I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
And once again, welcome to another end of the work week here on KKP which means that it's Urban Contemporary Friday on the blog. It seems as if here in Toronto, we're enjoying those warm days but the nights are getting cooler which is normal for us, and the beginning of next week will be having highs just in the low 20s Celsius. So autumn is just around the corner.
It's been a while since we've had singer-songwriter Akemi Kakihara（柿原朱美）so it's nice to have her back. I consider her to be one of those artists of the late 1980s and early 1990s responsible for some very comfortable light pop of the time. I can put her beside singers such as Miki Imai（今井美樹）, Midori Karashima（辛島美登里）and Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子）, and so it's not surprising that Kakihara, or ak as she's been known for the past several years, has contributed a lot of her songs to Imai.
In June 1994, the singer came out with her sixth album"Taiyo no Shita de" (Under the Sun), and the first track happens to be the title track. Written and composed by her, I can't say that it's a City Pop, AOR or an R&B tune but it still has plenty of urbaneness and urbanity with a bit of bossa nova sprinkled into it. The marvelous sax solo in the middle lifts "Taiyo no Shita de" into sophisticated pop territory. I can also imagine Imai herself covering this one.
As loathe as I am to admit it, it's been almost a decade since Akemi Kakihara's（柿原朱美）name has been on the byline for an article (although she has been part of other articles since then as a songwriter). The most recent posting for her specifically is the one for "September Tokyo Tower" from her 7th album from 1995, "Mermaid Kiss". I put that one up back in September 2014.
However, I am here to make partial amends for this ten-year oversight by putting up another track from "Mermaid Kiss". "Love's Holiday" is a mellow and groovy pop song written and composed by Kakihara with some catchy soft scatting. Along with the delivery, I also enjoy the synth-horns coming up with a bridge that sounds slightly 60s Bacharach-esque pop.
I can understand why she was able to make a lot of songs for fellow singer-songwriter Miki Imai（今井美樹）since there is a similarity in both women's vocals. Y'know...I should have posted "Love's Holiday" back on Valentine's Day but as they say "Better late than never".
I just kinda thought, "What the heck!". Let's get some September songs up here. For some reason, September-themed kayoseems to be the most frequent of all of the months, although I think May and August are up there as well. I'm also going to throw in a couple of my favourite American September tunes as well since the 21st is coming soon. Most of them have already been written about on the blog so I'm only going to provide commentary for just one song here.
The Ames Brothers -- September Song (1960s)
And this is the song..."September Song" which was originally a song introduced in 1938 in the Broadway musical "Knickerbocker Holiday", and from what I've heard of the various versions, it's usually arranged in a very soft and wistful style. However, the first version that I had heard was the one by The Ames Brothers via that LP collection of standards that my father got with his RCA Victor stereo back in the 1960s. The reason that I remember it so well is that this version is so jazzy and upbeat that it can only be made for cutting a rug in front of the jukebox. If anyone can inform me when exactly this version was recorded, I will be grateful.
When I came back to Toronto for good after so many years, I finally got the gumption to visit the St. Lawrence Market. I had been hearing about this place since I was a kid but never made it there in my life, sorry to say. But I finally did make my visit to this emporium of food and souvenirs on Front St. a few months later.
I've made a few visits there since and I've always enjoyed it for lunch such as juicy porchetta sandwiches (do not tell your doctor about this one!) and chicken parmigiana sandwiches. Still, I was surprised to find out that at least for one year, the St. Lawrence Market was actually labeled as the best market in the world! I guess it's rather Canadian to do so but I couldn't quite believe that our Toronto emporium would actually be selected as the best. After all, there is the Pike Place Marketin Seattle, Chatuchak Market in Bangkok, and even Ameyoko（アメ横）in Tokyo. I almost felt like apologizing to everyone on the planet "Hey, sorry....it wasn't my decision!"
But in any event, I think a lot of us were quietly happy and proud that we would get the honour, and the St. Lawrence Market is a pretty decent place for eats and stuff.
Well, on that note, I would like to happily introduce "Fuyu no Market"(Winter Market) by Miki Imai（今井美樹）. Over a year ago, when I wrote up the follow-up article for her grand album "Retour" (1990), I mentioned that this particular song and one other had been the remaining tracks not to be covered by me due to non-availability on YouTube. Luckily, that is no longer the case as far as "Fuyu no Market" is concerned.
