Hiroshi Itsuki -- Koiuta Sakaba（恋歌酒場）

This week, this song popped up twice on NHK's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）and "Gogo Uta"（ごごウタ）, and I was already sold on it when it appeared on the former so here it is on the blog tonight.

Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）is looking dapper as he has been for the last number of decades. Hard to believe that he has just turned 70. "Koiuta Sakaba" (Bar of Love Songs) was released earlier this year in January as a single, and what initially caught my attention about the song is the fact that it is using words by the late lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）who had passed away back in 2007. They are a tad saucy and flirtatious in that the protagonist seems to have gone so gaga for a fellow female drinker in the bar that he would be willing to hide his wedding band.

Another notable point is that Koji Tokuhisa's（徳久広司）melody doesn't follow a Mood Kayo pattern as a song in a bar would often go with. However, although it goes more for the enka, even then it's not quiet that either. I might even say that it has more of a European enka flavour, to use a term that I used to cite early in the blog's history. In fact, I would say that it has a folksy, perhaps woodsy, taste to it maybe with a dash of whimsy thrown in as the bar attendee wonders what possibilities there could be to this potential "two-boats-passing-in-the-night" affair.

Y'know, I could even picture the late folk/pop singer Kozo Murashita（村下孝蔵）tackling this one without anyone showing surprise. It's just a relaxing kayo to be nursed like that desired glass of mizuwari. Good to hear Itsuki and hopefully other singers still posthumously interpreting the creations of Aku.

Natsuki Hanae & Yukari Tamura -- Yokubari Dreamer（欲張り Dreamer）/ Wiseman -- The Wiseman Theme（ワイズマンのテーマ）

There have been a few out-of-left-field anime this Spring 2018 season. I've already spoken about one of them, "Hisone & Masotan"（ひそねとまそたん）with ASDF dragons and a France Gall ending theme.

Another one is "Last Period: Owarinaki Rasen no Monogatari"（ラストピリオド -終わりなき螺旋の物語-...Last Period: The Story of an Endless Spiral）which is based on an RPG and is something of a parody on the RPG itself with one of its characters regularly bashing down the Fourth Wall. It's a fun enough comedy which reminds me a bit of "Mahoujin Guru Guru"（魔法陣グルグル）although from watching the first couple of episodes, it hasn't quite reached that show's zaniness yet. So far, the breakout characters to me are the trio that make up Wiseman (check from about 12:30 in the above video).

Still pretty early on in the series so the full versions of the theme songs aren't up yet (now they are) but both the opening and ending themes are pretty darn catchy, maybe even earworm level. The opening theme is "Yokubari Dreamer" (Greed Dreamer) as performed by Natsuki Hanae & Yukari Tamura（花江夏樹・田村ゆかり）who play the characters of Haru and Choko respectively. There is something about the song that reminds me of a Disney musical (I almost expected Lumiere from "Beauty & The Beast" to welcome viewers most cordially) especially in the beginning until it returned to the usual bouncy comedy anime theme style. The song was written and composed by songwriter-guitarist no_my.

Then, comes the ending theme titled "The Wiseman Theme" by Wiseman（ワイズマン）themselves, the rival team of roving helpers and fixers that disrupt our heroes' attempts to do good each episode. The ladies are just as goofy and clueless as the protagonist Periods but they are also luckier for the most part.

"The Wiseman Theme" has those hints of old-fashioned tokusatsu hero music and perhaps even early 2000s Para Para dance music. Plus the dancing by Wiseman in the ending credits will most likely have videos of real-life people trying to emulate the characters. Sayaka Harada（原田彩楓）, Akari Kitou（鬼頭明里）and Ayumi Mano（真野あゆみ）portray Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru respectively. Shoko Fujibayashi（藤林聖子）provided the lyrics while Kaoru Okubo（大久保薫）took care of the earworm-y music.

Michiru Kojima -- Key of Dreams

Nice and smooth like a good Brown Cow (sorry, can't handle brandy), this is a pleasant Michiru Kojima（児島未散）number to discover. The title track from her 3rd album in December 1989, "Key of Dreams", this is another fine example of City Pop in the late 1980s or perhaps that sophisticated pop that I've often characterized the latter part of that decade by.

However you want to look at it, it's a bright traipse down a glorious Tokyo avenue during the Bubble Era with those champagne synths and oh-so-mellow chorus work leading the way. Drop by that nighttime cafe-bar? Go shopping in Aoyama? The song seems to be stating that the sky's the limit. According to Music Avenue, Yumi Yoshimoto（吉元由美）, the frequent songwriting partner with Anri（杏里）at the time, took care of lyrics with City Pop maestro Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）coming up with the urban contemporary music. Finally to add that sophisticated shine in the arrangements is Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）, no stranger to the genre.

Considering I was living in the mountains of the Japanese Alps at the time, I do wonder what it would have been like to have resided in the urban jungle of Tokyo at the time. I wouldn't have minded music such as this as my personal BGM.

UA -- Horizon

Long time, no see UA! I gather that it's been about 3 years since I put up a song by her, so time to rectify that absence.

