A happy new year to all of you loyal readers out there, all 1 of you! (Yes, I do read my own articles)
I picked up a lot of records over winter vacation, so there’s plenty of goodies to listen to.

Yamaguchi Momoe has become one of my favorite singers amongst all of those I’ve discovered through the bargain bins. I was especially excited when I found this record since the high-contrast cover looks more like a punk rock record than the alluringly gloomy look of most of her records. I guess I have no one to blame but myself for having such high hopes just based upon a record cover. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Widow” turned out to be just another cookie-cutter rock and roll song, as if Yamaguchi’s team of songwriters were downwind from a farting Brian Setzer when they wrote the song. “Rock ‘n’ roll” this, “rock ‘n’ roller” that, “superstar”, blah blah blah. As if the music wasn’t trite enough, the lyrics take the Japanese love for meaningless English slogans to an annoying extreme. On top of it all, Yamaguchi’s voice isn’t cut out for this sort of song. There’s no edge to her voice, you could almost say that her voice is too good (and thus, too bad) for a song like this.

Luckily, the b-side, “Apocalypse Love,” manages to rescue the record with a sort of “Eye of the Tiger” meets “The Wall” vibe to it. The dark dramaticism of the song is a much better match for Yamaguchi’s voice, and the lyrics are equally heavy, with all sorts of, well, apocalyptic imagery, about a crumbling Babylon and biblical prophecies. If side-A was Yamaguchi’s attempt at making a “rock ‘n’ roll” song, then side-B is her actually succeeding, without all the wasted effort and misguided attitude.

Just a few months after this single was released Yamaguchi retired for good at the ripe old age of 21. Makes me wonder what I’ve been doing in my 25 years of life, that someone else can drop it all at 21 and be content with themselves… Wait a minute, I’m writing record reviews on a weblog! Hooray for me!

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