My neighbourhood in Ichikawa was well stocked with supermarkets and convenience stores so seeing actual lively markets from the old days was simply not to be during my time. Probably the closest I got was traipsing through the aforementioned Ameyoko. I know now through my translation work that there are some famous farmers' markets in areas of Japan such as Niigata Prefecture with that bustling and homey atmosphere as the locals come down to get some fresh fish and vegetables. I might try to partake in one myself someday when I head back to the nation for a visit.
Imai's "Fuyu no Market" definitely has that contemporary sound (for 1990, at least) in the arrangement, but the atmosphere of the setting is very homey and comfortable as I could see Imai walking through the local market and searching for some goodies to make dinner when, lo and behold, she bumps into an old flame doing the same. There is a combination of that bitter and sweet as the two former lovers decide to chat and partake in some coffee to keep the chill away and maybe stoke of that warmth from the old days.
Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）provided the lyrics and Akemi Kakihara（柿原朱美）composed the music for this song which was one of the 12 reasons why I love "Retour" as one of my very favourite albums in Japanese pop music.
Much like I did for Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）"Romantique" a couple of months ago, I've decided to do a follow-up on an article I did on another favourite album. This time, it's "Retour" by Miki Imai（今井美樹）from 1990. As I mentioned in the original article back in 2012, Imai's 5th album to me is the quintessential album by the lithe singer with the wide-as-the-Mississippi smile. All of the songs are wonderful concoctions of uptempo fun tunes and mellow ballads, and a few of the tracks that weren't included in the "Retour" article got their own entries: "Ame ni Kiss no Hanataba wo"（雨にキッスの花束を）, "Nakitakatta"（泣きたかった）and "Motto Motto Motto"（もっと、もっと、もっと）.
"Kakehiki 27" (カ・ケ・ヒ・キ 27...Strategy 27) is another one of the playful tracks written by Imai and composed by Jun Sato（佐藤準）. It's nice and brassy and seemingly fit as the theme song for a trendy drama on Japanese TV that could have easily starred the singer herself when she was acting fairly regularly. The lyrics by Imai themselves paint a scene from such a comedy-drama as two friends just chat away at a restaurant or cafe while one of them is wondering how she can get her significant other to promote themselves up to a level above merely buddies. Considering the number of strategies in the title, the guy might be as dense as a brick.
(cover version)
"Kyonen wa Hachi-gatsu datta"(去年は、8月だった...Last Year, It Was August) by Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）and MAYUMI is a soulful number with Imai singing about a relationship a year in with the protagonist making an assessment about how things have gone and how might they go. I wonder if this might have been a sequel to "Kakehiki 27".
"Hansode"（半袖...Short Sleeves）is hopefully not a further sequel to the two songs above since the sad ballad is about life after the end of a relationship...perhaps due to the death of that significant other. Yuuho Iwasato and Chika Ueda（岩里祐穂・上田知華）were responsible for this 3-Kleenex song.
The final track, "Atarashii Machi de"（新しい街で...In A New Town）is one of the truly memorable songs on "Retour" and makes for a fine finale to the album as well as a fine finale to any Miki Imai concert. There's very much a sunset feeling to KAN's melody and Iwasato's lyrics talk about a new start. The piano that starts things off and that saxophone during the bridge are the highlights for me.
The remaining two songs are "Fuyu no Market"（冬のマーケット...Winter Market）with Akemi Kakihara（柿原朱美）providing the melody to Iwasato's lyrics and "Kagayaku Hoshi ni Natte"（輝く星になって...Shining Star）by Imai and Mioko Yamaguchi（山口美央子）couldn't be found except through excerpts on the Amazon site selling the CD but they are also just fine to listen to, especially the former. If either or both of them pop up on YouTube someday, I would be happy to cover them as well.
Knowing that I would be writing about the album tonight, I decided to pop the CD into the player again earlier this afternoon. No change...still just as wonderful as when I had bought it back over a quarter-century ago.
Well, the Labour Day weekend is over, the kids are back in school and the weather may or may not be starting to tilt towards a cooler mode. In Toronto, we got two out of three. It's pretty darn warm now after virtually the entire summer was going to be written off as a cool one, and we're looking at a Humidex of 40 degrees Celsius on Friday as if Japan decided to toss over some of their weather. To be honest, I wish I could toss it back. After going through several years of Tokyo heat and humidity, I think I'm due for some cool summers for the next number of years.
