FLAPPER

The finest album of Yoshida's RCA years, when her identity took shape. The sound she had been testing and revising since her debut now dances vividly through this record. Guitar and carefully crafted rhythm, tight vocals, transparent air and piano playing that seems to fill the space: though every song has a different color, listening to the whole brings a sense of unity and the strong confidence of a distinctly Minako Yoshida ensemble.

Her acclaimed song 'Yume de Aetara' is, naturally, wonderful, but there is also this opportunity to discover the album as a whole. With the Tin Pan Alley rhythm section seeming to race down the highway, Tatsuro Yamashita and Taeko Ohnuki's Sugar Babe-like chorus drawn into the light, A1 turns a city night into a pop song. On A3, Hiroshi Sato's flowing electric piano meets Tsunehide Matsuki's grand, sensual guitar. It is easy to hear why these tracks have been cherished. The slightly flippant phrasing at the opening of 'Circus Town' on Yamashita's debut was also recorded here on B5. Its tightening close is another reason to keep returning to this song.