Selfish -- Spinning Wheels

 

I've already gotten a couple of articles on the blog regarding the trio Selfish who were into the 1990s City Pop scene with the synthesizers of that decade. The most recent article was written up back in August 2020 for their October 1993 single "Realize".

From their 1993 debut album "Colors of Love", I've got their opening track "Spinning Wheels" which was written by Shun Taguchi（田口俊）and composed by Selfish trumpeter Naoki Otsubo（大坪直樹）. A song of making use of that second chance to make things right for a couple whose relationship may be nearing some treacherous rocks, it's got some hints of New Jack Swing although I think that "Spinning Wheels" floats over the line between City Pop and straight pop. There is also a nice instrumental bridge featuring a sparkling piano.

Speaking of spinning wheels, it was crazy on the streets yesterday here in Toronto with cars slip-sliding all over the place due to a day-long storm. Plus, we had a little flood at our place which didn't make for a happy Thursday. Luckily things are much nicer today.

Selfish -- Realize

Happy Sunday! Hopefully, a good bunch of you are contentedly digesting your usual Sunday breakfasts. It was the usual cholesterol-laden bacon-eggs-pancakes combination for me.

I wrote about the band Selfish a few years ago and nope, there's not a lot written about them aside from what I could find at that Japanese-language blog of 1990s City Pop. As for anything English, I think perhaps "Kayo Kyoku Plus" is the only source right now. In any case, here is the second entry by vocalist Hiroyuki Imura（井村裕之）, drummer Yukihiro Matsumoto（松本幸裕）and trumpeter Naoki Otsubo（大坪直樹）, their October 1993 single "Realize".

To be honest, I find the subject for that first KKP article on Selfish, "Jiyu ni Natte"（自由になって）more intriguing but "Realize" is a pleasant enough song with some of those old-fashioned end-of-the-century synthesizers. Imura has got an appealing voice which can soar and the arrangement reminds me of some of the more straight-line pop that Sing Like Talking was coming up with at the time. Otsubo was responsible for the melody while Shun Taguchi（田口俊）provided the lyrics.

Selfish -- Jiyu ni Natte （自由になって）

Heck of a name for a band. I found out about this 90s trio called Selfish while listening to one of the discs (Dream, to be exact) from the "Light Mellow" series of J-AOR/City Pop. They made their first big splash when they won the Grand Prix at the Yamaha-sponsored Band Explosion in 1991 and then released their debut album in 1993, "Colors of Love".

There isn't a lot of information available about Selfish online except that the trio comes from Fukuoka and it stands out for its combination of vocalist Hiroyuki Imura（井村裕之）, drummer Yukihiro Matsumoto（松本幸裕）and trumpeter Naoki Otsubo（大坪直樹）with guest musicians to round out the performances. Now, the fellow to the very right of the cover for "Colors of Love" is Imura, and he's got quite the pipes for this one track I heard on that "Light Mellow" CD, "Jiyu ni Natte" (Be Free) which was originally from that debut album. I especially liked the part where he went "Oh, oh, oh, oh..." in the main part of the song along with that intro with the synths. Otsubo wrote and composed the song.

https://music.apple.com/jp/album/%E8%87%AA%E7%94%B1%E3%81%AB%E3%81%AA%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6/1246032420?i=1246032429

(excerpt only)

Selfish's genres are AOR and urban contemporary which are just up my alley. It's nice to hear another band along the lines of Sing Like Talking. Apparently, they released just two albums before breaking up for a while but according to the liner notes inside my "Light Mellow" CD, Selfish got back together in the early 2010s to perform live. Wouldn't mind if I could get my hands on "Colors of Love" someday.

For those folks who might be interested in how City Pop fared in the 1990s, I found some of the information about Selfish on this amazing blog called "90-Nendai City Pop Kirokubo"（90年代シティーポップ記録簿...90s City Pop Record）. Also from that same "Light Mellow" CD I found "Jiyu ni Natte", there is Toko Furuuchi's（古内東子）smooth-as-silk "Somewhere in Tokyo" which I have already written about.