In any case, now that we are in September, I was able to encounter this nice little ballad titled "September Tokyo Tower" by singer-songwriter Akemi Kakihara (柿原朱美...now known as ak over in the United States). I've made it a bit of a tradition since I started the blog to bring in a song with the word "September" in its title whenever the 9th month arrived...I believe Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"September" was the beginning. Well, unlike Mariya's jaunty semi-disco tune, Kakihara's "September Tokyo Tower" is a much more wistfully reflective song about reminiscing over a past romance with the famed Tokyo Tower as the backdrop. Songwriters in Japan, no matter the genre, seem to associate the loss of romance with the fall season (for me, it's always been the season when the fine foodie fare of the country pops up, but I digress), and there is no exception in this case.
Listening to "September Tokyo Tower", I can just feel the coolness of the coming fall wafting in and that need to put on that light sweater. Kakihara's voice is quite similar to someone she has written a number of songs for, Miki Imai（今井美樹）, so I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Imai could have covered this song during one of her concerts.
I was able to track the song down to her 7th album from 1995, "Mermaid Kiss". As for Tokyo Tower itself, it may have been eclipsed by Tokyo Sky Tree in terms of its utility, but I think the orange-red structure still is a very viable architectural symbol of the metropolis. It wouldn't be the same without seeing it as part of the skyline.
And if you wanna try listening to another wistful autumn-tinged song, try Off Course's"Aki no Kehai"（秋の気配）.
Back in October 1994, I was just a couple of weeks away from launching once more to Japan to have another try at life there, so my friends at the JCSA held a goodbye party for me at the International Student Centre at the University of Toronto. During the two hours there, I received a very nice present from one of my friends from Tokyo. And you see it right above the text. I guess I may have blurted out at one point or another that I was a big Miki Imai（今井美樹）fan. Since it was 20 years back, she probably had someone in her family or circle of friends send it over from Japan, so it was a bit weird that I ended up taking it with me back to the country.
I've decided to cover Imai's 8th album from September 1994, "A Place In The Sun" because being in the midst of one of the wintriest winters in recent memory here in Toronto, I think all of us can use our own place in the sun right now. Also, with me getting this disc just before I made my fresh start in Tokyo, I think "A Place In The Sun" was perhaps a bit of a fresh start for Imai herself. For one thing, it was the full beginning of the collaboration between her and BOOWY guitarist Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）. Hotei had actually helped out on a few of her tracks from her previous album, "flow into space" in 1993, but with "A Place In The Sun", he was now the producer for the whole album. And to make things more interesting, Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一） was co-producer.
For the first number of years that I had the album, I considered this album to be a near-reboot of Imai in terms of the overall sound. I may have been a bit hasty in that assessment; in recent years, on hearing and remembering the various tracks, I think now that there were some echoes of her 80s and very early 90s style in terms of some familiar synth arrangements and the gentle rhythms. And sure enough, her songwriting buddies from that period such as Akemi Kakihara, Yuuho Iwasato and Chika Ueda（柿原朱美・岩里祐穂・上田千華） created some of the songs for "A Place In The Sun" as well. However, there were some other tracks that showed a new direction of sorts. One track is "Miss You" which is the only song from the album that had been released as her 10th single a couple of months earlier. Iwasato took care of the lyrics but Hotei composed the music, and I'm pretty sure that that is him on the guitar solo and the background vocals near the end of the song. Compared to her ballads from her early period, "Miss You" seems more epic and less about Imai spending a Sunday afternoon in the apartment. There is more of a "big picture" outlook here, for lack of a better way to describe it. Because of its status as the lone single, it is the most representative track on the album and perhaps the symbol of this new direction. It hit No. 1 on Oricon and was the 26th-ranked song of 1994.
My favourite track though is "Martinique no Kaze"（Martinique の海風...The Winds of Martinique） which was written by Imai and composed by Sakamoto. There are currently only cover versions but I prefer the original (which I finally got above!). I have to listen to "flow into space" one more time to make sure, but I think Imai's record of including at least one bossa nova-tinged song in her albums was still safe, thanks to this tune. In any case, what I love about "Martinique no Kaze" is just how Sakamoto was able to unobtrusively weave a hint of that old techno into the bossa which makes the whole song sing. It brings to mind running along that tropical beach during a summer sunset.
