Miina Tominaga -- ’Cause A Woman

 

From YouTuber Cookie Crumpet, I give you the wonders of seiyuu Miina Tominaga（冨永みーな）as the villainous Majorina in "Smile PreCure" (2011-2012). When I posted my first article on the veteran voice thespian back in 2019, I did mention that I hadn't seen much of her work in anime and it was basically her time as the chief pain-in-the-neck for that group of PreCure warriors that got me to know her. 

Well, let's go back a few decades. Tominaga had already been in the anime business for about ten years but she was also putting out her own records whose songs from what I've heard so far have been in the urban contemporary field. She definitely doesn't sound like the cackling Majorina on the track "'Cause A Woman" from her July 1986 2nd album "a・ha! I'm 20".

Written by Ren Takayanagi（高柳恋）and composed by Yusuke Nakamura（中村裕介）, I was rather wondering whether "'Cause A Woman" would fall right into the City Pop groove or if it's an especially funky pop song of the mid-1980s. Any further speculation was finished when I reached the instrumental bridge and I declared, "Yeah, that's City Pop enough for me!". Still I kept the pop label in there, too. Nice and caramel groovy, it is.

Yusuke Nakamura -- Lavender（ラヴェンダー）

 

Guitarist Yusuke Nakamura（中村裕介）has been mentioned in four articles on this blog but as a songwriter, including his melody for Keiko Mizukoshi's（水越恵子）"Wine Night"（ワインナイト）from 1984. So, he had never been on the byline until today, but a while back, someone told me that he had released an album called "80s Works" last September.

"80s Works" apparently includes all of his previously unreleased songs from those 1980s and they are supposedly in the realm of soul and City Pop. Certainly one track, "Lavender", has that groovy City Pop sound but provided through contemporary instruments and arrangements. And there is something quite Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）and Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）through this song and his delivery at least.

Keiko Mizukoshi -- Wine Night（ワインナイト）

 

Yes, I'm bringing out KKP AI representative Kayo Grace in her "live-action" form since I think the photo fits the song here. I've only just noticed that there are a lot of filled glasses beside her at the bar along with the innumerable bottles of alcohol. Bing really wanted to let me know that this is a bar.

Anyways, the reason that I brought this particular song onto KKP was because of my previous article on Bonnie Tyler's "Sayonara Tokyo"（サヨナラ Tokyo）. Seeing that composer Yusuke Nakamura（中村裕介）was not only the fellow behind the AOR magic of that song but also the melody weaver of Mai Yamane's（山根麻衣）"Tasogare"（たそがれ）in 1980, I was curious about what else he's done in terms of the City Pop or AOR realms. Well, there is a list of songs on his J-Wiki page that he's provided other singers.

One of them is "Wine Night" as recorded by Keiko Mizukoshi（水越恵子）. A track on her December 1984 album "Actress" (which scored a peak ranking of No. 79 on Oricon), veteran lyricist Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）provided the lyrics of an affair taking place. It's a pretty fleet-footed song that rather straddles the line between pop and City Pop, and for a song that's titled "Wine Night", the bright keyboards kinda pull things back to the afternoon. Mizukoshi's vocals are fairly smoky with a certain seen-it-all/done-it-all attitude. 

Bonnie Tyler -- Sayonara Tokyo（サヨナラ Tokyo）

 

Now you might be taking a look at the byline above and saying "Wait a minute! Didn't J-Canuck already give his due to Bonnie Tyler on Eclipse Day?". My answer would be "Indeed, yes!". However, when I was looking up stuff on Tyler for that article, I also found a single that she had released back in 1981 which apparently immediately preceded "Total Eclipse of the Heart", and it was only meant for Japanese audiences because it was made for the above commercial.

Yes, now I am always going to equate Tyler with Japanese vodka. And it's going to be so easy because her "Sayonara Tokyo" goes down as easy as that Suntory libation (hopefully). Right from the beginning, the arrangement is so AOR that it sounds a bit strange that it was used for an ad that's been set somewhere in the winter woods; mind you, "Sayonara Tokyo" was just given a very brief hear-through there. 

If anything, "Sayonara Tokyo" is something to be heard while that plane takes a fellow away from a winter-free Narita Airport, Tokyo and Japan for good. The vodka might be in there, too. Lyrics and melody were provided by singer-songwriter Yusuke Nakamura（中村裕介）and he's made a fine power ballad for Tyler here. Nakamura, who has also gone by the name Kintaro Nakamura（中村きんたろう）, also provided the music for "Tasogare"（たそがれ）recorded by Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）, another chanteuse with that mahogany voice.

Mai Yamane -- Tasogare （たそがれ）

Another singer from the pages of "Japanese City Pop" is Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）. For my first article on her regarding her 3rd single, "Foolin' Myself", she was performing the cover of an Eric Carmen song. This time, the focus is on the title track of her debut album, "Tasogare" (Twilight) which came out in 1980.

I really enjoy the groove going on in all this mellow. And instead of Eric Carmen, when I hear "Tasogare", I get this Gino Vannelli vibe with a bit of Rod Temperton synth thrown in for good measure. Yamane's smoky vocals are even more spot-on here. She doesn't have to wrench her heart out like she does in "Foolin' Myself" but can go more with the groovy flow of the melody.

Considering that her early stuff may be among the rarest of the rare out there, I can only hope that I can somehow track down a copy of "Tasogare".