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Takeuchi Mariya is one of Japan’s well-known music artist/songwriter and the wife of another well-known music artist/writer/producer, Yamashita Tatsuro.
Takeuchi studied abroad at Rock Falls Township High School in Illinois on an exchange study abroad program. After attending high school, Takeuchi studied English at Keio University and was part of the music circle “Real McCoys” and in 1978, she would participate in an album titled “Loft Sessions” released by Victor which would lead to her first music contract with RCA/RVC.
Fastforward to 2019, and the popular singer/songwriter/producer is now back with a 3-disc album titled “Turntable” to celebrate her 40th anniversary.
But how to celebrate a 40th anniversary when she has released wonderful collections in the past especially her 30th anniversary album “EXPRESSIONS” back in 2008, which is no doubt the ultimate Takeuchi Mariya album. But for her 40th anniversary, how not to duplicate the same material but yet feature quality music?
I was quite interested in seeing what Takeuchi and Yamashita Tatsuro had planned with “Turntable” because it’s hard to do anything else when so much of Takeuchi Mariya’s well-known hits are on “EXPRESSIONS”. But with 40-years of music and a lot of interest in Takeuchi Mariya’s music, there is so much music of Mariya’s for people to discover.
The first pressing of “Turntable” features slipcase which comes with the three-disc album and two lyric booklets, a special 28-page booklet featuring the discography history of Takeuchi Mariya with manga illustrations by mangaka, Yamazaki Mari. First pressing came with a Deka Jacket from Amazon Japan.
For “Turntable”, you get three different types of albums. Disc 1 (More Expressions) can be considered an extension to 2008’s “Expressions” as it contains Takeuchi Mariya classics not featured in that best album and features 17 tracks from the past.
So, you are going to see songs such as her 1978 song “Suteki na Hit Song” from her first album “BEGINNING” and her second single “Dream of You ~Lemon Lime no Aoi Kaze~”, “Matte iru wa” is from her 1980 album “LOVE SONGS”,
Her 1979 song “On the University Street” is from her second album “UNIVERSITY STREET”, “Futari no Vacance” is from her 1980 album “Miss M” and this was recorded in Japan, while “SWEETEST MUSIC” is her sixth single from 1980 and featured on her 1980 album “Miss M” and was recorded in Los Angeles.
“SWEETEST MUSIC” was a song made entirely in English and featured music by Peter Allen (known for the theme song from the film “Arthur” and Olivia Newton John’s “I Honestly Love You”), lyrics by David Lasley and rhythm arrangement by David Foster.
From her fifth studio album “PORTRAIT” and her 9th single is her next English song “NATALIE” which was written by Takeuchi, the next track is “Amphitheater no Yoru”, the opening track from her 1984 album “VARIETY” and you have songs such as “OH NO, OH YES”, “Toki no Tabibito” (an English song), “Yume no Tsuzuki” from her 1987 album “REQUEST”.
Also, included are her 16th single “AFTER YEARS” from 1987, her 1994 TBC CM song “Ashita no Watashi” from her second best album “Impressions”, her 22nd single “Shiawase no Sagashikata” from 1993, “Nostalgia” from her ninth album “Bon Appetit!” from 2001, her 32nd single “Synchronicity (Suteki na Guuzen)” from 2006 and on her 2007 album “Denim”, her 42nd single “Shizukana Densetsu” from 2014 and her song “Inochi no Uta” which are both from her 2014 album “TRAD”.
While Disc 2 follows husband, Yamashita Tatsuro’s footsteps of rarities titled “Mariya’s Rarities” which feature songs that were coupling songs, “Miracle Love” from AbemaTV drama “1 Page no Koi”, songs performed on NHK’s “Takeuchi Mariya Music & Life ~40-nen o Meguri Tabi~” and rare sound sources. A total of 20 songs are featured.
