Haruomi Hosono & Tadanori Yokoo - "Cochin Moon" Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 1978/2018 (Light in the Attic)

In the same manner, as the importance of someone like Brian Eno, Van Dyke Parks, and Martin Denny are to the English speaking world, concerning exposing various 'foreign cultures,' the same can be said for Japan's Haruomi Hosono. He's like a combination of all three above.   Also a pioneer in the electronic music pop world as well. Once was (or is?) a member of The Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), who are considered to be in a certain sense The Kraftwerk of Japan. Nevertheless, Hosono is a unique figure in Japanese contemporary music. He is very much a music historian, as well as an artist who can blend various styles that become a Hosono stance.

"Cochin Moon" is an album he made with artist/illustrator Tadanori Yokoo, and it's an exotica electro-impressionistic tour of India. It's like Kraftwerk's "Autobahn," but on a culture that is foreign to both Hosono and Yokoo. The thing with Hosono he is also knowledgeable about Japanese music and its culture. It lurks around whenever he makes music, and there is a cultural 'pun' at work when he approaches music from the West, knowing quite well it's 'exotica' to him. That's one of the beautiful things about his entire catalog that it's an artist's approach at looking at the world around him - in images, imagination, in other words, an illusion.

Yokoo is the executive producer, and I suspect that it was his idea to do this album based on a trip to India that they took in the mid-1970s. Still, beyond that, it's all Hosono. Both got physically ill in India, which influences this album. The last track is "Madam Consul General of Madras," which, as legend has it, served Hosono and Yokoo some Japanese food, and therefore they were healed from what was illing them.  There are touches of Indian music on the album, but it's electronic that flows consistently — an iconic electro album.

Lesley Gore - "I'll Cry If I Want To" Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono, 1963 (Mercury)

Lesley Gore is a unique artist in her time and place.  For one, she had a clear plan artistically, and she thought (or her producer Quincy Jones) of the album as a mood piece, or carry a theme.  Here on this album is the subject matter of tears.  A teenager's tears are the most bittersweet of them all. She is billed on the album cover as "The amazing 17-year-old," and clearly, this is the case. 

There is a defiance in Gore's approach to pop that she has the right to feel blue or to express her feelings fully.  There is an intelligence at work here, and I don't think it was manufactured by her manager, record producer or even adults in the room.  The power of her vocal delivery and the choices of songs on this album makes it a fantastic work.  "It's My Party" is a teenager's lament of existence, yet, her tone is strong that she will not accept this insult any longer.  On the other hand, she is a teenager, and Gore knows that's her natural state of mind and body.   The articulation of her stance is genius-like, in that she even made an answer song or a continuation of the "It's My Party" narration to "Judy's Turn To Cry."  

Claus Ogerman's arrangements are sophisticated, yet in tuned to the teenage market at the time. The whole package is one of intelligence, passion, vision, and Gore's ability to express the everyday angst of a teenager facing a harsh world.  Lesley I feel is very underrated talent.