ONUKI TAEKO – Romantique
(1) After a week or two of Silver Age J-Pop, we get Real City Pop in Ye Olde Wein ([c] Dark Throne, 1993). Big instrumental production, proper BV’s and a filly-employed horn section. It’s all quite beautiful. MV 2/5 HNT 12/13 K 9/10. In, out and home in time for tea. (2) Slower, but nicely-formed piano, vox and some odd synth sounds. And an accordion(!) MV 1/5 HNT 11/12 K 9/10; and it kicks up nicely in the chorus too. There is no doubt: song structures in silver age material are NOT as complicated or long as golden-age ones. Not a crit, just a comment. (3) Now, this starts as the Proper Slow One. But…will it do something more interesting? YES!! Big drum fills, and of all things, it sounds like some bits on TfTO.. MV 0/5 K 9/10 HNT 11/13. (4) HMM – Starts with some real cocktail jazz, and backtracks into slow. Then kicks up into odd samba. Oooh, what a honey. MV 1/5 HNT 11/13 K 9/110. (5) OH MY, this is about 10 years ahead of its time. Sci-fi pasing on the vocals which are washed-out and flat; proper Roland synths…..MV 5/5 HNT 13/13 K 7/10. The song that makes the album worth it. OMD/HL/Best of Synthpop stuff here and a Rick Wakeman solo. And WHAT a Verse-Chorus. THIS IS WHY WE COME HERE, GUESS I JUST NEEDED A BANG. (6) And now we’re into Evening time immediately – the Bright synths are there but so are the acoustic instruments. And a great chorus; the most obvious Steely Dan progeny I can find here right away. – that end-of-verse cadence……(7) DRAMATIC!! Piano!!! Then it all goes polka and Samba all at once. I get it – Latin drama. Wonderfultastic. HNT 11/13 MV 3/5 K 9/10. See, when you have people like, this, you can do anything. (8) The midpaced piano one. With atmospheric synths and a big swell in the middle. Just about the perfect cusp-of Golden Age album…….(9) And a Proper new wave one to end it; you know the naive and folksy cadences you get in NW sometimes…those.