This is a karaoke version of "Kagayaku Machi de"（輝く街で...In A Sparkling Neighbourhood）. but I just wanted to showcase one track that kinda hearkened back to some of her earlier whimsical ballads. Again the words were by Imai with Chika Ueda creating the melody. Despite the whimsy, Imai's lyrics talk about coming across an old flame out of the blue with all of the complicated emotions bubbling out.
I love the bass thumping away here for the title track, "A Place In The Sun". And Imai's voice just seems to lift spirits whenever she sings this one. It hints at that fresh start that I mentioned at the beginning of the article, and the official video illustrates that very well as she drives a car up a fog-enshrouded mountain until she gets out at the peak and has sunlight rain down on her. That famous beaming smile of hers says it all. Iwasato and Akemi Kakihara were behind the making of this wonderful song.
(karaoke version)
The last track for tonight is "Umibe nite"（海辺にて...By The Shore）. Iwasato and Ueda created this sad but hopeful ballad in which Imai sings about walking along the beach thinking about the love she has just lost and struggling to go forward by herself. She gives a wonderful performance above.
"A Place In The Sun" went as high as No. 2 on the album charts and eventually became the 21st-ranked album of the year. As I finish up writing this article, I realize that the album itself has this overarching theme of new beginnings to go along with the rebirths of sorts for the professional lives for me and Imai. Perhaps that friend of mine had something more in mind than making an Imai fan happy when she gave me this album.
Also, I did mention in one of the past articles on Imai that her earlier music from the 80s and into the new decade was more my preference. That opinion hasn't changed but I also think this album is very worthy.
"Lluvia"(Spanish for rain) is Miki Imai's（今井美樹） 6th album, released in September 1991. I missed getting this album just by a couple of months since I had headed back to Canada from the JET Programme. Kicked myself in the keester for the bad timing, but I was able to get it through the old "Eye-Ai" mail order page the next year. And glad I did, too. Coming after her glorious 5th album, "Retour", "Lluvia" was a continuation of that wonderful early Miki Imai sound. I was thinking about using the word, "epilogue" to describe the album, but I thought that would be giving it short shrift since it doesn't feel like a disc of musically tying up loose ends here.
The reason that that early Imai feel comes through the album is because Imai's compadres from her late 80s and early 90s period come back again. Singer-songwriters Chika Ueda（上田千華） and Akemi Kakihara（柿原朱美） put in their contributions as does lyricist Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）, and a number of the musicians from past albums come in like drummer Jun Aoyama（青山純） and guitarist Tsuyoshi Kon（今剛）.
My favourite song on the album is the title track itself. Written by Imai and composed by MAYUMI (Reimy's older sister), I love the intro and what has been called in the liner notes for the song, the "Rambu de Lluvia"instrument by Fernando Shimizu, which sounds like a pan flute. It reminds me of the sound from the very first Imai song I'd heard a few years earlier, "Natsu wo Kasanete"（夏をかさねて）. Thematically, it's classic Imai. The song is post-breakup with the singer wondering how her former beau is doing although she and presumably him have gone on with their lives. It's another calming tea-sipping tune.
Another Imai custom is to have a bossa nova-style song in her albums, and so here is "Tea For Two"...makes for a nice segue from my tea-sipping remark in the last paragraph. Imai was behind the lyrics here as well, but the composer (although the J-Wiki article has the Antonio Carlos Jobim responsible for music and lyrics with Kamayatsu adapting it and Imai translating the words) was Hiroshi 'Monsieur' Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）, a frequent visitor on TV and former member of the Group Sounds band, The Spiders way back when. This time, the words are much less bittersweet with the couple involved much more in thrall with each other.
The very first song from this album that I heard was actually "Plus Alpha"（プラスα）, an atypically funky number for Imai written by Yuuho Iwasato and composed by the bassist on the song, Jun Sato（佐藤準）. I heard this being played in a CD shop just in the last couple of days before my departure from Narita; took me a bit of time to realize it was Imai singing this. Lyrically, this might be the more raunchy Saturday night in Roppongi compared to the sunny Sunday morning of "Tea For Two".
