Makoto Matsushita -- This is All I Have for You

Now that the Holidays are truly done for another year here, everyone's headed back to work, although those lucky Japanese will continue to enjoy the New Year's holidays for at least a couple of more days. Pretty soon, those credit card statements will be flowing in like water and we will all have to face the music. Still, I managed to pick up a set of Sennheiser headphones over the weekend since that is what I wanted and needed for a few months.

I've been testing the Sennheisers on music such as Makoto Matsushita's（松下誠）1981 "First Light" album. Nice to hear the deeper bass and more richness coming through my ears. Another track is "This is All I Have for You". I've compared some of the other tracks on this City Pop classic to folks like the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan but I don't think either defines this smooth, gallant and yet slightly introspective song. Still, it fits nicely into my favourite Japanese pop music genre.

Interesting title as well. I've long been accustomed to the tradition of gift-giving in Japan starting with the gift-giving person saying something humble such as "This is nothing special, but..." which comes out as "Tsumaranai mono desu ga..."（つまらないものですが）. Early in my Japanese-speaking experience, I once pulled an unintentionally hilarious error and said "Tondemonai mono desu ga..."（とんでもないものですが...This is utterly ridiculous but...）. Luckily the folks around me had a sense of humour.

Hey! Say! JUMP -- Come On A My House

Well, Happy New 2018 everyone! Mostly did the usual thing when it comes to our family...did the o-zoni breakfast with mochi and miso soup and then had my brother's family over for dinner tonight. Plus, most of us watched the video tape of the 68th edition of the Kohaku Utagassen.

In all likelihood, the above video will disappear within the next day or so but for those who catch it quickly enough, you can get a good idea when I say that the Kohaku was actually a bit more entertaining for me when compared to other years. It wasn't the usual introduction with the Red & White teams on stage behind the hosts and a grand anthemic fanfare. NHK actually put in some pizzazz with a "relay" of sorts involving everybody on the list heading up to the Shibuya studio in Tokyo.

Furthermore, the first few songs on the lineup were pretty catchy, too. The top batter was Hey! Say! JUMP, a Johnny's group that hadn't ever gotten onto the blog but here it is tonight. When I first saw the title for this song, I was imagining (as crazy as it may sound) that these guys were actually gonna sing a cover of Rosemary Clooney's standard.

My naivete cleared up quickly as soon as Hey! Say! JUMP started up on the stage. This particular "Come On A My House" is a peppy and inviting boys' band tune that was pretty good to get everyone in the right frame of mind for a Kohaku. Not sure what got me all cheerful about the song but I gather with all of the frigid weather outside and looking back on a year that wasn't exactly the greatest, "Come On A My House" made for a nice tonic.

Written by Komei Kobayashi and composed by veteran Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, Hey! Say! JUMP's 10th single actually came out back in June 2013, and hit No. 1 on the charts. It's also on their 3rd original album, "smart" from June 2014 which also went to the top spot.

Keisuke Kuwata -- Wakai Hiroba（若い広場）

Happy New Year to all those in East Asia and slightly beyond. We're still about 9 hours away before 2018 but the Kohaku Utagassen, of course, has run its course again. As usual, it's been taped onto VHS in my household; however, I really can't say anything about it just yet since I only have seen the last third of the special (sorry, I'm not getting up at 5:15 am to watch even that live). There will be the edited broadcast later tonight on TV Japan.

(the music video takes a break for a minute

to advertise Kuwata's album)

I've been meaning to write about Keisuke Kuwata's（桑田佳祐）"Wakai Hiroba" (A Young Meeting Place) which was the theme song for the previous NHK morning serial drama "Hiyokko"（ひよっこ）starring Kasumi Arimori（有村架純）, and seeing Kuwata perform it on the Kohaku was the final trigger. Incidentally, I think he was probably the only male singer who could follow up immediately after Namie Amuro's（安室奈美恵）much-advertised final appearance on the Kohaku without being forgotten (even so, there was a huge Twitter storm for Namie right afterwards).

