Akira Inaba -- Sunday Morning（サンデー・モーニング）

It was a dark and Sunday morning. Well, not exactly dark...the snow on the ground reflected plenty of light back despite the overcast situation. But to see a very wintry snowscape on April 15th almost a month into official spring has probably led a lot of my fellow Torontonians into some dark moods as they mutter internally and externally "When are we finally going to get warm?!" Supposedly, relief is on the way later next week.

(9:45)

That cover of singer-songwriter Akira Inaba's（因幡晃）2nd single, "Wakare"（別涙...Farewell Tears）from June 1976 accurately illustrates what my hair looked like as I went outside to pick up the newspaper this morning. However, it is the B-side that I am writing about here, "Sunday Morning". Cool, not cold, number about a week in the melancholy life of a fellow in the big city beginning with the titular day of the week.

I especially love the collage of bluesy guitar, dramatic strings and that shuffle arrangement. Probably was quite good to hear in a nightclub setting and it could make for a nice theme song for a hard-boiled detective in Japan. The melody does repeat over and over but that's the point of the musical exercise...just to reflect the gray mundaneness of metropolitan living. I can hear the Mickey Spillane voice-over now.

Not sure how well "Wakare" did on the charts but both it and "Sunday Morning" were included on Inaba's debut album "Nanka Ii Wasureta Yo De"（何か言い忘れたようで....I've Forgotten What To Say）. One of his most famous songs is also included, "Natsu ni Arigato"（夏にありがとう）.

Junretsu -- Propose（プロポーズ）

One of the other NHK kayo kyoku-based shows that I've seen is the Friday afternoon "Gogo Uta"（ごごウタ）hosted by tarento/actor Kazuki Kosakai（小堺一機）, and on the episode that I caught a couple of days ago, the Mood Kayo chorus group Junretsu（純烈）made an appearance.

Noelle was the first to talk about this group which seems to be a blend of Arashi（嵐）+ Mood Kayo so you can take a look at her article on "Konya wa Romantic"（今夜はドラマチック）for the details on the guys. However, I wanted to talk here about the song that I heard on Friday, "Propose" which is their latest single from Valentine's Day this year. In fact, for some reason, the powers-that-be have released Type A and Type B recordings for the single.

What I like about "Propose" is how the melody by Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）has that old-fashioned Mood Kayo feeling combined with a big and brassy horn arrangement which almost takes things into the funky side of urban contemporary. And as Noelle hinted in her article, Junretsu isn't satisfied to merely stand around the microphones and stoically sing like the old Mood Kayo groups; leader Kazuyoshi Sakai（酒井一圭）and company like to use their choreography as well.

Smart idea to release "Propose" on Valentine's Day, too. Miyuki also wrote the lyrics which talk about the encounter of a lonely man and a woman who's afraid of love to bring about a romantic relationship together. You can pretty much squeeze a bucketful of valentines out of this song.

Speaking about songwriter Miyuki, he's had an interesting career. In the early 1970s, he was a percussionist for the rock band Tranzam（トランザム）before getting into songwriting for aidoru beginning in the later part of the decade. It looks like for the past number of years, though, he has been focusing on creating songs for enka/Mood Kayo singers.

Lindberg -- GAMBAranakucha ne（GAMBAらなくちゃね）

I'm kinda surprised that this single by Lindberg has yet to be arranged as some sort of enlivening theme song for an anime such as was the case for "LITTLE WING", which became the ending theme for the not-so-well animated "Brave Witches".

The title says it all. "GAMBAranakucha ne" (Gotta Do Our Best), Lindberg's 19th single from March 1994 has got those inspirational lyrics by vocalist Maki Watase（渡瀬マキ）and rocking beat by drummer Makinori "Cherry" Koyanagi（小柳"cherry"昌法）to spearhead any motley crew to give it their all in some kind of adventure.

The melody does sound familiar to me but didn't quite stay in the mind like some of their other hits such as "Ima Sugu Kiss Me"（今すぐkiss me）or "Believe In Love". Still, this was another No. 1 hit for Lindberg and became the 88th-ranked single for 1994. The song was also present on the band's "LINDBERG VII" which came out in June of that year. It peaked at No. 3.

Yumi Arai -- Juu-ni-gatsu no Ame（12月の雨）

Try to imagine: three of the most distinct pop singers in Showa Era Japanese music together on a song.

Mind you, this was way early in their careers but back in the early 70s, Yumi Arai（荒井由実）, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）and Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）were all there in the recording booth to sing "Juu-ni-gatsu no Ame" (December Rain). Yuming's 4th single from October 1974, I remember having this included on a mix tape by an old friend and it was this rather jaunty number although despite the title, I never thought that this was an Xmas song. I think the rain had something to do with it...Tokyo during my time there rarely got any snow in December, and perhaps rain wasn't all that plentiful either at that time.

