Pacific Breeze 1: Japanese City Pop AOR & Boogie 1972-1986 / Various

This is the best amazon buy I've had in years. A really great compilation, with information about the original albums and in detail artist descriptions. You will not be disappointed with this comp!

If this is your first taste of City Pop, a musical genre that has become a cult movement within America, you'll be disappointed. Much of this compilation consists of what could be considered B-sides, a bunch of songs that have the sound fans of this genre expect, but nothing exceedingly interesting. As a fan of the genre, having Haruomi Hosono's Sports Men on this collection was the selling point. But like many other collections, it pulls you in with the one or two hits then throws a bunch of meh to garbage at you. Nothing on this album is bad, but the majority is forgettable. I liked F.O.E's In My Jungle, which was more a synth-wave piece that could have been the BGM of a Schwarzenegger film. Yasuko Agawa's L.A Night was another good one. Obviously the rights to the big hitters like Tatsuro Yamashita would be hard to acquire for a small label -- and the selection has some of city pop's heaviest hitters, but this won't convince anyone who isn't already a fan to get into it. My suggestion is if you're a fan of the genre, you'd probably find some entertainment here. There are good songs and it is a nice way to learn of artists you may never have looked into. But if you're looking at this as someone wanting to get into City Pop, go to Youtube, play Plastic Love, then go down the rabbit hole like pretty much every other Western fan. Enjoy the best the genre has to offer before sifting through the remains.

Gotta say that I was slightly disappointed by this collection. Frankly, I wasn't sure what to expect, not having any familiarity with Japanese music from this period, but the Light in the Attic label normally puts out excellent reissues and compilations, so my hopes were high that I'd discover some lost treasures.Alas, I just wasn't moved by much of this music. Nothing horrible at all, but a lot of mainstream pop music that didn't sound particularly distinctive to my ears. That said, there certainly are a handful of real gems on this CD, the sort of tunes that stick in your head and cause you to smile. So, on that basis alone, this collection is worth a try.

what a delicious and expertly curated collection of some of the most infectious pop tracks you didn't know you needed in your life. L.A. Nights *a song I've long loved* being on this is reason alone to grab it but the art, the liner notes and again the tracks making up the disc are just superb. Drip Dry Eyes, Midnight Driver and Sportsmen by Hosono himself are other stand out but REALLY the whole thing is just brilliant fun, Tokyo meets L.A. in a day glo dreamy soundscape of the smoothest slickest bunch of tracks seriously, just GRAB A COPY

author unknown: Music is what feelings sounds like! This is a compilation of JPOP in the '80s, and now that the world is so much smaller now, you can appreciate the influence of American Pop and Soul. This is probably better suited for those baby boomers that grew up with 70s/80s pop & soul. It's got catchy hooks and melodies that the music overshadows the lyrics (which is all in Japanese). Speak of diversity and assimilation, I'm 3rd generation Japanese Am and don't know what the heck the lyrics mean lol. The music is in the hooks and rhythm, it is a happy feeling cd. You can't help but move like you did 30 years ago.

It’s an interesting album… not sure I will play it again as I’m not really feeling the vibe. 50% of the songs are I would call City Pop. The others are filler and maybe all they could get the rights to? Having lived in Japan for 11 years during this period their was so much to choose from and this album missed the mark. My Japanese wife even said WTF?

This is a delightful compilation of tracks from the Japan of the 1980’s, when Japan represented ( to many western eyes) the Future Now. The tone is one of soft MOR. Vocals coo, bass strings twang and synth washes are de rigour. Guitars occasionally let (tastefully) rip. You may occasionally find yourself tapping a toe along. All credit to the compilers as they’ve done a great job of digging out the gems that make this collection work so well. Altogether now “I’ll be a good sport, be a good sport, I’ll be a sportsman...”

Excellent!

This release ticks all the boxes. Since the tracks are over 30 years old the first box ticked is sound quality - it is very good indeed. This is a sampler disc in effect so you can seek any of 16 albums that each track comes off. The choice of artist for this release is really representative; likewise song variety here is ensured. In all, presentation here including of information in the CD liner notes on all its artists and music is excellent. The music on the CD is quite sophisticated in its own way - certainly the folks at Pacific Breeze who are clearly aficionados I think wouldn't hear of it being described as retro!

This collection is fantastic. Unfortunately, my pressing is very noisy. Very hard to enjoy with headphones, need to crank it through speakers and go in a different room to mitigate the crackling.

Seller:TheProductsHub has done it again. The item I paid for was for vinyl and I received a CD. Now suddenly the this page no longer has the words vinyl nor CD. To return - "The fee is 17% of the price paid and will be deducted from the amount to be refunded". What an utter scam.