A LONG VACATION

The more I listen, the more it feels like a summer holiday that will never end; perhaps it has reached the realm of a permanent vacation. With a palette distinct from the resort masterpiece FOR YOU that Tatsuro Yamashita made later, this classic of seaside bounce and poolside mellow always dyes the surroundings in summer colors. On a windless beach beneath a white parasol, to color monochrome memories with natural hues, the oldies idiom first has to be infused with an eternal glow.

Dreamy melodic lines leading back to Brill Building pop standards are adorned with lyrical piano, dynamic strings and ringing percussion. Deep resonance and harmony keep accumulating, and the Niagara Wall of Sound recipe makes A3, a shimmering one-scene view of the southern islands, float vividly into the air. The freshness of slipping into this wide world sends us flying to the horizon in an instant. B1's languid freshness, dressed in the rhythmic colors of a naive muted guitar, is something else again. This middle-tempo ballad, like the Association meeting Prefab Sprout, teaches us to savor even Wednesday's heartache and its lingering echoes. Its tenderness, soaked in the sadness of rain and tears melting together, is the point where emotions blend.