Candy Apple Red
9th Album
Epic/Sony ESCB-1789
Released 3.1.1997
Track listing
- Candy Apple Red (words: Shoko Suzuki/music: Shoko Suzuki & Hiroaki Sugawara)
- Kurushii Koi (words: Shoko Suzuki/music: Shoko Suzuki & Hiroaki Sugawara)
- Sulky Cat Strut (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Koi no Shotgun (Korinai Futari) (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Gogo no Sakamichi de (words: Keiichi Sokabe/music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Ecology Bag (words: Shoko Suzuki/music: Hiroaki Sugawara)
- Sangatsu no Sei (words: Shoko Suzuki & Natsumi Tadano/music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Kimi no Akai Shirt ga (words: Shoko Suzuki/music: Shoko Suzuki & Hiroaki Sugawara)
- Shelter (words: Shoko Suzuki & Natsumi Tadano/music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Subete wa O.K. (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Angel (words: Megumi Ogura/music: Shoko Suzuki & Hiroaki Sugawara)
- River's End (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Bokutachi no Tabi (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Candy Apple Red (Reprise) (words: Shoko Suzuki/music: Shoko Suzuki & Hiroaki Sugawara)
Shoko's final album under her contract with Epic/Sony, and another album featuring the Shoko/Hiroaki Sugawara/Takeshi Namura band on all the tracks (again, augmented by outside musicians, including members of Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra). In the liner notes to Live,/Music & Love Shoko writes that, around this time, she was listening to albums like Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On and Bob Marley's Live!; none of the songs I've heard seem to bear any notable influence from either album, but there is a definite R&B influence in the beefy horn section of "Angel," the album's single. The other songs are more-or-less in the Snapshots style of upbeat pop/rock that I really like. Picking a favorite track on here is hard; "Kurushii Koi" is a catchy light-funk pop song lifted by wonderful backing vocals, "Koi no Shotgun" is a great rock song with a great slide guitar part, "Kimi no Akai Shirt ga" is retro pop that sounds like Shoko's work with Puffy, and "Shelter" is an amazingly powerful rock song. Elsewhere, there's a definite '60s-throwback style to songs like "Kimi no Akai Shirt ga" and "Subete wa O.K."
This album is out of print on its own, but is available in its entirety on the SHO-CO-SONGS collection 3 set.
Favorite songs:
Kurushii Koi
Koi no Shotgun (Korinai Futari)
Sangatsu no Sei
Kimi no Akai Shirt ga
Shelter
Angel
River's End
Credits:
Shoko Suzuki: vocals, background vocals, drums, piano, tambourine, glockenspiel, vibraphone, timpani, shaker
Hiroaki Sugawara: electric guitar, acoutstic guitar, 12-string guitar, piano, Wurlitzer, synthesizers, organ, mini-Moog, pianet, clavinet, EMS VCS 3, background vocals, tambourine, audio chemist, horns, strings & drum programming
Takeshi Namura: bass, background vocals, audio chemist
KYON: mandolin, Wurlitzer, accordion
Miwa Satomura: bongos, castanets
Tomoyuki Asakawa: harp
Jake H. Conception: flute
Nargo: trumpet
Masahiko Kitahara: trombone
Tatsuyuki Hiyamuta: alto saxophone
Gamou: tenor saxophone
Atsushi Yanaka: baritone saxophone
Hiroo Muto: violin
Yoshiko Goshima: vocals, background vocals, angel voice
Megumi Shinjou: vocals, background vocals
Yoshiko Takahashi: vocals, background vocals
Yasumi Maeda:background vocals
Reiko Sakai:background vocals
Produced by Hiroaki Sugawara, Shoko Suzuki and Takeshi Namura
Horn and strings arrangment by Hiroaki Sugawara
