With a title like "Machibito Kitarazu" (The Person I'd Been Waiting For Didn't Come [or in today's vernacular perhaps: Ghosted]), and especially with singer-songwriter Takao Kisugi's（来生たかお）penchant for melancholy melodies, I'd been expecting a rather sad ballad.
However, then I realized there was that Japanese music policy of having happy and sad songs on opposite sides of a record single, and "Machibito Kitarazu" just happens to be the B-side of Kisugi's debut single from October 1976, "Asai Yume"（浅い夢）. The A-side is a very tenderhearted ballad and one of his most cherished tunes. So, instead, "Machibito Kitarazu" is actually quite a snazzy and snappy ditty created by him and his elder sister, lyricist Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）. With arrangement by Katsu Hoshi（星勝）, it comes across as a slightly Gallic and jazzy traipse down the Champs-Elysees, and yep, I can even imagine jeune frere Kisugi dandily dancing down the boulevard in a porkpie hat and cane to this one.
One little aside here is that I really like the cover for "Asai Yume" with Kisugi just lounging about in a well-lived room with that hint of sepia in the atmosphere. Yeah, I guess it was New Music.
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