Long Long Way Home
4th Album
Epic/Sony ESCB-1106
Released 11.21.1990
Track listing
- Hikari no Eki (words: Yasuo Sugibayashi/music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Melody (words: Yasuo Sugibayashi/music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Little Love (words: Saeko Nishio/music: Shoko Suzuki & Yoshiyuki Sahashi)
- Mizu no Naka no Tsuki (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Down by the River (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Natsu no Maboroshi (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Ano Sora ni Kaerou (words: Masami Tozawa/music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Aoi Sora no Onpu (words: Taeko Onuki/music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Kamome (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Dokonimo Kaeranai (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
(Contains interpolation of "Sukiyaki" written by Rokusuke Ei & Hachidai Nakamura)
This album is probably the most mellow record in Shoko's catalog: though the record is once again roughly split between slow ballads and more uptempo songs, several of the uptempo numbers have a very light touch to them. But it's another important record, as it's the first one where Shoko wrote a near-majority of the lyrics. However, continuing the trend from Kaze no Tobira, Shoko's own instrumental contributions are rather limited (and oddly, a virtual army of backing vocalists is used instead of Shoko handling most of them). Overall the sound is very slick and verging on over-produced on several songs (like "Down by the River"), though thankfully the ballads on the second half of the album are free from such production touches (like "Natsu no Maboroshi," "Aoi Sora no Onpu" and "Kamome"). My favorite song on the record is either "Hikari no Eki" (probably the most pop/rock song on the record) or "Dokonimo Kaeranai," which is a bouncy singalong number that iterpolates the whilsting melody from Kyu Sakamoto's "Sukiyaki" at one point. Personally, I think the record is a bit of a step down from the previous three (the second half of the record tends to drag a little with all the ballads one after another), but it's by no means bad.
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:
Hikari no Eki
Mizu no Naka no Tsuki
Natsu no Maboroshi
Dokonimo Kaeranai
Credits:
Shoko Suzuki: vocals, background vocals, hi-hat, glockenspiel
Yoshiyuki Sahashi: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, ukulele, glockenspiel, background vocals
Fg: programming
Akira Nishimoto: acoustic piano, synthesizers, Hammond organ, Prophet 5, Wurlitzer piano
Satoshi Kadokura: acoustic piano, S-50, reed organ, keyboards
Sir Nikolai Kadokov: acoustic piano
Toshifumi Shibata: synthesized Wurlitzer
Huj Mahar: S-50 solo on "Down By the River"
Hirokaza Ogura: gut guitar, charango, ukulele, bouzouki
Takeshi Asada: electric bass
Chiharu "Mick" Mikuzuki: electric bass, acoustic bass
Hiroshi Watanabe: acoustic bass, ukulele, mandocello, mandolin, bowed psaltery
Yutaka Odawara: drums
Hideo Yamaki: drums
Jun Aoyama: drums
Motoya Hamaguchi: tambourine, sticks, shaker, rainmaker, pandero, percussion
Hiroyasu Yaguchi: alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
Asuka Kaneko: 1st violin
Hijiri Kuwano: 2nd violin
Tatsuya Murayama: viola
Shigeo Horiuchi: cello
Hiroyuki Saka: oboe
Emmy Lou Bell: glockenspiel, background vocals
Lefty Bridges: background vocals
Hiroshi Mukai: background vocals
Rie Inoue: background vocals
The Pale Soda Fountains: background vocals
Just a Little Singers Unlimited: background vocals
Down By the River Church Singers: background vocals
Return to Nowhere: background vocals & whistles
Produced by Takeshi "Fg" Fujii
Co-Produced by Yoshiyuki Sahashi
Directed by Keiko Shinozaki
Arranged by Yoshiyuki Sahashi and Takeshi "Fg" Fujii (M-1, 2, 7, 8, 10)
Satoshi Kadokura (M-4, 6, 9)
Yoshiyuki Sahashi, Takeshi "Fg" Fujii and Satoshi Kadokura (M-3)
Yoshiyuki Sahashi, Takeshi "Fg" Fujii and Akira Nishimoto (M-5)
