Kohei Matsushita -- Taion（体温）

 

Last year, I wrote about actor/singer Kohei Matsushita's（松下洸平）"Tsuyogari"（つよがり）after his appearance on an episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）. The feeling was that he was going for the more soulful line of singing.

And such is the case here, too. "Taion" is a track from his November 2022 debut album "POINT TO POINT". "Taion" literally means "Body Temperature" but that sounds a little too clinical for this very heartfelt romantic ballad, so maybe "Your Warmth" sounds a little more wholesome. 

With Matsushita handling the lyrics along with the melody, the composition was also worked on by Shinsuke "Synthke" Hirano（平野晋介）. I gather from the comments for "Taion" under the YouTube video, it is indeed those lyrics that have been getting their own warmth as a man has a brief but pleasant chance encounter with a woman perhaps on a beach near the end of summer. He ends up keeping things polite and not making any overt moves but he realizes a little too late that the encounter was potentially a life-changing one as he notices that up until then, his life had been a lonely one. The couple parts company but now he might have to try and track her down.

There were three singles released from "POINT TO POINT" with one being the aforementioned "Tsuyogari" but not "Taion". Perhaps "Taion" should have been released as such. 

Kohei Matsushita -- Tsuyogari（つよがり）

 

As I type this, it's currently Earth Hour so the lights are down very low. I figure that I could be just lying in bed for the hour but frankly I prefer typing to risking ruining my usual sleep so here we are.

Since I no longer watch Japanese dramas anymore, I have never heard of actor Kohei Matsushita（松下洸平）but he hails from Hachioji, Tokyo and has been a thespian since 2009. But a year earlier than that, he had started a singing and songwriting career under the mononym of Kohei under which he released a couple of official singles, a few digital download singles and a limited concert CD in the late 2000s.

I found out about Matsushita when he appeared on a recent episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）and performed his first single under his full name. "Tsuyogari" (A Show of Courage) was released in August 2021 and it's a light soulful ballad written by Kiyoshi Matsuo（松尾潔）and composed by Yoshihiro Toyoshima（豊島吉宏）. What got me interested in the song was that initially because of the arrangement, I'd assumed that this was another sweet Tomita Lab concoction but of course it wasn't from finding out the songwriting credits at JASRAC. There is also something about Matsushita's vocals that remind me of the R&B duo Chemistry.

As for Matsuo's lyrics, I gather that one-half of a soon-to-be ex-couple is reminiscing, perhaps sadly-if-wisely, about the good times of the romance, and how it has to take a show of courage to admit that the relationship has to end. I can understand that feeling perfectly. "Tsuyogari" broke into the Top 10 on Oricon by peaking at No. 8. Matsushita released a mini-album close to Xmas last year and he put out a digital download single almost a couple of weeks ago, "KISS".