Kaze no Tobira
3rd Album
Epic/Sony ESCB-1027
Released 3.1.1990
Track listing
- Kaze no Tobira (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Ai wa Itsumo (words: Masami Tozawa/music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Sweet Sweet Baby (words: Masumi Kawamura/music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Station Wagon (words: Masumi Kawamura/music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Sasayaka na Kiseki (words: Masumi Kawamura/music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Yume no Iwa de (words: Bun Onoe/music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Circle Game (Folkish rock version) (words: Masumi Kawamura/music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Abunai Hashi (words: Masumi Kawamura/music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Hitoribocchi no Chorus (words: Masumi Kawamura/music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Yuki no Yoru ni (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
Shoko's third album is fairly similar to her first two albums, a solid mixture of soft ballads and bouncy uptempo numbers -- though for the first time, Masumi Kawamura did not supply all the lyrics (and, by extension, it's the first time Shoko wrote any of her own lyrics). And after playing the majority of the drums tracks on the previous album, Shoko is reduced to only playing on a couple of tracks (though she does get her first keyboard work on an album). The title track displays Shoko in a jazzy mode, while "Ai wa Itsumo" (the album's first single) is a dreamy rock song that features some of the loudest guitar playing you'll hear on a Shoko Suzuki song (though the backing vocals during the coda -- which were excised from the remix on Harvest two years later -- are a bit distracting). "Yume no Iwa de" (my favorite song on the album) is Shoko by way of ELO, with an instrumental break that seems to be pretty heavily influenced by the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus." Once again the rock numbers sometimes have slightly dated-sounding production; however, unlike the last two albums, this time some of the ballads also have slightly dated-sounding '80s production techniques (like on "Sasayaka na Kiseki" and "Hitoribocchi no Chorus"), but that's more a general observation than a complaint. One complaint I do have about the album, though, is the new mix of "Circle Game" that elimiates Takashi Furuta's drum track -- the single version is a great rock number, and it seems odd to elimnate the pounding drum track while leaving the rest of the instrumentation pretty much intact. Regardless, if you like either of the previous albums, you'll probably like this too.
This album is out of print on its own, but is available in its entirety on the SHO-CO-SONGS collection 1 set.
Favorite songs:
Kaze no Tobira
Ai wa Itsumo
Yume no Iwa de
Hitoribocchi no Chorus
Credits:
Shoko Suzuki: vocals, background vocals, drums, snare drum, cymbals, acoustic piano, Wurlitzer piano
Yoshiyuki Sahashi: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar, flat mandolin, vocoder, banjo, synthesizers, background vocals
Akira Nishihira: synthesizers, acoustic guitar, Fairlight Strings programmer
Mimori Yusa: background vocals
Stephen Addabo: electric guitar
Hiorki Komazawa: steel guitar
Chiharu Mikuzuki: bass
Hitoshi Watanabe: bass
Akihiko Noguchi: drums
Shoichi "Ponta" Murakami: drums
Michiyo Kawano: drums
Jun Aoyama: drums
Motoya Hamaguchi: conga, percussion
Masato Honda: soprano saxophone
Nobuo Yagi: harmonica
Shozo Nakagawa: flute
Takeshi Fujii: synthesizer manipulator
Hitoshi Anbai: synthesizer manipulator
Produced by Nobutaka Noura
Co-Produced by Keiko Shinozaki and Shoko Suzuki
Sound Produced by Akira Nishihira and Yoshiyuki Sahashi
Arranged by Akira Nishihira and Yoshiyuki Sahashi
