Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Especia -- Twilight Palm Beach (トワイライトパームビーチ)


The above was taken not too far away from home during a heavy snowstorm. It's about as February as February can get in my city. And then we hit the deep freeze in the beginning of the week.


But nothing can be taken for granted when it comes to weather in Toronto. As I've continued to say, it's predictably unpredictable. It's Saturday today and yep, we are hitting 11 degrees Celsius. Time to break out the flip-flops and sunblock lotion!


So, let me bring in some premature summery times via the good ladies at Especia. This is "Twilight Palm Beach" from their 2013 EP "Amarga - Tarde".

In Marcos V's recent articles in the last couple of months, it seems like the niche aidoru group that had been trying to corner the neo-City Pop/80s market was moving on and perhaps passing on the baton to groups such as Dance for philosophy. However, back then, Especia was bringing back the urban contemporary groove of yesteryear.

With a title like "Twilight Palm Beach", you couldn't get more City Pop/Resort Pop. There's also that nice slow beat just like lapping waves on the sunset shore. It's about as relaxed a ballad as I've heard from Especia. Heck, the cover for the EP also fairly screams the genre.


Along with the laidback music by Schtein and Longer, the lyrics by mirco and Paul Moriya(ポウル守屋)relate the bittersweet ending of a romance to go along with the cooling of the seasons. One would expect a cool basso profundo DJ to introduce and give a finishing narration to the song. "Amarga - Tarde" reached a peak ranking of No. 52 on Oricon.

Speaking of cooling of the seasons, our balmy weather will probably go into the week but rest assured, there will be at least a few more weeks of frosty times before spring finally comes into view.

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