Okay, so I said I was going to do it and here I am. Five posts a week, every week, for the entire month. I hope this can get me back into the habit of writing on a regular basis. I tend not to write when I’m busy, but I noticed that when I don’t write, I often find myself getting depressed easier. Of course, when one gets depressed it becomes harder to write. So here’s hoping I can break that stupid cycle once and for all and get back into the thick of things, some seven months after my arrival in Japan.
So here we go, and I’m starting with a doozy.
Yellow Magic Orchestra – YMO World Your 1980 (Complete Album Download)
There are many YMO live albums. Of those, some seem like proper, well thought-out releases (Complete Service, Public Pressure) while others seem more like crash grabs released by a label desperate to milk a fanbase for more money (Live At Budokan 1980).
That is thankfully not the case with World Tour 1980, a 3LP/2CD live set that was first released in 1996. Unlike many of the other YMO live releases, World Tour 1980 takes the chance to showcase never-before-released live versions of many YMO tracks, as well as several YMO-related tracks that were previously only available on various solo albums by the band members.
For example, this album features live band versions of Sakamoto’s “Riot in Lagos,” as well as Takahashi’s “The Core Of Eden,” which was first released on his incredible 1980 album Murdered By The Music. It even features tracks that were originally released by YMO-collaborators, such as Kenji Omura’s “Maps” and the song “Kang Tong Boy,” which was originally recorded by Sakamoto’s then wife Akiko Yano. The album also includes one bonus studio track, “Jiseiki Hirake Kokoro,” which was never released on a proper YMO album (although it’s appeared on a few compilations).
I have a lot of YMO (okay, I have all the YMO) and World Tour 1980 is one of my favorites. Not only is it a stelllar live LP, but it’s a great sampling of some of their best works. If you love YMO you’ll obviously love this album, but if you don’t know much about the group, consider this to be a great sampler into their imp
ressive catalog of work.