Sunshower (Taeko Ohnuki album) explained

Sunshower
Type:Studio
Artist:Taeko Ohnuki
Cover:Sunshower ohnuki cover.jpg
Recorded: –
Language:Japanese
Producer:Taeko Ohnuki (co-producer)
Prev Year:1976
Next Year:1978

Sunshower (stylized in all caps) is the second studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter Taeko Ohnuki, released on July 25, 1977. The album combines elements of J-pop, smooth jazz, rock and city pop. Despite being a commercial failure, with low sales at the time of its release, Sunshower slowly garnered critical acclaim and attention.

Background

Recorded and released in 1977, Sunshower was Ohnuki's second solo album following the breakup of in 1975, and her last original album under the label. According to the producer Seiji Kuniyoshi, it was more crossover-flavored than the first album which was closer to Sugar Babe. In those days, crossover was established and everyone was influenced more or less, so this direction was set naturally in the meeting for album production. It was decided that all songs would be arranged by Ryuichi Sakamoto, and also that the most talked-about musicians at the time would participate. On the other hand, they were thinking about adding a something like "authentic" flavor to it. At such time, in April 1977, a four-day benefit concert entitled the "Rolling Coconut Review" in Tokyo was held, and since Stuff participated in it, Kuniyoshi and others attended it in order to watch that jazz-funk band's stage. "Oh, this is it!" they got excited and had negotiation on the participation of the drummer Chris Parker on the spot. Kuniyoshi said it became a critical factor in determining the result of this album.

They decided to call in Parker from New York for 26 days from May 13 to June 6, and all the arrangements had to be completed before the drummer entered the studio. As a result, it was made in the shortest time among the albums that Ohnuki has made.

"When it comes to Sunshower," Ohnuki said, "the record company was not too keen on it, and also around that time the contracted agency dissolved, then there were none of others around me, leaving only Sakamoto and me. So, "I'll make it as I like!" I felt that way, regardless of whether the sales would well or not." According to her, just then, came so-called fusion or crossover, she was listening to it all the time, and she ended up being interested in the sound production and being sound oriented entirely. "In spite of I was a vocalist after all, I forgot about singing a little," she said, "I wonder if the sound was a little too noticeable, but I think it was a good album in those days. Also Sakamoto really put a lot of effort into it and made good arrangements".

In 2015, a 7" vinyl single coupled with "Tokai" and "Kusuri wo Takusan" was released as a limited edition.

Songs

Time (Is) of Sputnikmusic pointed out that the album benefits from two things: "it has the infectious catchiness of your regular old pop song in unison with soothing harmonies and a smoking hot band laying down grooves bound to worm its way into your head, and it has the capability to experiment with the pop art form and could afford to take risks with deep cuts such as the delicate ambiance of 'Sargasso Sea' and the classical-meets-funk fusion 'Furiko no Yagi' to back it up."

Side A

Side B

Artwork

Regarding the cover artwork based on white, Japanese studies scholar Laurence Green of SOAS University of London described that there's something about the cover art that presents a quiet, comfortable confidence, resting pretty in a chic, distinctly Japanese minimalism of white, and its unadorned style has utterly modernist in outlook, and yet somehow also avant-garde, primitive in its simplicity.

Reception

Compared to her first album which drew a certain amount of attention, sales were lackluster. However, after that the album recognized as a masterpiece at the dawn of city pop and reissued repeatedly in the country.

As pop music adjusted to streaming delivery and city pop became popular among artists of the sample-based microgenres known as vaporwave and future funk, the album attracted the interest worldwide. The people playing on the album—including a pre-Yellow Magic Orchestra Ryuichi Sakamoto and Haruomi Hosono both, and Tatsuro Yamashita as well as Yasuaki Shimizu—also contributed to its status.

Gölz described in laut.de that in this album, Ohnuki distilled the "Shape of J-Pop to Come"—city pop—out of the zeitgeist. "The mixture of jazz, funk and pop gave birth to the album, it seems timeless in its pure beauty, yet so clearly shaped by the aesthetic conceptions of the time, which was able to only come about in exactly this line-up." Writing for Red Bull Music Academy Daily, Patrick St. Michel said that the album "proved to be a landmark in Japan's 'New Music' years, with limber jazz-fusion songs and easygoing grooves featuring lyrics about the over-prescription of medication." Laurence Green of SOAS University of London called it the best Japanese city pop album, saying, "In the midst of the floaty electric piano chords and noodling organ lines, it lays out a playground of musicianship in which Ohnuki can deliver some of the most irresistibly catchy top lines in the City Pop sub-genre." Time (Is) in Sputnikmusic wrote, "I won't go as far to say it's the 'definitive' City Pop album, but for a genre with very little to offer outside watered-down jazz funk clichés and folk pastiches, it's the closest you'll ever get to 'definitive'," and added, "To languor in decades of obscurity [...] without so much as seeing widespread reappraisal is unbecoming of an album like Sunshower, and only goes to show how ahead of its time it is [...] ."

