Cubic U -- Close to You

Over lunch today, Larry, Gary and I got onto the topic of which bands and singers took on particular significance in Japan over the decades, and so artists such as Cheap Trick, The Ventures and The Beatles popped up in the conversation.

Another band that can't be dismissed is the Carpenters. Yep, ol' nostalgic me embraced my inner Carpenters in Japan and I ended up buying a couple of their BEST compilations. But the Japanese welcomed them with open arms and they never let go. My time at karaoke often involved at least one Carpenters tune being sung, and even a couple of J-dramas had Carpenters tunes as their theme songs. One time, there was even a retrospective on Karen and Richard on Japanese TV when one of the young female tarento who was on the panel burst into tears on camera when she found out that Karen had passed all the way back in the early 1980s.

I'm not sure how "Close to You" ranks for fans in Japan although my belief is that there must be some pretty intense discussions among them about what would belong in the Top 5 Carpenters tunes. For me, the Hal David-Burt Bacharach creation is probably the most representative song for the duo.

Over the years, I've heard plenty of covers of Carpenters songs by Japanese singers, and that includes Hikaru Utada（宇多田ヒカル）. When she made her debut with "Automatic" in 1998 in that really stark apartment, she lit quite the fire for J-R&B approaching the end of the century. It was "Automatic" this and "Automatic" that for several months afterwards.

So I was surprised to find out that Utada had had a previous incarnation as Cubic U. Mind you, it was just a year previously in January 1997 when she recorded and released the single "Close to You" in the United States. I remember the morning clearly when I was watching the morning news show on Fuji-TV when the entertainment reporter talked about Cubic U and "Close to You", and showed that music video of her looking rather pale and with hair that looked like it severely needed conditioner.

All joking aside, I finally watched the entire music video tonight and realized that she hadn't been singing "Close to You" alone. Her partner was Stanley "Jamal" Hampton, and their take on the Carpenters' classic was that of a smooth jazz/slow groove. Frankly, no one is going to beat Karen and Richard in my ears when it comes to "Close to You", but Utada was already showing some fine voice in her version...and at the age of 13 or 14!

The single apparently didn't chart but a year later, it was included as a track on Cubic U's debut album "Precious" in January 1998, although according to the Wikipedia article, there were problems with Toshiba EMI at the time that restricted its US release to industry insiders supposedly. However, it did get its release in Japan. It also failed to make any dent initially but with the huge success of Utada's debut album "First Love", "Precious" was given a second release in March 1999 after which it rose to No. 4 (J-Wiki) or No. 2 (Wikipedia) on Oricon with a little over 700,000 copies sold.

Ikimonogakari -- Joyful（じょいふる）

Earlier today, I got together with fellow "Kayo Kyoku Plus" collaborator Larry Chan for lunch with a translator friend, and no, the above food item wasn't the main dish (although I do like Pocky very much...try the choco-banana). Actually, the three of us went for our favourite Japanese food item, ramen, at Santouka downtown. With the temperatures having chilled down somewhat, it was good weather to have the noodles. I ended up having gyoza, shio ramen, zangi don and then just down the street for dessert, I finished up my afternoon repast with carrot cake and coffee. Indeed, I was quite joyful.

I was going to make a smooth segue here from the last word in the first paragraph, but I do have to mention that the three of us also spoke on the Kohaku Utagassen back on Monday. We all agreed that it was one of the better shows, and I remarked that the band Ikimonogakari（いきものがかり）was unusually chipper; actually, I should say that they were super-cheerful in their performance of the song "Joyful" which was their 15th single.

Not being a dedicated fan of Ikimonogakari, my impression was that the band specialized in heartfelt dramatic ballads such as one of my favourites by them, "Yell", that Larry had covered with his own anecdote back on December 30th. My friend happily assured me that the band is very capable of doing very uptempo stuff, and that was certainly the case with "Joyful" which was strangely enough the coupling song for "Yell".

Whereas "Yell" is an introspective ballad on life through past, present and future written and composed by band guitarist Yoshiki Mizuno（水野良樹）, "Joyful" is all about partying it up as if it were 2009, which is when the single was released in September that year, and this is also a Mizuno creation. Heck, even the exhortation for the audience to jump up and boogie all about is written into the lyrics themselves. I guess in that way, "Joyful" is more of a Western approach to enjoying New Year's Eve compared to December 31st in Japan, although I think things are gradually changing. According to the J-Wiki article for the single, Mizuno had apparently whipped up "Joyful" rather excitedly and according to vocalist Kiyoe Yoshioka（吉岡聖恵）, the lad was jumping off the ground when he brought the finished product over.

"Yell/Joyful" managed to hit No. 2 on Oricon and became the 66th-ranked single for 2009. It even hung about to end up as the 149th-ranked single for 2010. "Joyful" was used in a Pocky commercial (hence the photo at the top), and when I read that in J-Wiki, I went naruhodo since I remembered all of those Pocky ads with then-teenage actress Yui Aragaki（新垣結衣）dancing spritely all over the screen, but it was actually the band itself which was bopping about when "Joyful" was used. As well, the song has been used in a number of music games such as "pop'n music" and "GUITARFREAKS".

POLYSICS -- I My Me Mine

As much as I compare Yellow Magic Orchestra with Germany's Kraftwerk, I see the band POLYSICS as being alongside Devo. Weird and quirky and fun and more musically rock than pop, I think that the band members for the former got their orange jumpsuit idea from the latter.

