CRYSTAL CITY

Strings, brass and a hard-working rhythm section turn the city into a glittering nightscape, while Ohashi moves from the title track's elegance to the raw snap of Funky Little Queenie.

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FULL TRACKLIST

SIDE A

A1Crystal City
A2Kiri ni Dakarete
A3Funky Little Queenie
A4Otoko to Onna no Iru Hodou
A5Rakujitsu Fukei

SIDE B

B1Arabian Night
B2Night Highway
B3Honoo no Heroine
B4Kaze no Silhouette
B5Like a Sea Gull

RELEASE DETAILS

LABEL: Philips
COUNTRY: Japan
FORMAT: LP · 33⅓ RPM
CATALOG NO.: S-7039
PRESSING: Japanese original

ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Released in 1977, CRYSTAL CITY was Junko Ohashi’s fourth album overall and her second with Minoya Central Station, the backing band she preferred to treat as a genuine working unit rather than anonymous session support. The album grew out of a period of heavy live activity following RAINBOW, and that road-tested confidence is audible in the rhythm section. Songwriters and composers including Takashi Matsumoto, Machiko Ryu, Masami Tsuchiya, Michio Yamagami, Ken Sato, Tetsuji Hayashi, and Motoaki Masuo contribute material, yet the band’s presence gives the record continuity. The title track favors elegant orchestral soul, while “Funky Little Queenie” pushes into a much harder groove, and songs such as “Night Highway” place the band inside a distinctly urban night setting. Ohashi’s voice is the obvious center—powerful, blues-rooted, and able to cut through dense brass and strings—but CRYSTAL CITY is equally valuable as a band record. It captures the stage where Japanese soul and funk were becoming increasingly sophisticated without yet adopting the more synthetic boogie sound that would dominate the early 1980s.