Yumi Matsutoya - Cobalt Hour (1975)
Welcome to Eastern Evening!
While I'm still getting used to this, I will update the blog every day, though I doubt I'll have too many visitors. I've had a huge interest in eastern music and other obscure jewels for the longest time. I learn something new with every new artist I come across, and I hope to convey that experience to every reader.
I hope to make posts with heavy musical analysis over a plethora of artists and genres, but I'll start with this classic...
Yumi Matsutoya (also called Yuming), is a forerunner of most modern Japanese music. Matsutoya had the privilege of working with some stellar artists including Tats Yamashita, Taeko Ohnuki, and Minako Yoshida. I was pleased to discover that 70s heavyweights Harry Hosono and Shigeru Suzuki played on most of Yuming's albums when she was Yumi Arai. This is significantly relevant here. And what better way to kick off Yuming's expansive and impressively prolific catalog than with Cobalt Hour.
To kick off this iconic masterpiece...
If this isn't nostalgia bait for any Studio Ghibli fans, then I don't know what is. Rouge No Dengon comes with a doo-wop chorus provided by Yamashita and Ohnuki, so the song resembles something upbeat from the mid-60's with Yuming's mellifluous "Arai-era" vocals as a bonus. The song received plenty of attention and was placed alongside "Don't Talk To Me" (何もきかないで) as a single the same year. Even so, Rouge No Dengon was given a good boost thanks to Hayao Miyazaki's decision to add this song to "Kiki's Delivery Service" in 1989. Fortunately, this won't be the last time long-time-Yuming-fan Miyazaki adds one of her classic tunes to his film soundtrack.
Actually, Logbook (or 航海日誌), comes right after Rouge No Dengon. Even by 1975, Yumi Arai had proven herself a talented songwriter, often included in the credits of many famous artists' releases of that time (such as Hi-Fi Set and Agnes Chan, to name a few). Her style was, for lack of a better word, eclectic. Here, with Logbook, you hear that mix of influences. A pinch of jazz, aidoru-pop, something sultry, and musical child of Mayumi Itsuwa and Joni Mitchell. There was always something uber-sentimental about her songs from her days before she was married to Masataka Matsutoya (her producer and keys player), and became Yumi Matsutoya a year after Cobalt Hour.
If you want J-Pop classics, this is a near-perfect example. From the slow build, to the satisfying blend of lucid 70's keys, Rainy Station (雨のステイション) is great for a relaxing, rainy day. Gazing outside the window at the downpour, I can hear the couple of members of Happy End and (at the time) Tin Pan Alley really giving it their all to make this tune something magical. I couldn't ask for a more genuine mid-70's ballad, with its folk, R&B, and slow-tempo mellowness that just brings the rain pouring down no matter where you are.
These three selections are essential to diagnosing this album as a masterwork of one of Japan's great artists. Cobalt Hour is great in many ways. It combines Yuming's folky roots with her jazzy temperament, and wraps everything up with a best-in-show mastering and mixing that makes for a carefully layered, timelessly sentimental favorite, as with many of Yuming's albums.
Thanks for reading my first post. I hope to give readers something interesting to read and something even better to listen to. Think of this blog as a glorified radio! There will definitely be more coming.
And no, I don't know what is going on with the weird, highlighted text!
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