Vibe with me for just a bit longer. As you can surmise, lately, I’ve been touching on a more universal kind of music. It’s this shift that’s letting me to revisit and share some of what I think has flown under the radar. And in today’s case, it’s Yoshimi Iwasaki’s daring and quite forward-thinking reemergence as a pop singer with her 1989 release, 月夜にGOOD LUCK.
Far from being a little-known name, Yoshimi (together with her sister Hiromi) was a wildly successful kayōkyoku star who conquered Japanese solid state radios with chart-topping easy listening hits. However, her path to stardom wouldn’t come as easy as Hiromi’s.
Yoshimi had to bid her time before she could follow in the footsteps of her older sister. From a young age in Tokyo, Yoshimi’s father prohibited her from becoming a singer (afraid that she would take attention away from Hiromi’s popularity). And for a moment there, due to Yoshimi’s shyness, she couldn’t muster the courage to follow her dreams.
Thankfully, Hiromi took the initiative to put her foot down and force their father to let Yoshimi follow through on her pursuit. By the late ‘70s, this admittedly shy kid who began her ascend to fame by doing bit roles in TV dramas, debuted as a singer in the ‘80s to huge success on records like Ring-a-Ding and 心のアトリエ which were part of the “Golden Age of Idols”.
Yet, despite all of Yoshimi’s success, she always felt like her career and (most importantly) music had played second fiddle to the attention and support her sister had always received in abundance. By the mid ‘80s, Yoshimi’s music career and initiative, seemingly, ran into a period of malaise. Being just middle-of-the-road might have been fine for some but for someone who was trying to stay ahead of all sorts of younger, emerging pop stars, that was no place to be. In the throes of label problems, Yoshimi took a sabbatical in 1987, looking to reboot her career.
It wouldn’t be until two years later, in 1989, that Yomishi Iwasaki would jump from record labels to CBS Sony and pursue a different sound and tone in her music. Proving that sometimes it’s not how you work but who you work with, this time around Yoshimi fell under the guidance of one Bobby Watson (of Chepop and Nothing At All To Lose fame) and the mysterious songwriter, Takami Hasegawa, who coaxed her to take explore a more sophisticated, mature direction.
The sound of Yoshimi coming into her own as a woman and as a vocalist is what dominates 月夜にGOOD LUCK. Elements of soul music, little-heard of in her career, allowed Yoshimi’s voice to imbibe the admittedly leaner, more ruminative music with a lived-in pathos that (I don’t think) anyone else could have inhabited.
You hear it in the fascinating collaboration between Bobby, Takami, and Yoshimi on the opening track. It’s “夏の扉” (Summer Door) that strikes a perfect midway point between downtempo and era-defining special sauce of New Jack Swing balladry, that defined Keith Sweat. Hearing Yoshimi get away from the infantilization of her earlier music allowed her to strike a more inviting sound, something proved in the surprisingly urbane and atmospheric, “Made In The Moon Light”.
Even the lighter numbers, like the title track and “With You”, have a certain edge to it that’s quite refreshing to hear. Who knew that Yoshimi could tackle dub pop? Kudos to Bobby for getting buy-in from Yoshimi to explore such territory.
Far from being a perfect album, what makes 月夜にGood Luck so impressive are capstone numbers like “Blue Line”. Moody, quasi-ambient, quasi-pop, all Walearic, it’s unlike anything else in her catalog and a definite highlight. It’s in such music where we can dream just what could have come of Yoshimi if she had worked with more like-minded people who would probe her to explore deeper, multi-layered ideas, more suited for her.
And deeper does not always have to equal moody. You hear brilliant ideas pop up in songs like “言い訳 -A GOOD EXCUSE-” or the CM-soundtracking “硝子のカーニバル”. However, it’s those floating ballads that sure seem tailor-made for Yoshimi’s voice.
One written by sometime Michael Jackson sideman, “静かの海”, has a wonderful chorus that is as slippery as it is meditative – perfect for late, late summer resonances. Then you have Takami Hasegawa’s final contribution, “Night Wind”, a slice of heady, neo-City Pop already putting the top down, surging forward towards even later, night rides around different kinds of Tokyo scenes.
Looking back at history, it appears that for all the hard work and heart Yoshimi put into 月夜にGood Luck, Japanese audiences didn’t reward her with a resurgence in popularity and leave this as the coda to her musical career – unfortunately, it seems that this record overtook its audience. Luckily for some of us, sometimes the most stunning gems are the ones we find hidden right in front of us.
One response
I ‘m not the kind of guy who comments on anything but I ve been following this blog almost since its beginning and just want to say thank you for all the music and info otherwise I wouldn’t have known. Thank you man!