ANOTHER SUMMER

ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Released in July 1985, ANOTHER SUMMER represents the coastal-pop concept of Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe at its most commercially concentrated. By their fourth original album, the group’s combination of clear vocals, glossy synthesizers, precise rhythm sections, and Tetsuji Hayashi’s melodic writing had become instantly recognizable. “Futari no Natsu Monogatari — Never Ending Summer” became the group’s biggest hit and sits at the center of the album, but the surrounding tracks deepen rather than merely repeat its atmosphere. “Route 134” evokes the actual coastal highway running through Kanagawa, giving the album’s resort imagery a specifically Japanese geography, while “Dear Breeze” brings a tighter pop-funk edge and “The End of the River” moves toward a more reflective mood. Hayashi composed and arranged much of the record, but the band’s identity is equally dependent on Sugiyama’s clean, slightly restrained delivery, which keeps even the most polished arrangements from becoming overly dramatic. ANOTHER SUMMER captures Omega Tribe at the point where its imagined coastline—cars, beaches, romance, and disappearing summer—had become a complete pop language of its own.