Whatever you do, do NOT play this song after a breakup involving you or anyone else. May cause excess dehydration via the lacrymal ducts. I couldn't ask for a more epic crying song from Miki Imai than "Egao"（笑顔...Smile）. Written by Iwasato and composed by Chika Ueda, Imai's delivery here, depending on my general mood, can get a lump to form in my throat the size of a a tangerine. This seems to be a field that Imai excels at singing about....having to break up a wonderful relationship and still missing each other greatly but offering that smile in the faint hope that the two will meet again. Tissues....double ply!
For the 2nd album in a row, none of the songs on the album were ever made into single releases, but it became the first Imai album since "Bewith" in 1988 to hit the top spot on Oricon and managed to become the 13th-ranked album for 1991 despite the relatively late release date, selling a little over 750,000 copies. As I mentioned at the top, I eschewed calling "Lluvia" an epilogue of "Retour". However, the album did signify an ending of things, namely the soft tea-friendly sound of her early years, something that hasn't been lost on Imai fans....in the Japanese social networking site, Mixi, there are Miki Imai communities but there is also one that emphasizes those early years from 1986 to 1991 for which I am a citizen. Her sound underwent changes from her next album, and although I have enjoyed a number of her tunes from that time onward, for me, it will always be those years mentioned that will be my favourite time when it comes to her.
I've noticed that there are quite a few YouTube videos devoted to this song that have images of flowers. And that would be no surprise since the lovely "Nakitakatta"(I Wanted to Cry) has that healing aura infused into both the melody and lyrics. Composed by Akemi Kakihara（柿原朱美）and written by Miki Imai（今井美樹）, the song is a track on one of my all-time favourite J-Pop albums, "Retour"that was recorded by Imai back in 1990.
The melody is in the gentlest, most relaxing bossa nova/pop style as Imai sings what is basically an intimate sad scene from a trendy drama. The lyrics describe a woman suddenly collapsing into a major crying jag on the kitchen floor after a painful memory from years back pops up. In Japan especially, having a sobfest whether it's because of a similar situation or even if it's watching a tearjerker is seen as being very therapeutic. Afterwards, people usually feel very sukkiri. So, perhaps the song isn't anything mournful but something very hopeful since one of the last verses indicates that the protagonist feels a whole lot better getting that memory out into the open and out of her system after so much time has passed. Regardless of the psychological benefits, it's a great song to listen to.
Kakihara herself did a cover of her song a few years later in 1993 for her 5th album, "refile". She sounds very much like Imai, but the melody is a bit more uptempo here.
I may have mentioned in my posting of Miki Imai's（今井美樹）"Natsu wo Kasanete" that that was the very first song of hers that I'd heard. However, it wasn't the first time I came across her name. Actually, the singer was also mentioned in writing in my rather thick manual for the JET Programme as someone for the green teachers from outside Japan to know as a celebrity to connect with the kids. The brief description for her in that JET manual was that she was the singer with the huge smile (I guess Miwa Yoshida of Dreams Come True had yet to hit the stratosphere).
In any case, "Natsu wo Kasanete" was indeed that first wonderfully calming song by Imai that I'd heard in that lodge-type cafe somewhere between Niiharu Village and Tsukiyono Town. And it was not only the song that launched her 3rd album,"Bewith"(1988) but it was the lead tune for her very first BEST album, "Ivory" which was released in December 1989. Listening to that song and "Hitomi ga Hohoemu Kara"had me scrambling to get the album which I did quite easily. It was the first time for me to see Imai, and the front cover told me all I needed to know about the album: in a soothing light, that beautiful face with the aforementioned smile crowned by the popular "sauvage"hairstyle at that time.
According to J-Wiki,Imai herself chose the songs to go onto "Ivory", so only four of the songs listed in her first BEST album were official singles. Her earliest recorded song here isn't her very first single, "Tasogare no Monologue"（黄昏のモノローグ...Twilight Monologue), but the 4th track from her first album, "femme"(1986), "Orange no Kawa"(Orange River). When I first heard this song, I was a bit struck since it seemed a bit different from her other mellow tunes in tone (almost aidoru-like), and Imai had also admitted that it sounded somewhat strange to include this particular song, but ultimately she really wanted to get it in there and so it did. Written by Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子） and composed by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）, the "orange river" refers to the sodium lamp-lit expressway at night, and if you listen fairly closely, you can hear the racing of cars. Of course, this week being Golden Week in Japan, the only sound you'll hear on the nation's highways is idling.
