CityPop

After a lengthy wait from preorder Anri’s Heaven Beach has finally rereleased on vinyl. Timely and Bikini were also released and maybe Coool as well from memory. I got this through Tower Records.

I always thought it was strange that an album called Heaven Beach has a cover of Anri chilling with a bag of groceries on it. I wonder what she bought.

A real shame this album isn’t on Spotify because it’s so good.

From the F-1 GRAND PRIX WORLD album which presumable was used for Fuji TV's coverage of the Formula 1. You may recognise this from Macross 82-99 and Sarah Bonito's Horsey.

I once heard this played in a burger joint in Brisbane.

For me, it was Mariya smiling at me from the thumbnail with the title “Plastic Love” back in 2017. I’m probably not alone with this story but I’d love to read your stories of your intro to city pop.

There’s quite a few versions of this song. I prefer both EPOs and Juice=Juice’s but this has grown on me over time.

Another newer song though it’s written to sound older. It’s from the movie Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop which is pretty good.

Reiko Takahashi is so good. I wish she did more.

Timely!! is one of the greatest albums of the genre. Here’s Shyness Boy.

Anyone catch Anri’s gig in America? I am unfortunately in the wrong hemisphere.

The Anri re-issues on vinyl should be out very soon too if they’re not already.

Somehow Stay With Me is one of the most well-known city pop songs yet Miki Matsubara is still so underrated.

The song that started it all for me. A shame the original YouTube video went down. Luckily there’s a proper music video done recently. It feels so out of place on the Variety album compared to the rest, but I guess that’s the point of Variety!

Stumbled upon this album this morning while listening to the latest Herb Sundays mix by Derrick Gee (link for that is here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6kdDcC1yQAEA5ldH76x0ag?si=iDPghqrDTnaEkBdiJYJRSg).

As far as modern city pop goes, I’m really enjoying YUKIKA’s Soul Lady album. I Feel Love and Neón 1989 are the standouts for me but it’s all good!

Might as well start with one of the best! The music video was only released this year to coincide with the reissue of a lot of Yamashita’s collection on vinyl.