Welcome to April! So, as we enter the first full month of spring, the weather’s been plenty wacky. As I type these words of wit(?) on March 29th, a week earlier, temps barely cracked 50, but today, the mercury zoomed all the way up to 80! I shudder to imagine what summer will be like.

As for this month’s editorial, I want to chat about how the story of Pink Lady could be told in two parts. Part One saw Mie and Kei soar to making heights from 1976 to 1978, what with nine straight number one hit singles and their being THE most famous celebrities in Japan, but Part Two featured a precipitous drop in their fortunes from 1979 to 1981 a their magical touch on the music charts vanished. Now, as everyone knows, I left Japan in early December of 1978, just after “Chameleon Army”, PL’s last chart topping single was released, and while the girls released some rather interesting songs, they were simply unable to recreate that aforementioned magic, ultimately leading to their breakup in early 1981. A new essay I’ve written delves into how PL’s musical style changed by the time 1980 rolled around as they eschewed their pop/disco stylings for a more sophisticated, adult sound which could be heard in releases like “Agiri Giri” and “World Hero History”, two songs I found to have been very interesting, even if they flopped on the charts. I believe you’ll find my essay on this topic to be intriguing, and when you listen to these songs, I’m sure you’ll feel likewise.