Tats Alert

Surfing around on the net you'll only find a handful of "hits" with any editorial content for my favorite Japanese pop music star, Tatsuro Yamashita, on U.S. Google, whilst Japanese Google yields many many times that number. This blog entry might be the only non-commercial post in English about him that is readily available on the net.

Yamashita has remained at the top of the pop-rock heap for nearly three decades in his native land. And it seems as if exactly every seven years sees a release of new material. The new one, due 9/14/05 is entitled Sonorite. Here's the track listing fresh from his official Japanese site:

1. Midas Touch *
2. Mystery That Begins With a Kiss
cover of song by popular Japanese group, Ketsumeishi
3. Forever Mine *
4. Wasurenaide (Forget-me-not) *
5. Propeller
6. Bouquet for a Lucky Girl *
7. Secret Lover
8. Phoenix 2005 remix *
9 Lightning Boy
10. White Umbrella
11. Taiyo no Ekubo (Dimple of the Sun) *
12 2,000 Tons of Rain *
13. When You Wish Upon a Star *

* previously issued (perhaps one or two other tiles have also been previously released?)

FYI: Last Saturday (8/27) in the financial newspaper Nikkei (Nippon Keizai Shinbun) there was a fairly extensive interview with Yamashita, the two main points of which were:

a.) His observation that he is now 52-years-old, the same age that two legendary Japanese musicians Misora Hibari and Ishihara Yujiro were when they died. Therefore, he, Yamashita, is going to redouble his efforts to complete his many musical projects that are not yet fulfilled, and on his own terms.

b.) How much the necessity of having to switch from older technologies (digital tape, etc.) to newer (recording to hard drive, etc.) have caused him to rethink and rework the way he operates in the recording studio.

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