HEART TO HEART

ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Released in 1977, HEART TO HEART was Rajie’s debut album and one of the most elegant early examples of Japanese urban pop built from the overlapping worlds of Sadistics, Tin Pan Alley, and the musicians who would soon form Yellow Magic Orchestra. Yukihiro Takahashi and Tsugutoshi Goto co-produced the record, with Ryuichi Sakamoto also participating before YMO had formally begun. “The Tokyo Taste,” performed as a duet with Yoshitaka Minami, immediately places the album inside a sophisticated metropolitan setting, while “Ai wa Tabun,” used in a Nissan Skyline commercial, and the bossa-inflected “Kibun wo Dashite Mou Ichido,” written by Kazuhiko Kato and Kazumi Yasui, show how comfortably the record moves between commercial pop, soft soul, and more refined songwriting. “Hold Me Tight” became another lasting favorite among later city-pop listeners. Rajie’s voice is light and intimate rather than forceful, which gives the arrangements room to carry much of the emotional color. HEART TO HEART is especially important because it captures a network of musicians just before their late-1970s experiments in electronics and fusion would reshape Japanese pop.