Aug 22, 2022
Happy Birthday, Yukiko!
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Happy Birthday, Yukiko!
✨💎Light beams in your eyes & city pop in your ears 🎧✨ Team #RinLex Photography: @alextthomas HMUA&styling: #rinrinmakeup #rinrinootd #ootd Necklace, Ring: @kaokaobanban #番地 (thank you @gabcosplay ) Earrings: @theivytokyo #theivytokyo #kozikastyle Dress: Used #kinjiharajuku See previous post for makeup details #rinrindoll #japan #tokyo #harajuku #japanesefashion #tokyofashion #harajukufashion #東京 #コーデ #今日のコーデ #80sidol #昭和アイドル #80年代アイドル #retrostyle #usedfashion #80sfashion #レトロ #80年代ファッション #ユーズドスタイル (Harajuku, Tokyo（原宿）) https://www.instagram.com/p/COaZg3mjggL/?igshid=1wz1xswhq28v3
Tomorrow is Yukko day!
Chrissy - 好き好き大好き
The first thing that came to mind after I gave 好き好き大好き a spin for the first time is that Jun Togawa must be Japan's answer to Cyndi Lauper. Perhaps it could be that She's So Unusual was recently rereleased for its 30th anniversary so Cyndi's early hits have been in my mental cache for months now. However this album was released around the same time and does have some interesting parallels.
The good - "ヘリクツBOY" totally sounds like something Prince would have produced for the Bangles. It's got that super catchy, singalong, 80s pop rock vibe that I find irresistible. And I'm sure it's full of inappropriate double entendres. Notably, Cyndi's debut had a Prince cover.
If "ヘリクツBOY" is Jun's "When You Were Mine" then the title track "好き好き大好き" is undoubtedly her "She Bop". On the surface it's nonsensical pop fluff but a deeper dig reveals the artist in question knows exactly what they're doing. The disconnect from vocal stylings in the verses and bridge is brilliant proving that while Jun is shticking it to the audience she's actually a powerful and talented vocalist.
The bad - "エンジェル ベイビー" seems like something Tommy february6 would parody cover but Jun just murders this. It starts off entertaining and hilarious but by the time the really excruciating vocals take over halfway through you'd wish this song was only a little over 2 minutes like actual songs from the 50s. Kudos to the Engrish lyrics though.
The tragic - "図形の恋" sounds like it was a seiyuu song release from the Creamy Mami soundtrack. Its swinging synth pop is infectious. It's actually pretty catchy and fun but those kiddy vocals are just totes trag. So yeah, naturally I love it.
My highest honor for this album goes to none other than "さよならをおしえて". I'm in love with this track! At first it sounds like a Miho Nakayama track but then the vocals themselves sound like a mock of 70s enka pop. The part that killed me was the even more melodramatic than usual spoken word bits. They literally had me laughing out loud. I totally want to learn the lyrics now and use them at inappropriate times during my first trip to Japan.
It was obvious that Edu was going for the unexpected as usual by nominating this choice as a proper 80s idol album but actually I'm really glad he did. It beckons back to the 80s when weird and unusual were genuine and accepted by youth culture and not in a pretentious, forced manner like in today's post-Gaga world.
Alas, 好き好き大好き had no "Time After Time" or "All Through The Night" or anything bearing semblance to more of a serious pop penmanship and undoubtedly will forever attain her parody status. Which is a bit of a shame because she does seem actually clever and talented. I'm sure the fans she does have are fervorous and ardent. Personally though I really vibed with this selection because I was already on an 80s kick as I was listening to it. Sometimes albums happen to you at just the right time and this was no exception.
Edu vs. SQUALL
Prepare yourselves to be shocked.
SQUALL kind of is everything.
I know I have a reputation for being overly harsh about the albums my comrades-in-tragicness nominate each month, but this album by Japan’s Forever Idol, Seiko Matsuda, is a breezy, tropical delight from start to finish. From the cover that gives us an 18-year-old Seiko, pinker and wetter and more full of warm, quivering anticipation than a—wait, where was I?
It’s hard to avoid Seiko, since she’s been an idol for a really long time (some would say too long), but as an influence on J-pop, she’s nearly omnipresent. Despite being familiar with many covers of her songs, her tragic attempts at breaking the US market, and even her rivalry with Akina Nakamori, I pretty much managed to spend my entire career as a J-pop listener oblivious to any actual songs by la Matsuda. I expected her to be proverbial helium-voiced idol and was surprised to find a vocal quality that, at times, brought to mind Olivia Newton-John’s clear-as-a-bell timbre. In fact, half the album is steeped in mid-20th century rock ‘n’ roll, which makes me ponder whether the popularity of Grease influenced Seiko’s vocals and the overall sound of the album.
The good – “ロックンロール・デイドリーム” is probably my favorite of the rock ‘n’ roll-inspired tracks. It wastes no time layering sax and a gospel chorus atop a bouncy, Little Richard-esque piano riff to create a lost track from Grease. But the truly iconic moment comes with Seiko’s second single, “青い珊瑚礁”, which delivers the idol promise in full: youth, freshness, optimism and eternal love. Yes, it’s sentimental, and made to be loved, but it’s such a delicious pop confection that I can see Seiko storming the world of idol pop solely on the strength of this tune alone.
The bad – I’m not able to connect to “クールギャング”, which has a groove but doesn’t seem to do that much with it. There’s no real buildup in the song. The arrangement is basically the same, no backing vocals come in, no nothing. It’s like hearing the same 1:30-minute song twice. Other than that, I’m not too fond of “九月の夕暮れ,” which starts out awash in swirling strings and anime ending theme-quality electric guitars (somehow presaging Bonnie Tyler’s “I Need a Hero”), only to have the high drama lose tension in the oddly incongruous chorus. Sorry, Patty!
The tragic – Chances are, the first time you listen to this album, “～南太平洋～ サンバの香り” will threaten to stop you dead in your tracks. Whoever’s producing this is wasting no time establishing the tropical theme on this baby! Even if the cloying keyboards and woodwinds immediately take everything right up to the point of parody. It doesn’t help that Seiko’s vocals are probably at their most girlish here, and her vibrato at its most tortured. And yet you feel like young, eager Seiko will make a great guide to whatever tropical paradise she’s leading you to. “トロピカル・ヒーロー”is heavy in the 70s easy-listening vibe mixed with some soft reggae jammin’, but the “Tropical Hero ~sexy~” in the chorus lands this in the tragic pile. I know it’s money to make the girl next door rub herself against any available male, but it sounds so forced here. I have to say, a dub version of this would probably be awesome.
Probably the most pleasant thing about SQUALL is how tight it is conceptually. Despite the two or three musical styles that run through the album – rock ‘n’ roll, soul and “tropical” music of various extractions – the album gels together a cohesive, summer-in-the-southern-islands theme, featuring Seiko, 80s Japan’s freshly minted teenage dream.
Like Patty said, if you like J-pop and haven’t listened to SQUALL, go and do it now! It really shattered my perceptions of 80s idol music and I know for sure I’ll be holding on to this one and revisiting it often.