Getting back to the fact that Yuming, Tats and Tabo were all together, the latter two were still involved with their band Sugar Babe（シュガー・ベイブ）so they were providing the backing chorus behind Ms. Arai as she sang about a woman one cold December morning still having some faint feelings for her former beau but accepting the fact he will always be her friend. It does sound like a quintessential Yuming tune.

No idea how it did on the Oricon singles chart, but it did get onto her 2nd album "MISSLIM" which came out on the same day as "Juu-ni-gatsu no Ame", and that was a Top 10 release by peaking at No. 8. I figure I ought to do an article on the album as a whole.

Ayako Ikeda -- Yume no Tochuu de（夢の途中で）

Well, it's wet and gloomy out there but the worst is yet to come. Ice Storm II is slated for either tonight or tomorrow.

Anyways, to let you in on my viewing habits to a small extent. Usually after dinner, it's the news at 6 for most of the hour after which I switch over to TV Japan at 6:55 before the NHK morning news comes on. For the past few years, the 6:50-7:00 pm slot has been filled with episodes of the kids' program "Nyanchu World Hosokyoku"（ニャンちゅうワールド放送局...Nyanchu's World Broadcast Station） and then "PythagoraSwitch"（ピタゴラスイッチ）for the last several months. Since a couple of weeks ago, we've now been getting a couple of songs via NHK's long-running "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた...Everyone's Songs）series. To be frank, I'm always a bit "worried" about watching "Minna no Uta" since there have always been at least a few songs that tug at the heartstrings, and I'm not exactly one who likes to show too much in the way of emotions.

(cover by Cassandra)

Last night, one of those songs popped up. It's titled "Yume no Tochuu de" (In The Middle of a Dream) by singer-songwriter Ayako Ikeda（池田綾子）, and it was played originally between August and September 2017 before getting another run between last December into this January.

Gah...the feels! I'm playing it again right now as I write this and my throat is already starting to lump up. The video of that penguin going through life in a human city and dreaming of home doesn't help. As I was watching it for the first time, I thought that the penguin was heading for that iceberg in the sky, but he was just dreaming. If it had been that first assumption, I probably would have been rather devastated. But man, does this song work! The arrangement, the video, Ikeda's vocals, everything.

Ikeda was born in Tokyo and attended the Musashino Academia Musicae where she specialized in German lied. As a recording artist, she made her debut in 2002 with "Yasashii Uta"（ヤサシイウタ...A Gentle Song）and has thus far released 10 singles and 6 albums according to her website.

Katsumi Horii Project -- Through The Sky

Looks like this will be my second sophomore article for another City Pop musician tonight. The inaugural article was just a little over a year ago for the Katsumi Horii Project's（堀井勝美PROJECT）"Skyscraper" from 1993, a musical tribute to the hustle and bustle of downtown in the city.

A few nights ago, I found an earlier number created by Horii from his June 1988 3rd album "Ocean Drive" called "Through The Sky" that's also quite a treat to hear. It starts out dreamily enough but then jumps like an enthusiastic diver flying from a cliff into the sea into a guitar riff and smacking drumbeats reminiscent of Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）which ought to garner some appreciation from his fans.

But then comes this elegant piano-and-harmonica combo which takes things from the ocean and back to the outdoor hotel lounge for some refreshing drinks. However, the electric guitar isn't cowed by this and is more than happy to come back along with the piano and harmonica. As you can imagine, compared to the later "Skyscraper", this is more of a Resort Pop tune. I've always had a soft spot for a well-placed harmonica ever since I first heard the late Toots Thielemans.

So Nice -- Love Sick

Happy Friday! Back in late 2013, Toronto was pounded with a huge ice storm which took out power to several areas in the city including my neighbourhood for a couple of days before Xmas. Well, it looks like its little brother will be wreaking havoc for this weekend, so there is a good chance that the electricity will be going down once again. If so, I may not be doing too much blogging for the next couple of days. Just wanted to warn you.

Yes, this is happening in mid-April. Anyways, simply to take things away from that meteorologically unpleasant topic, let's go for something more summery, shall we? For example, how about some So Nice with "Love Sick". I mentioned about this band back in 2015 as a unit that sounded so much like the New Music group Sugar Babe with Tatsuro Yamashita and Taeko Ohnuki（山下達郎・大貫妙子）that I almost pegged them as Sugar Babe themselves.

This is another track from their debut album in 1979, "Love", called "Love Sick", this time vocalized by Misako Matsushima（松島美砂子）rather than Katsuyuki Kamakura（鎌倉克行）. To be honest, aside from the different vocalist, "Love Sick" doesn't sound all that much different from "Kousoku Douro"（光速道路）which I featured for the first article but listening to each of them apart from each other, it's nice to hear some of those mellow sounds of 70s City Pop. Not sure how rare "Love" is but if other tracks show some more variety, I could be tempted to part with my yen.