JADOES -- All My Dream

Years ago, while listening to Miho Nakayama’s (中山美穂) “CATCH THE NITE” album for the first time, I came across a groovy song called “Get Your Love Tonight”, which, as I soon discovered, was a JADOES’ (ジャドーズ) cover.

After that, I kind of ignored JADOES, as it was quite hard to find their albums online around 2010. So, even though I recognised them as a nice City Pop band from the 80s, just like artists such as Toshiki Kadomatsu (角松敏生) and ANRI (杏里), to name a few, these last two were easier to find on YouTube or download sites. Speaking of Kadomatsu, he produced Miporin’s “CATCH THE NITE”, but also a handful of JADOES albums and songs, including the original “Get Your Love Tonight”. That’s probably why the song ended in Miho’s aforementioned City Pop-inspired album.

Years after, someone uploaded a couple of albums from the band, so I could finally have my own share of JADOES. However, and I don’t really recall why, I forgot about them in my HD before listening to the shiny and glittery City Pop they had to offer. Probably something else got my interest back then.

Now, I’ve finally listened to one of their albums, which is 1988’s “a lie” (the original “Get Your Love Tonight” is included in this album). The first song, in special, is an “Album Version” of a song released prior to the album, "All My Dream", and it got my attention”.

Kadomatsu’s influences are very noticeable here, and “All My Dream” easily shines as that type of rich-sounding, funky City Pop song that came out very often in the 80s. There’s room for everything, from thick bass lines, drums, sharp synths emulating horns, keyboards, etc... all in a sort of maximalist take on pop music that reminds me of present-day producer Yasutaka Nakata’s (中田ヤスタカ) efforts in the Technopop scene. Also, alongside the full, fat and rich arrangement, there’s also space for some velvet-like vocals by Hideki Fujisawa (藤沢秀樹), something that can be seen as a remarkable characteristic of City Pop as well.

About Fujisawa-san, he attends by the name of DANCE☆MAN (ダンス☆マン) nowadays. The guy became famous after arranging disco/funk pop songs for aidoru group Morning Musume (モーニング娘。), such as “LOVE Machine” (LOVEマシーン), “Koi no Dance Site” (恋のダンスサイト), “Happy Summer Wedding” (ハッピーサマーウェディング), “Renai Revolution21” (恋愛レボリューション21), “The Peace” (ザ☆ピ~ス!) and Souda! We're Alive (そうだ! We're ALIVE), for example.

(cover version)

The “a lie” album was released in May 1988. “All My Dream’s” lyrics were written by Toshiki Kadomatsu and Sato Kensaku (斎藤謙策), while composition was done by Kazumasa Denda (伝田一正).