2007 remastered CD

In 2007, the album CD was remastered and reissued in a limited edition as one of "Taeko Ohnuki CROWN YEARS Paper Sleeve Collection". It was supervised by Ohnuki and included mini-LP replica paper sleeve, three bonus tracks, and liner notes newly written by herself.[1]

Bonus tracks

Release history

- ! scope="col"Region ! scope="col"Date ! scope="col"Format ! scope="col"Label ! scope="col" ! scope="col" style="width:30%"Note ! scope="col"- Japan GW-4029 - DCT-2196 - 2LP PANAM GWX-159/160 / SUNSHOWER, two-in-one reissue. - LP PANAM GW-4107 - PANAM CRCP-28009 - 2CD PANAM CRCP-28047 Grey Skies / SUNSHOWER, two-in-one reissue. - CD PANAM CRCP-30012 - CD PANAM CRCP-141 - 2CD PANAM CRCP-188/9 Grey Skies / SUNSHOWER, two-in-one reissue. - CD PANAM CRCP-20409 - CD PANAM CRCP-20462 - LP PANAM CRJ-1011 HMV record shop limited edition. - Cassette PANAM CRT-1080 HMV record shop edition.
August 8, 2020LP[2] CROWNCRJ-1016/1017Numbered gatefold 2LP reissue.

Track listing

2007 remastered CD

Personnel

Credits adapted per album's liner notes.

Musicians

Production

2007 remastered CD

Musicians (bonus tracks)

Production

Cover versions

Song Artist(s) Appearance Release date Format - "Tokai" COUCH CD CXCA-1225 - Summerin CD RZCD-45913 - 2CD RZCM-59438/9 - unjour CD shiningwill-n-1

Notes

References

Bibliography

  1. Web site: . SUNSHOWER . September 7, 2019.
  1. Web site: . Grey Skies/Sunshower . September 7, 2019.
  1. Web site: . SUNSHOWER . September 7, 2019.
  1. Web site: . SUNSHOWER . September 7, 2019.
  1. Web site: . SUNSHOWER . September 7, 2019.
  1. Web site: . Sanshawā [saihatsu]]. ja:サンシャワー [再発]. SUNSHOWER [reissue]. September 7, 2019.
  1. Web site: . Gurei Sukaizu～Sanshawā [2CD] [saihatsu]]. ja:グレイ・スカイズ～サンシャワー [2CD] [再発]. Grey Skies – SUNSHOWER [2CD] [reissue]. September 7, 2019.
  1. Web site: . SUNSHOWER [kami jaketto shiyō] [gentei]]. ja:SUNSHOWER [紙ジャケット仕様] [限定]. SUNSHOWER [paper sleeve] [limited]. September 7, 2019.
  1. Web site: . SUNSHOWER [Blu-spec CD]]. SUNSHOWER [Blu-spec CD]. September 7, 2019.
  1. Web site: . "Oto no Būke" Ōnuki Taeko Kavāshū. ja:「音のブーケ」大貫妙子カヴァー集. Oto no Bouquet —Taeko Onuki Cover Collection—. September 7, 2019.
  1. Web site: . Summerin'. September 7, 2019.
  1. Web site: . Ōnuki Taeko Toribyūto Arubamu～Tribute to Taeko Onuki～ [Dejipakku Shiyō] [2CD]]. ja:大貫妙子トリビュート・アルバム～Tribute to Taeko Onuki～ [デジパック仕様] [2CD]. Ohnuki Taeko Tribute Album —Tribute To Taeko Ohnuki— [digipack] [2CD]. September 7, 2019.
  1. Web site: . unjour. September 7, 2019.

Notes and References

  1. .
  2. Web site: Ohnuki. Taeko. August 8, 2020. ｢SUNSHOWER｣ HQ SOUND EDITION. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20200829185423/https://www.hmv.co.jp/en/artist_Taeko-Onuki_000000000016829/item_%EF%BD%A2SUNSHOWER%EF%BD%A3-HQ-SOUND-EDITION_10978053. 29 August 2020. 29 August 2020. HMV Japan.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sunshower (Taeko Ohnuki album)".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.