What can I say about "Wakai Hiroba" aside from the fact that it's one of the more heartwarming and old-fashioned theme songs I've come across in a while? Right from the harmonic "pon, pon, pon" in the intro to Kuwata and company locking arms and swaying happily, there is that feeling of congenial camaraderie that brought together the entertainers on those old variety programs in Japan and the viewers in their wooden homes. In fact, I am also reminded me of some of those 60s kayo sung by folks like Yuzo Kayama（加山雄三）. No surprise since that was the time in which "Hiyokko" was set.

If I'm not mistaken, "Wakai Hiroba" wasn't ever put out as a single but is part of Kuwata's 5th album "Garakuta"（がらくた）which came out in August of this year. It reached No. 1 and stayed at the top for 2 weeks so perhaps within a little while, we should know how it fared on the yearly charts (ended up as the 13th-ranked album for 2017).

Y'know...it would have been nice to have heard "Wakai Hiroba" as this news was playing about the wrap-up of filming on "Hiyokko". There wouldn't have been a dry eye anywhere in the house.

OK, that was the last article for 2017, at least from me. And perhaps it may be the last one from me at the relatively torrid pace I've been keeping for nearly 6 years since "KKP" began. Gotta slow down. But would like to thank Noelle, Marcos and the other contributors for all of their articles this year again, and all of the readers for keeping in touch with the blog. Hope all of you have a Happy New Year wherever you are!

Minako Yoshida -- Monsters In Town

It's been nearly 2 years since I put up a bona fide Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）article. The main reason is that it's awfully hard to find a YouTube video of any of her songs with the scuttlebutt being that Yoshida or her representatives have had them taken them down lickety-split. Obviously she has every right to do so since the videos mean that folks are getting free listens without any compensation to the artist or relevant record company but still it's kinda too bad for folks like myself who like to talk about them and tell other folks about these great songs. And no, I'm not grinding any sesame seeds here (the Japanese language equivalent for buttering someone up) when I say that she is one of the best Japanese singers Japan I've heard, so she is well worth talking about.

To proceed, I would like to devote 2017's final Album article on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" to Yoshida's November 1981 album, "Monsters In Town". The album starts off with the immense "TOWN" for which I've already given an article. As I said there, it's the one reason that I parted with my yen gratefully to get the CD. Yoshida wrote and composed all of the tracks here.

Track 2 is "Lovin' You" which is one soulful ballad and love song perhaps to the city below. "Lovin' You" is as sweepingly romantic as "TOWN" is super energetic, and both reflect a lovely life in the metropolis.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/nm26495407

"Mado"（窓...Moment of Twilight） is an even creamier soulful ballad which as the English title says is a tune that is great for those listeners during sunset while contemplating life over a drink.

On the other hand, "Monster Stomp" is a little over 5 minutes of funk and strutting, and as that title may hint, it could be some backing music for Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra literally hitting the town. The only difference here is that each of the monsters would be sporting Sennheisers and listening to Parliament Funkadelic.

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/town/808599335?i=808599502

If you can't reach Nicovideo, you can try listening to the iTunes page with excerpts from "Monsters In Town"....or try the video below.

Los Indios -- Shirisugitanone（知りすぎたのね）

Reading Marcos V's article on that collaboration between NGT48's Rika Nakai（中井りか）and veteran Mood Kayo group Los Indios（ロス・インディオス）the other day had me thinking about them once more. Not that the end of the year means tons of visits to bars and other types of watering holes in Tokyo; I would think that the final week would be spent sprucing up the home and cooking up all that osechi. Instead the days leading up to January 1st just gets me into that traditional music type of mood, and Mood Kayo is one such genre.

It may not have garnered as much acclaim as their "Como Esta Akasaka?"（コモエスタ赤坂）, but Los Indios' "Shirisugitanone" (Know Me Too Well) was released in the same year, 1968, as their arguably most famous song and it has that comforting mix of Mood and Latin that just brings up images of walking through various tony districts of Tokyo at night such as the aforementioned Akasaka.