"Pole Position" by Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）and Nakazaki was originally on Imai's 2nd album,"elfin", and is also a relatively uptempo number and in that mellow style which characterized Imai during the late 80s and early 90s. Although from the title, you might think Monte Carlo, actually according to the lyrics, Miki is singing about the pole position of romance and how she needs to get that guy by beating all others to that position.
"Yasei no Kaze"(The Untamed Wind) is one of my favourites on "Ivory", especially with that beautiful refrain with the strings. The lyrics by Masumi Kawamura（川村真澄） (who had also written the words for Misato Watanabe's"My Revolution") tackle the oft-tackled theme of romantic partings, eventual or sudden, although this one sounds as if the lovers feel that it is for the best. Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）was behind the melody and the arrangement was by Joe Hisaishi（久石譲）, the scorer for a number of Hayao Miyazaki's films. "Yasei no Kaze" was Imai's 2nd single released in July 1987. It was also on "elfin".
Another one of her wonderfully mellow ballads is "Sora ni Chikai Shuumatsu" (The Weekend Close to the Sky) which was the coupling song (the CD single equivalent of the B-side) for Imai's 5th single,"Boogie Woogie Lonesome High Heel". Written by Tozawa and composed by Akemi Kakihara（柿原朱美）, Imai sings about recovering from the dark tunnel of the end of a relationship. From the lyrics, it sounds as if she is just on a sunny balcony almost able to reach the sky. In the melody, there also seems to be a hint of Pachelbel's Canon.
"Ivory"has been a fine purchase for me and although there were two more albums, "Retour" and "Lluvia" before she began a change in her style, my first album of hers is representative of those mellow years in her early career. It peaked at No. 5 on Oricon but it spent over 100 weeks on the album charts, and was the 7th-ranked album of 1990, selling over 1.5 million albums.
Although it already has its own posting, I just had to leave this one with the final track on "Ivory", "Hitomi ga Hohoemu Kara"(Because Your Eyes Are Smiling).
A couple of more Xmas songs from Miki Imai（今井美樹）, the first one being "Yuki no Shuumatsu"(Snowy Weekend), a soothing mid-tempo ballad for cocoa drinking while the kids are destroying the toys you bought them. It was a track on Imai's 7th album, "flow into space" which represented a gradual change in the sound that Imai's songs had up to that point in 1992. The song itself was written and composed by a couple of the singer's stalwarts from her earlier albums: lyricist Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂） and singer-composer Akemi Kakihara（柿原朱美）. But producer Jun Sato（佐藤準）, who had taken care of Imai's albums from the beginning of her singing career in 1986, was not in charge this time. Instead, it was Joe Hisaishi（久石譲） who has written the scores for many of Hayao Miyazaki's films such as "My Neighbour Totoro" and "Nausicaa". "Yuki no Shuumatsu" has a bit more of a grounding in a lush piano than the pop synthesizers of her past arrangements.
From the next album onwards, though, the transition would continue as Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）, formerly of BOOWY, would become Imai's producer.
As a bit of an extra with Imai's original, Kakihara did a cover of "Yuki no Shuumatsu".
I've always loved the beginning of this song with Imai and her husband/producer, Hotei, "lu, lu"-ing the opening notes before bursting into this waltz melody like a sudden squall. There is a certain court stateliness about "Shiro no Waltz"(A White Waltz) that still doesn't take itself too seriously. In a way, I think it would have been a nice addition to a Disney movie (although it became the commercial song for Canon's PIXUS cameras). In any case, it was the coupling song to Imai's 14th single, "Watashi wa Anata no Sora ni Naritai"（私はあなたの空になりたい...I Want to Be Your Sky), released in November 1997.
The song was also written and composed by Hotei, which was a bit of a revelation to me since I'd always seen him as that larger-than-life rocker from BOOWY, and as the master who created the theme song for "Kill Bill", "Battle Without Honor or Humanity".
When it comes to Miki Imai（今井美樹）, I guess my favourite era of hers spans 4 albums: Mocha (1989), Ivory (1989), Retour (1990) and Lluvia (1991). Mind you, the second one "Ivory" was actually her first Best album, but it's the one that properly introduced me to the sylph-like singer with the wide-as-the-Mississippi smile.
