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| My Recent Acquisition!!!! |
As some of you may know, Pony Canyon idol group CoCo was my gateway drug into J-pop, introduced to me by my good friend Dan-O, and while the girls were our main points of infatuation, there were a few other groups he liked and introduced me to, among them Judy and Mary. Lindberg, and the girl duo WINK.
He had this one particular album from them called “Voce” which I simply fell in love with and was one of the very first non-CoCo J-pop CDS I ever picked up.
He also had a laserdisc video collection which introduced me to a few other songs (predominantly from their album “Overture” though I wouldn’t realize it til later) like Twinkle Twinkle and the awesome “Itsumodemo Suki De”, which became one of my favorite J-pop singles ever!
Meanwhile Dan-O had moved back home to Guam, and sent me copies of some of their other albums, Queen Of Love, Nocturne and Wink Remixes(!)
Well, having spent the last year getting into Yu Hayami’s body of work (and body) and finding it very rewarding, I was hungry to start listening to some new (old) music, and my mind came back to WINK.
Wink! YES, NOW was the time, and I was pretty thrilled to finally seriously dive into their music, and, along with the albums Dan copied for me, J-Pop site JPOP80SS helped fill out my playlists so could begin my adventure into Winkdom!
From the FIRST album Moonlight Serenade, I was completely enthralled by the music I was hearing- COOL, catchy, GROOVY and smooth, Shoko Aida and Sachiko Suzuki’s music was, as the young’uns say nowadays, “A BOP!”
Especially for You, Twin Memories, Aphrodita, Nocturne, Overture, EACH of their albums blew me away, and I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied until I got ahold of their physical CDS as well!
Come to find out, Older J-Pop CDs from the 80s is getting harder and harder to find- I’ve bene having a HECK of a time trying to get copies of CDs from acts like Iyo Matsumoto and Yukiko Okada, and WINK seemed to be no exception!
But then I came across a seller auctioning a goldmine: Seems a couple of years ago, WINK celebrated their 30th Anniversary my releasing their catalog remastered on the UHQCD format (the same format I used to complete my Yukiko Okada collection), and this dealer had practically their whole output!
As each CD was about 33 bucks USD, I had to make some hard choices of which ones to get, but in the end with the exception of“At Heels Diamond” which was an EP of American covers and which I didn’t much care for ), I bought ‘em ALL!
Sadly, the only CD the dealer was missing, having already sold it weeks ago, was Wink’s FIRST album Moonlight Serenade. A real bummer since it's one of my faves! Still, it was QUITE a catch to get 13 of their releases in one crack*, and I blessed my good luck!
There was bit of a worry because I was to find that, thanks to the COVID19 restrictions, most dealers out of Japan had suspended their overseas deliveries and no orders were being processed! ARGH.
After an agonizing week of no contact from the sellers, I then sent a sad message telling them that if they couldn’t ship it then they could cancel the order. Waited another hang-wringing week without response til JUST a few days ago the seller contacted me, telling me my order was being sent via DHL and should arrive any day!
HALLELUJAH!
Well, JUST today the package arrive, and as you can see, they are as BEAUTIFUL as could be! Not only do I NOW have these wonderful albums and songs on hard disc, but have the color covers, booklets and pictures that go with it as well!!
A WONDERFUL addition to my Humble J-Pop collection!
PS:
I think I mentioned before that I love to listen to my music while taking long walks in parks where I’d catch the sunset an then head off to grab dinner….
There was this one particular park I always loved walking through while listening to Wink, and on the back of their album “Overture”, the girls were in a park that looked SO MUCH like the park I took my walks in!!
Overture Back Cover:
My Park:
OK, maybe not an EXACT match, but definitely the same aura! Seems Wink Music was just MADE for my constitutionals!
*Yes, I even bought Voce since it was the remastered UHQCD version! Since it was my very first wink CD, I just HAD to have it int he BEST quality I could get it!
