Naomi Miyanaga -- Love Collector

 

Uncertain where I took this photo...Japan or Canada? The massive size of those strawberries and waffles would indicate my hometown of Toronto (maybe at Café Demetres) but the date on that photo in the bottom right seems a tad early for my Holiday trips back home. So who knows? I'm sure that it was a delicious dessert.

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1i34y1n7Qp/

(12:56)

Anyways, we have singer Naomi Miyanaga（宮永尚美）for her third time on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". In her first two articles on the blog, I featured a couple of her tracks from her 1984 debut album "Moment": "Summer Rain" and "Party ni Furarete"（パーティーにふられて）. Having a listen to those two once more, I found them on the mellower side of City Pop. 

Miyanaga's 2nd album (and possibly her final album) was "Che~!"（チェッ!...Tsk!）in 1986, and the cover has the smiling singer looking like she's about to paint the town as red as that background. "Love Collector", a track provided to her by lyricist Ken Takahashi（高橋研）and composer Yuji Toriyama（鳥山雄司）, is definitely more laden with the beats. There seems to be an infusion of Hitomi Toyama（当山ひとみ）dynamism which would imagine some of that American West Coast danceable form of R&B of that decade. As I said, Miyanaga looks ready to party hearty and her voice has taken on some more sultriness.

Naomi Miyanaga -- Party ni Furarete（パーティーにふられて）

I've got another track from Naomi Miyanaga's（宮永尚美）"Moment" debut album (1984). Last September, I wrote about her City Pop "Summer Rain" and the fact that she's another one of those singers of the genre that we don't have a whole lot of information about.

Well, this time the track from "Moment" is "Party ni Furarete" (Rejected at the Party) whose lyrics (which I couldn't find) may be rather unhappy but the song is pretty darn bouncy. I would say that it's a mellow mix of AOR, City Pop and even some kayo; there's something rather old-fashioned and a fair bit jazzy about the overall arrangement and yup, from looking at the images of the original LP, Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）was behind this. In fact, along with Yumi Morita（森田由美）providing the lyrics, Miki Matsubara（松原みき）was the one who took care of the melody.

Could drink a Planter's Punch alongside this.

Naomi Miyanaga -- Summer Rain

It's one of those nights where, although I usually keep things to two articles, I find a song so catchy and/or interesting that I just have to include it NOW.

Link to an excerpt

Have never heard of Naomi Miyanaga（宮永尚美）and have never seen her name in the pages of "Japanese City Pop". However, I caught her about half an hour ago on the New J Channel radio singing some funk so I checked the rest of YouTube on the off chance that she may have a presence there.

Well, the Force is with me tonight. Miyanaga is somewhat represented with tracks from her 1984 album "Moment". There's very little information about her origins and discography but apparently she released at least one more album, "Che~!"（チェッ!...Tsk!）in 1986. Anyways, going back to "Moment", Miyanaga seems to have embraced City Pop including this track called "Summer Rain". According to Takechas Records, this funky number was created by Mika Silfver, and then from the JASRAC database, the lyricist was Juha Vainio (although my gut tells me that perhaps that might not be the case but I will go with it for now). But the arranger for most of the album was guitarist Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）, and perhaps some of his influence can be felt by that really boss bass in the intro and the soaring instrumental bridge midway.

From the looks of it, "Moment" might be one of those rarest of the rare albums. From the sites I've checked so far, it's sold out and may be discontinued. Then again, I've said that for a number of albums in the past, only to be happily proven wrong.