Natsu Summer - Hayama Nights
Hayama Nights is Natsu Summer's 2nd full album and finds her taking the city pop reggae sound on the road to celebrity summer playground Hayama, keeping the tropical dub vibes but adding a dose of reality for a more believable summer fantasy.
Being a dense, sprawling metropolis, Tokyo doesn't have many places to escape as it seems like the city just keeps on going forever. To truly get away from it for a weekend, people go interstate, places like Hakone, Izu, Karuizawa, Nikko, and in this case during the summer, Hayama is the place to be. Located just about an hour and a half from central Tokyo, it has a marina, a beach, and even the imperial family has a villa here. However, since Hayama isn't connected by rail, you need a car to get there. That gives it an air of exclusivity, something just out of reach of the normal person.
So it makes perfect sense as the setting for a city pop record. On the previous album "Natsu Summer & Dub Sensation," there was no fixed setting, it was more like a summer day in paradise somewhere exotic (and not likely in Japan). Here on "Hayama Nights," it feels more like the Tokyo experience - working in an office everyday, listening to the radio, wondering what people are doing now, wishing you could be somewhere else.
In fact it almost seems like a personal experience. The album opens with "真夜中のミスDJ" which sounds a lot like Natsu Summer, a girl playing soul music records late at night on the radio, hoping the melodies reach through to your heart. “嘆きのオフィスレディ“ is an office lady’s lament, rushing through the ticket gates in high heels onto the trains, busy and exhausted day after day. Meanwhile “二人の関係” is a classic unrequited romance song about never wanting to wreck the friendship but unable to act on feelings. The lyrics for these last two songs were written by Natsu Summer herself, lending a more personal touch.
As for Hayama, it’s a place of summer memories, somewhere we’d rather be, not only physically but also temporally, remembering drives to Hayama down the Tomei expressway (”第3号“) , stealing sideways glances and clinking glasses by the poolside (“あの頃がプールサイドで“, a lovely duet with Saigenji). The soundtrack of shimmering steel pan, bongo drums, mellow keys and generous reverb help reinforce this isn’t here, it’s either a fantasy or a memory of an eternal perfect summer that no longer exists - classic city pop stuff. There’s even a dub cover of Rie Miyazawa’s “ 心から好き” made famous as the insert song for the 1992 TBS drama “Tokyo Elevator Girl” (lyrics by Beat Takeshi under the alias Kikuji). Another echo of yesteryear.
With this project, producer Cunimondo Takiguchi and Natsu Summer have worked hard to cultivate the image of a city pop goddess. Throughout the Natsu Summer discography it's always summer, full of romance and heartbreak, blue skies and getaways. But on "Hayama Nights" it almost feels like it's a little bit of the real Natsu Summer, which paradoxically enhances the fantasy by closing the distance a little, yet still staying just out of reach. "Hello my darling," she whispers, "How are you doing now?" Well, thanks to you I'm lost in a memory, stuck on a sweet fantasy, dreaming my life away. It's bliss.
Check out our exclusive interview with Natsu Summer here
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