Up to this point on my blog, I've covered "Retour" and a couple of songs from "Mocha" ("Boogie-Woogie Lonesome High Heel" [above] and "Arifureta Love Scene"), along with one other tune, "Natsu wo Kasanete"from 1988's "Bewith". But since I've grown to like "Mocha" so much over the years, I've decided that I would profile it as well. It was Imai's 4th album, and compared to "Retour", it's less lush in terms of production but the songs included here also have some pleasant hooks delivered in Imai's high feathery voice at the time. Just to let you know, the video above the one for "Boogie-Woogie Lonesome High Heel" is from an old radio show she was hosting.
"Anytime Manytimes" is a jazzy and funky number about a woman who loves his man but is frustrated that...gosh darn it...he just won't reciprocate. This song was written by Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）and composed by MAYUMI, who just happens to be the elder sister of pop singer Reimy（麗美）. (Thanks to Utamap.com for the lyrics)
One of my favourite tracks on the album, the final song is "Chijou ni Oriru made no Yoru"（地上の降りるまでの夜....Night Falling to the Earth), perfect for evening listening. It's another classic Imai ballad with her sleepily lilting vocals floating across the night sky. It's written by Yuuho Iwasato (岩里祐穂） and composed by Akemi Kakihara（柿原朱美）, and is an appropriate tune to hit the hay by.
"Mocha" peaked at No. 5 on the Oricon album charts after its release in June 1989.
"Retour" is not only my favourite Miki Imai （今井美樹）album but one of my favourite Japanese CDs bar none. It's kinda like the Japanese equivalent of Donald Fagen's"The Nightfly", one of those albums that seems to get better over time, with every song a winner. The songs from both albums didn't immediately scream "HIT!" but gradually permeated themselves over the years. The singer had great support from composers Chika Ueda（上田知華）& Akemi Kakihara（柿原朱美）, and lyricist Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）. Even Imai provided lyrics for some of the tracks. Unlike "The Nightfly", there isn't any overarching theme to "Retour"; just 12 wonderful pop songs. Strangely enough, none of them were ever released as singles. The album was released in August 1990 where it reached a peak of No. 2 on Oricon.
The above video is for the first and title track itself, penned by Imai and Kakihara. In it, Imai pensively sings of a change of sorts in her life. The album was her first original album in over 2 years and several months after "Ivory", her first Best album of hits from her first 4 albums, so perhaps the song is a signal of things to come.
(cover version)
The second track is "Sol y Sombra", a lovely bossa jazz tune which was written inspired on festivals such as the Falles in Valencia, Spain and Carnaval. I love the song but there is one line that Imai sings which keeps me wincing since it sounds like "Hairy Hombre".
The final video is the official video for the 6th track, "Shiawase ni Naritai"(幸せになりたい...I Wanna Be Happy)....something that I hadn't seen since I saw it the first time two decades ago on MTV Japan. Generally, Imai is known for her ballads but this is an uptempo tune written and composed by Ueda. Finding her early videos is not that easy so it was great that I could track this one down. But watching it again, I almost felt like telling her to try that tradition called eating regularly.
March 29, 2016: I've a written a follow-up on the album right here.
The first time I'd ever listened to Miki Imai（今井美樹）was in late 1989 when I was having a cup of coffee with a teaching colleague of mine at this Gunma-ken coffeehouse built like a trendy little wood cabin. "Natsu wo Kasanete" (Keep Summer Going) filtered in through the cafe's very good speakers, and it just seemed to make the atmosphere even more content and the coffee taste better. Yes, I am waxing a bit too dreamily (I'm writing this past midnight) but when you listen to this song, I think you'll understand what I'm talking about. Lyrically, it's about a couple enjoying another lazy Sunday at home.
Composed by singer-songwriter Akemi Kakihara（柿原朱美） (who is now based in New York under the name AK) and written by Junko Sato （佐藤純子）, it was the first track in Imai's 3rd album, "Bewith". I don't know if the single itself ever broke the top 100 ofOricon, but the album, released on June 21 1988, hit No. 1 on July 4th. It is also the first track on her first Best album, "Ivory", released the next year.
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