her forlorn vocals might be in line with the more melancholy melody. 

"Our Days" did hit No. 1 on Oricon, going Platinum, and it eventually became the 47th-ranked single of 1999. It also became a track on Suzuki's 2nd album "infinity eighteen vol.1" from February 2000. That album also hit the top of the charts and became the 15th-ranked album of the year.