ON THE STREET CORNER 2

ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Released in 1986, ON THE STREET CORNER 2 returns Tatsuro Yamashita to one of his deepest musical obsessions: American doo-wop and vocal-group harmony. Like the first volume, the album is built largely from one-man multitrack a cappella, but the second installment deliberately broadens both the repertoire and the arranging language. “Amapola,” “So Much in Love,” “Chapel of Dreams,” and “I Only Have Eyes for You” sit alongside material associated with soul and later vocal-pop traditions, including “You Make Me Feel Brand New.” That wider selection makes the album feel less like a historical exercise and more like a personal map of harmony music across several decades. Yamashita’s technical control is extraordinary, but the record works because the parts never feel like sterile overdubs; breaths, phrasing, and tiny shifts in timing give the imagined vocal group a remarkably human character. ON THE STREET CORNER 2 also clarifies how essential this tradition is to Yamashita’s original music. The dense backing vocals heard throughout his studio catalog are not decorative effects—they come from a lifelong study of how independent voices can create rhythm, harmony, and emotion together.