"I My Me Mine" is a track on their 2005 7th album "Now is the Time!" which is a short-but-sweet sonic glass of OJ. Written and composed by band member Hiroyuki Hayashi, yep, the song evokes a lot of those Devo memories again with those instruments that sound like kazoos on steroids, along with a most happy recorder. And the lovely thing is that there are two video versions of the song. The above is known as the All-Star Version, featuring among all of the people there, a 10-year-old robot-dancing powerhouse known as Strong Machine 2（ストロングマシン2号）.

Strong Machine 2, aka Mao Murakami（村上真魚）, had already come up with a dance for the entire song, so the powers-that-be were generous enough to create a video featuring just her titled as the Strong Machine 2 version.

"I My Me Mine" was also used as the theme song for "Takeyama Sensei?"（竹山先生?）, a TV Tokyo variety show starring Cunning Takeyama（カンニング竹山）who I saw as being one of the "angrier" tarento out there. The above has Takeyama actually learning some dancing from Strong Machine 2 and her father, Strong Machine 1, who just happens to be a priest at Myouon-ji Temple（妙音寺）in Gunma Prefecture.

"Now is the Time!" peaked at No. 27 on Oricon.

Now in her early 20s, Strong Machine 2 is still dancing away with her Dad.

Barbara Hall -- Ehagaki（絵はがき）

Looks like the song "Ehagaki" (The Postcard) from February 1973 is a cheerful song of missed opportunities. Written by Kasumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and another melodic creation by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, it details the story of someone coming across an old postcard and then remembering the writer behind it as someone who'd had feelings for the protagonist, only for the protagonist to not realize this until far too late.

What struck me was that it was sung by a singer named Barbara Hall. Very little information (via wishy-washy's "Kayo Kyoku (J-Pop) no Susume" [歌謡曲（J-POP）のススメ...Kayo Kyoku (J-Pop) Recommendations]) about her aside from the following facts: she is apparently from California and had once been a backup singer for Hawaiian legend Don Ho. There's also the fact that she delivers "Ehagaki" in very good Japanese in a pristine crystal voice. The song apparently didn't make any sort of dent on Oricon but it's 70s-ness is very heartwarming to hear. No idea on whether Hall released any other songs in Japan.

Jin Kirigaya -- Taillight（テールライト）

Wow! Jin's a tonic.

OK, lame pun aside, Jin Kirigaya's（桐ヶ谷仁）"Taillight" is quite a nice and calming ballad for January 2nd, officially back to work here in Canada. Mind you, my work year has started off rather calmly already. Still, it's something very pleasant to the ears as I plow through those translations.

And for my ears, it's an intriguing mix of styles since some of that arrangement sounds somewhat Yuming-ish from that same time period; "Taillight" is a track on Kirigaya's 3rd album "Jin" from October 1983. There is that AOR feeling surrounded by some City Pop brass and bass, and the way that he sings is quite reminiscent of fellow urban contemporary singer Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）. However, it is totally Kirigaya's creation, although Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）herself and Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）helped out on some of the other tracks on "Jin".

Iruka -- Juu-kyuu no Haru ni（十九の春に）

Being the 19th year of the 21st century, I thought about looking for a kayo that has something to do with the number 19, and knowing the penchant for Japanese singers and songwriters to look for a tender young age as the topic of their products, I figure that maybe nineteen would be out there in some titles.

Well, it didn't take too long to track one down, and it's one belonging to singer-songwriter Iruka（イルカ）. For her 14th single from March 1980, she released "Juu-kyuu no Haru ni" (Spring at 19), a wistful and adorable song about a young lady falling in love with a fellow and wanting to know what his room looks like (and most likely more). It's pleasantly folksy but with some fairly spacey sounding keyboards in the mix.

Plus, with those strings and flute in there, I kinda figured that "Juu-kyuu no Haru ni" must have been the theme for some TV show, and sure enough, I found out that it was the theme for a program called "Makenai de Mozu"（負けないでモズ...Hang In There, Mozu）. I've got no idea what the show was about but just judging from Iruka's song, it must have been a home comedy-drama of sorts. In any case, it certainly sounds nice and spring-like.

Ritsuko Okazaki -- Morning Grace

First off, let me get this out of the way...

Indeed, I hope that wherever you are, you are celebrating your Happy New Year. For the Japanese, I can assume that most of you will be getting the rest of the week off, but for us here in Canada, it's back to work as of tomorrow. Still for me, I don't think things will get too nutty in the first few days of 2019 (knocking on wood). I did have my special o-zoni for breakfast.

Last night by happenstance, I came across this rather charming anison by the late singer-songwriter Ritsuko Okazaki（岡崎律子）titled "Morning Grace". It was used as the opening theme for the 2002 anime "Princess Tutu"（プリンセスチュチュ）, and the breathy delivery and those strings got me right in the heart. It's almost as if Okazaki was singing an entire balletic performance with the feeling of a romantic waltz. And I think she even sprinkled in a bit of Tchaikovsky (correct me, if I'm wrong).

The above is the Cantonese version of "Morning Grace" with the original opening credits. Getting back into work, this song wouldn't be a bad thing to listen to as I ease in back into the swing of things.

Saying that, I did hear about the nutjob who rammed his car through Takeshita Street in Tokyo last night during the New Year's festivities. So far, it's been several people injured and I hope it doesn't worse than that although I know that at least one victim may be looking at a long convalescence.