Although largely unknown in the West, Yumi Matsutoya- or Yuming as she's nicknamed (& which I will be using for the rest of this review) is a major icon in Japanese music for the past 45+ years as a singer/songwriter & pianist- & is an unsung founding mother of "city pop" (a number of "city pop" artists like Taeko Ohnuki & Tatsuro Yamashita were background singers in her early works) which has gathered an international fan base over the past few years.
As this review is geared towards the non-Japanese speaking audience, I must stress that this is NOT a greatest hits collection. (the 40th Anniversary 3-disc collection is for you if you want that.) Rather this is a collection of 45 songs (including 5 from her early recordings in which she recorded under her maiden name Yumi Arai) over 3 discs. Each song is handpicked by Yuming herself as an introduction to her music- with each disc being based on a concept.
Disc 1 is called "Pure Eyes" & is mostly soft rock & ballads from the 1970s & 1980s. Disc 2 is called "Urban Cowgirl" which should be called "City Pop Cowgirl" instead as most of the songs on it are from the "City Pop" era. The final disc, called "Mystic Journey" is musically the most diverse covering ballads, city pop, hip hop, j-pop & even Latin music. It's hard to create a highlight list as there's lots of great songs here! So the highlight has to be Yuming herself- she has one of the noticeable voices in Japanese music- it's hard not to fall in love with her singing style (& the fact that her voice evolves through the decades). There's a reason she's been called the Carly Simon of her home country.
Despite not being a greatest hits set, this is the best collection to get if you'll new to Yuming's music- esp for Westerners. Be forewarned- you'll be very tempted to chase down her other works as no one collection can fully showcase her music. & she's still making new music to this day! It'll be interesting to see if her record label plans a box set for her 50th anniversary in music.
Besides the 3 CDs, you'll get a Blu-Ray disc (which is playable on most North American Blu Ray players) of highlights from Yuming's concert performances over the past 25 years with her providing commentary about each performance (sadly no English subtitles) & a 100+ page booklet with the lyrics to the songs featured in the collection. Despite the lyrics & liner notes being in Japanese, it's a very colorful booklet & is a very nice addition to this set.
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