We have her 2011 version of her 1978 debut single “Modotte oide watashi no jikan”, Takeuchi’s cover of Hirota Mieko’s 1963 hit song “Kanashiki Heart”, a cover of Sano Osamu and Parakin’s 1961 hit “Kanashiki Ashioto (On the Street ver.), a cover of Kayama Yuzou’s 1967 hit “Kimi no Tameni”, “Hey! Baby”, which was the coupling song for her 18th single “Single Again” from 1989 and “Yakei” is the coupling song for her single “Koi no Arashi” from 1986 and both are featured on her album “Denim”.
Included is Takeuchi Mariya’s cover of Nakamori Akina’s 1987 song and is featured as the coupling song for Takeuchi’s 24th single from 1994, “Junai Rhapsody”. “Miracle Love” is a song which Takeuchi written for Makise Riho (her debut single in 1991) and was used as the coupling song for her 1992 single “Manhattan Kiss”. The song was used this year for the drama “1-Page no Koi”.
“Mafuyu no deito” (Midwinter date) was her coupling song for her 25th single “Konya wa Hearty Party” and was a song that was written by Takeuchi for Morishita Eri back in 1985, “Triangle” is her self-cover from 1994 (used as the coupling song for her 23rd single “Atashi no Watashi”) which she originally wrote for Yakushimaru Hiroko back in 1984).
Also featured is Takeuchi Mariya’s self-cover of the song she wrote for Okada Yukiko, “First Date” which was originally released in 1984 by Okada, as well as the songs “Koi, Hajimemashite”, “Akogare” (from 1984) and the self-cover was performed by Takeuchi on NHK’s “Takeuchi Mariya Music & Life ~40-nen o Meguri Tabi~” earlier this year, a self-cover of “Natsu no Intro” which Takeuchi wrote for Fukunaga Eri (1987), who was the leader and former member of Onyanko Club.
“Apple Papple Princess” was a double-A single with “NATALIE” and is a 2008 version of her ninth single, “Maji de Koisuru Gobyo Mae” was written by Takeuchi and became actress Hirosue Ryoko’s debut single song from 1997 which was a tremendous hit and the self-cover by Takeuchi is featured.
The next self cover “Koe Dake Kikasete” was written for Matsuda Seiko and used for Matsuda’s her 76th single “Tokubetsu na Koibito” from 2011. “Shampoo” is a self-cover of Yamashita Tatsuro’s song featured in his 1986 album “POCKET MUSIC”. These two songs were featured as coupling songs in Takeuchi Mariya’s 43rd single from 2018, her double A-sided single “Chisana negai/Ima wo Ikiyou”.
“You & Night & Whisky ~ Whisky ga, o suki desho” is an English, jazzy version of her 38th single.
And the final track on disc 2 “Where the Boys Are ~ Boy Hunt” is a cover of Connie Francis 1961 hit song and was featured on Takeuchi’s 2003 cover album “Longtime Favorites”.
And Disc 3 is titled “Premium covers” in which Takeuchi covers popular western classics, jazz standards, French pop and more. A total of 25 songs are included.
The disc kicks off with Takeuchi’s “Baby Mine” (English version) featured in the Japanese version of the Disney “Dumbo live-action film.
The next songs are covers of the Beatles 1964 hit songs “No Reply”, “Tell Me Why” and “Devil in His Heart” (originally by the Donays from 1962 but the style is more of the Beatles version), “If I fell”, “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You” and “This Boy”.
Covers of the Beatles 1965 hit songs “Drive My Car”, “Nowhere Man”, “The Night Before” and “You’re going to Lose That Girl”.
Covers of the Beatles 1967 song “Your Mother Should Know”,
Cover of the Beatles 1970 song “One After 909”, a cover of Kaye Ballard’s 1964 song “Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)”, a jazzy version of Kingston Trio’s 1958 hit song “Scotch & Soda”, a cover of Julie London’s 1955 hit song “Cry Me a River” (originally written by Ella Fitzgerald), a cover of Nat King Cole’s 1946 hit “(I Love You) for Sentimental Reasons”, a cover of Joe Cocker’s 1994 song “Out of the Blue”, a cover of Crystal Gale’s 1977 hit song “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue”, a cover of the Eagles 1973 song “Tequila Sunrise”, a cover of Graham Nash and David Crosby’s 1972 hit song “Southbound Train” and a cover of Silver’s 1976 hit song “Musician (It’s not an Easy Life)”.
