J is for Japan

J has cut me up because I've only left myself an hour of Wednesday and I am missing the days of two blog postings a week and I haven't had time to acknowledge all of you fab people who have commented.

J is also tearing me up because I had a Howard Jones phase, but Tom Jones is a God, even if the idea of throwing under garments at someone icks me out. And Norah Jones sounded nice for a while back there.

And while I didn't like The Jam a lot at the time after Weller declared he would vote Conservative, it turns out the marketing people has told him to say that. In retrospect I love their angry but controlled sound.

Japan, in contrast seem to be pale faced pretty boys who were in on the early cusp of the New Romantic movement in the early 1980s, although they distanced themselves from it before fading away. They never made it big in America.

But even today their elegant sound stands the test of time. They are considered and clever and age like a fine wine or the painting of an impressionist with its subtle pastel undertones. For a while I had a double album of Exorcising Ghosts complete with pretty water colors on the sleeve. CDs killed vinyl but there's something aesthetically beautiful about the appearance of an album like that. There's something beautiful about Japan too.

Nobody died of a drug overdose but bassist Mick Karn died of cancer in 2011. And lead singer David Sylvian made a few pretty sounding albums about trees before fading into obscurity. Funny to think such beauty could come out of Catford.

Curious fact about Japan - the band was,in fact, big in Japan.