Written and composed by the veteran songwriter Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）, the lovely melody is paired up with some sorrowful lyrics about a fellow whose now-erstwhile girlfriend has dumped him because she didn't like the "warts-and-all" part of him. Maybe it was news of another affair or he was in deep with a bad crowd....it doesn't matter, he's all by his lonesome once more.

Despite the sad story, it's still a wonderfully natsukashii kayo to hear and someday I may have to try it out at karaoke....that is, if I can meet up with a bunch of like-minded amateur singers. I don't think my old buddies in Japan are really all that much into Japanese music in general....at least, not into Mood Kayo.

Top 10 Albums of 2016

1.  Arashi                                        Are You Happy?
2.  Sandaime J Soul Bros.              The JSB Legacy
3.  Hikaru Utada                             Fantome
4.  Kazumasa Oda                          Ano Hi, Ano Toki
5.  Various Artists                          High & Low Original Best Album
6.  RADWIMPS                             Kimi no Na wa.
7.  Nogizaka 46                              Sorezore no Isu
8.  Masaharu Fukuyama                 Fuku no Oto
9.  Ikimonogakari                           Cho-Ikimonogakari ~ Tennen Kinen Member
                                                       Best Selection
10. Hey!Say!Jump                         DEAR.

Yumi Arai/Elephant Kashimashi -- Kageriyuku Heya（翳りゆく部屋）

Long ago, I'd bought a 2-CD pack titled "Super Best of Yumi Arai" which of course held a good chunk of The Queen of New Music's musical output from the early to mid-1970s.

At that point, although I had already collected quite a few of Yuming's（ユーミン）works (80s and 90s) since she changed her last name to Matsutoya（松任谷由実）, I hadn't really known too much about her early discography when she was still an Arai（荒井由実）. So these two discs were pretty eye-opening. In particular, the final song on CD 2 had as much impact on me as her 12th single "Futou wo Wataru Kaze"（埠頭を渡る風）from 1978.

"Kageriyuku Heya" (The Darkening Room) starts off with this regal pipe organ which I found out was located at St. Mary's Cathedral Church in the Mejiro district of Tokyo (don't bother tracking it down, it was replaced by a new instrument in 2004). That introduction made me wonder whether there was special significance about this particular tune.

As it turns out, "Kageriyuku Heya" was not only Yuming's 7th single from March 1976 (the B-side is the gentler "Velvet Easter") but it was additionally her final single as Yumi Arai. So without looking at the lyrics, I had always wondered whether the song was meant to act as a coda to that first era of New Music or to commemorate the fact that she was about to get married. Well, the answer to that was...no. According to the lyrics' translation that I found at "Misa-chan's J-Pop Blog", the elegiac ballad is a pretty epic aftermath description of a romance which has gone down in flames. I guess if a relationship has to die, let it die hard.

I have to admit that I didn't like the song at first but then again, my ears and mind took their time to get used to and then enjoy Yumi Arai's entire catalogue of music. Now "Kageriyuku Heya" stands out as one of the more interesting songs that I have ever heard from Yuming. It hit No. 10 on Oricon and ended up as the 43rd-ranking single of 1976. Although it was never placed on an original album, it was placed on Yuming's very first BEST compilation, "YUMING BRAND" which was released some 3 months after this single, and then a much later collection of her hits "sweet,bitter sweet〜YUMING BALLAD BEST" in 2001. Of course, there is "Super Best of Yumi Arai" that came out in 1996.

Elephant Kashimashi（エレファントカシマシ）is a rock band that I had heard about for years but only because the lead singer, Hiroji Miyamoto（宮本浩次）, had a penchant for scraggling up his hair constantly whenever he showed up for TV interviews. Medicated shampoo was my usual suggestion for him.

But I have to say that Miyamoto and his band give a rousing rock n' blues version of "Kageriyuku Heya". And the vocalist reminds me quite a bit of Masamune Kusano（草野マサムネ）from Spitz in the quieter parts of his delivery. Elephant Kashimashi's cover of the song was recorded on their 18th album "STARTING OVER" from January 2008 which peaked at No. 7 on Oricon.