Friday, June 23, 2017

The Very Best of Puffy Ami Yumi

I had pretty much forgotten about this cute Japanese duo until I pulled out Spike the other day and realized that we have several of their CDs. Obviously, this is a compendium of theirs, with most of the songs sung in Japanese and the titles on the CD are also in Japanese, so I can't exactly reference them by name!

In any case, this is more fun J-Pop, from the extremely 60's/Beatles-esque opening number, to the 70's disco that follows and the subsequent ELO-like production to their own unique, J-Pop/soundtrack-pop/60's girl group sounds. As I've said, I don't normally go for stuff this slick, but they reference so many cool musical touchstones - 60's garage, 70's glam, punk, funk and more - that it all works as a whole.

Campy, engaging and just plain silly good times ala the best of old school Bubblegum, these young ladies will put a smile on your face as you ask "where have I heard that before" while tapping your toes and attempting to sing along in your best phonetic Japanese!