And it’s not all English songs as Takeuchi does a cover of Francoise Hardy’s 1968 French hit “Comment te Dire Adieu” and Peppino Gagliardi’s 1967 hit song “Che Vuole Questa Musica Stasera”.
And the disc ends with a cover of Ed Townsend’s 1985 hit song “For Your Love” which is a duet between Takeuchi Mariya and husband, Yamashita Tatsuro.
JUDGMENT CALL:
I love this album!
Before I explain why, let me just say that for hardcore or new Takeuchi Mariya fans, for those who want that City Pop” style, you will no doubt want to purchase her 30th anniversary album “EXPRESSIONS” from 2008. That album alone contains a lot of her hit songs and is worth owning and you’ll probably listen to it a lot.
With that being said, this now brings me to “Turntable”. The first disc on this album serves as extension to her 2008 best album “EXPRESSIONS” (as it features singles and coupling songs not featured from EXPRESSIONS”), the album also serves an extension to her 2003 cover album “Longtime Favorites” and also a little of her compilation 2013 album “Mariya’s Songbook” (but featuring her voice, not the artists that she written for).
While the first album is a good compilation of songs featured as singles and coupling songs, the second disc features the self-covers of popular songs Takeuchi has written for other artists and also unreleased English versions of her songs.
Disc 3 was like a special gift for fans as it features Takeuchi singing covers of classic western hits. Her cover of the Beatles songs are very interesting because there are songs especially for the Beatles song in which Takeuchi adjusts her voice and doesn’t stray from how the original songs were performed.
Her performance of these songs are wonderful!
Personally, I’m impressed with this album. Because my question of how can you release an album that can be unique, knowing that “EXPRESSION” is an ultimate best album. But the decisions to include past Takeuchi Mariya songs, self-covers of popular songs she has written for other artists and also covers of popular classics on one release… That’s fantastic!
Would there have been something that I would have to love to have seen with “Turntable”? Actually, while I am quite content with the overall presentation of this album, I think it would have been awesome if bonus tracks on disc 1 and 2 were include of live tracks.
Similar to what we have seen with Sugar Babe and Yamashita Tatsuro anniversary releases. As mentioned, each disc is like an extension of previous albums, but it would have been nice to have live songs that would be an extension of her 2000 live album “Souvenir~Mariya Takeuchi Live”. But maybe that can be included in the 45th anniversary album release!
But “Turntable” is a wonderful 40th anniversary album and a complete package that is like a bookend piece to “EXPRESSIONS”. Featuring a culmination of 40-years of Takeuchi Mariya’s work, I highly recommend this album!
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イメージ付きのレビュー
40周年に相応しいリッチな内容でした。
Expressions (2008年) を経て久々に購入した40周年記念アルバム。CD三枚目から聴きました。中学校時代からのビートルズファンとして、リバプール サウンドが甦った感じです。他の曲も聞き入りました。フランソワーズ アルディのカバー曲も良く、フランス語も自然に聴こえました。各々の曲に対する思い入れがあり、歌に現れています。二枚目は、楽曲提供したセルフカバー曲等色々。まりや節 健在で愉しい時間を過ごせました。一枚目は未発表曲多彩。(「Turntable」に寄せて) 通りの集大成バージョンになっています。ヒット曲のベスト3CDではありません。シンガーとして、人間としての彼女の人生観に触れることが出来ました。「いのちの歌」の歌詞で まりやさんの生きざまを少しでも知れて良かったです。Musicianをカバー曲にしたことで歌手への覚悟が芽生えたんだろうと想像します。余談ですけど、英語の実力も半端でないですね。