Somewhere deep in my collection of DVDs, there is one which contains a lot of her music videos in the 1990s and early 2000s, so I remember catching her very first one for her debut single "Horizon" released in June 1995.

I was a bit surprised that "Horizon" didn't register in the Oricon charts at all after its release although admittedly in comparison, UA wasn't quite as polished here as she would be in later singles. However, her vocals and the melody by Hiroshi Fujiwara (藤原ヒロシ) showed a lot of promise in terms of the indie-ish pop/funk that I'm hearing here (UA provided the lyrics). It would be another few years before I finally bought her first full album "11" after seeing her otherworldly beauty on a number of other discs often on the shelves at Tower Records.

"Horizon" was also a track on her first mini-album "Petit" which came out in October 1995.

Tatsuro Yamashita -- Storm

The first time I heard this Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）tune recently, I was quite blown away. Well, it is titled "Storm" after all.

Of course, "Storm" impressed me with its urban coolness factor, but that's what I've come to often expect from a Yamashita creation from the 1970s and 1980s. But what surprised me was how soft his vocals were for most of this track from his 4th studio album "MOONGLOW" from October 1979. I mean, it was almost as if he wanted to emulate the calm before the storm rather than the storm itself while those ominous winds were blowing in the background.

There are several seconds of quiet before the melody begins to seep in like a light shower, and then it's another several seconds...into the second minute...before Tats starts and keeps on going in sotto voce aside from a few punchy lightning-strike moments. The funk and soul also slide in very gently as the volume gradually builds before a combination of strings and sax and guitar bring on some drama. You don't just listen to "Storm", you savor it. I can only imagine what the song must have sounded like at his concerts.

As for "MOONGLOW", it peaked at No. 20 on Oricon. Strangely enough, I wonder if "Storm" can be considered to be a Japanese example of Quiet Storm music. According to the J-Wiki article on the album, "Storm" was influenced by some of that Chicago soul music by bands such as The Lost Generation.

Mioko Yamaguchi -- Anju/Koi Suru Butterfly（恋するバタフライ）

Back in early March, I proudly crowed that I was covering the second album of Mioko Yamaguchi's（山口美央子）trio of releases, "Nirvana" when she was actively singing in the 1980s. That is still true but in the past few days, I did receive from the LOGIC STORE one more creation from the singer-songwriter.

"ANJU" was Yamaguchi's BEST album from November 1985 with all of her selections from the previous three albums plus two new songs. Now, since the original albums have come out as remastered CDs in one big bang along with this particular release, the feeling was that there probably wasn't any need to release the totality of that 1985 BEST compilation so the new "ANJU" has come out as a "single" of sorts with just the two new songs. I was fortunate to get from Toshi of the LOGIC STORE not only the CD but also a commemorative 45" with those two songs (many thanks, Toshi). Getting a donut-ban like that would make it the first time in over 30 years that I actually received a fresh vinyl record.

The first song is "Koi Suru Butterfly" (Butterfly In Love) and the second is "ANJU". Both are pretty sparkly technopop numbers written and composed by Yamaguchi.

"Koi Suru Butterfly" has a protagonist who is just as fluttery as that titular butterfly because she has butterflies in her stomach about falling in love with a friend. The melody is also as fluttery with a nice touch of techno steel drums. Yamaguchi did note on the cover that she had wanted to create something with a calypso beat.

Meanwhile "ANJU" is just a tad darker although the boppy technopop is still in there to such an extent that both songs could almost be considered to be siblings. Yamaguchi's lyrics for "ANJU" perhaps relate the aftermath of a fight between a couple with one dealing with the inevitable regrets. The percolating melody reminds me of something slightly New Wave and I could imagine an aidoru of that time singing this one on a show like "The Best 10".

The other notable thing about the two songs is that they were also produced and arranged by none other than Joe Hisaishi（久石譲）who would become famous for all of his creations for those Studio Ghibli movies.

By the way, I gotta say that I love the type face for the title! Sophisticated and 80s at the same time.

Yasuhiro Abe -- Kanojo ni Dry na Martini wo（彼女にドライなマティーニを）

Good golly! I barely drink and yet I'm masterfully mesmerized by these videos I've found on the channel Bar-Times. These Japanese bartenders love to put a bit of style into their mixology. I'm not sure if Mr. Mori put in vermouth into his Mori Martini but it looks like it was barely an angstrom.

Anyways, the above was a nice little aperitif for my last song on this rather prolific evening, "Kanojo ni Dry na Martini wo" which could be translated as either "A Dry Martini for Her" or "A Dry Martini for My Girlfriend". However, let's be optimistic and go with the latter.

A track from Yasuhiro Abe's（安部恭弘）7th album "Tune box the summer 1986" from July of that titular year, it's a pretty good drive song along the shore, although for safety reasons, I hope it's just the passenger enjoying the martinis at the bar. Abe took care of music with Chinfa Kan（康珍化）behind the lyrics, and there is that twangy guitar which seems to be a frequent ingredient of an uptempo Abe number. It sounds like a fairly celebratory song as the singer yells out the title and the melody bespeaks of some good times ahead for the couple.

In any case, have another cocktail on me.