Zard Album Review "Good-bye My Loneliness"

The year in 1991 and "Good-bye My Loneliness" straddles a fine line of the music Zard was to shape in the decade ahead and the decade that preceded this, her debut album. It is a game changer, though at six tracks it maybe tilts a little more towards EP than LP, but I consider it to be a full album.

I am deliberately reviewing Zard's album in chronological order as I want toe xplore how her music changed over the arc of her prodigious career. I will give a retrospective of Zard's albums compared to each other much later (when...really depends on how much I write and how often). But stand alone, 

"Good-bye My Loneliness" is a very good album and it could have been a great album but I think "Oh! Sugar Baby" and "It's a Boy" both hold it back from that.

Sakai wrote all the lyrics save for two which were penned by Daria Kawashima.

"Good-bye My Loneliness"

Music/Arranger: Tetsurō Oda / Masao Akashi
Vocals: 5, Music 4.5 Production: 4.5 

A mid tempo track with a vibe that thanks to its drum and synth parts takes me a little further back to Brit New Wave for me. Without a doubt this is one of Sakai's best delivered songs, which is notable as she was still finding her own sound and vocal range. This makes it interesting because the vocals delivered very differently than the mountain of songs that were to come later. Also notable is I think the backup vocals are a dialed back to maximize Sakai's vocals. Anyways this is the song that started Zard and its really good, but the next track steals the show.

"Ai wa Kurayami no Naka de" 

Music/Arranger: Seiichirou Kuribayashi / Hiroshi Terao
Vocals: 5, Music: 5 Production: 5 

Where the opening track was mid tempo, "Ai wa Kurayami no Naka de" is gas poured on a fire. Backup vocals are very assertive and I can absolutely hear Maki Ohguro, who is very deft in this role. This is my favorite song on the album. It is a perfectly balanced song and much credit goes to Hiroshi Terao (who these days is kind fo the face of Zard via YouTube).

"Koi Onna no Yūutsu" (恋女の憂鬱)

Music/Arranger: Kawashima / Akashi
Vocals: 4, Music: 3 Production: 4.5 

This song sounds like a bit of an 80's throwback and something you'd find in the closing credits credits. These are not bad things and as an album "Good-bye My Loneliness does straddle a line between the 80's and what Zard was instrumental in setting up for modern Japanese Pop/Rock. It is a fairly short song, was just starting to get into it and done.

"Oh! Sugar Baby"

Music/Arranger: Kuribayashi / Takeshi Hayama
Vocals: 3 , Music: 3 Production: 2.5 

Oof... those are some heavy synth hits, probably at the time this was not a bad song but it encapsulates a sound of the early 90's that decades of time cannot shake off. At about the 1:50 mark it takes a weird turn. The guitar work on "Oh! Sugar Baby" is pretty good, drums feel muddy. Its just kind of a mess so far as production goes. All of this said, the song finishes better than it starts, with the exception of the weierd heavy breathing with about a minute to go.

"Onna de Itai" (女でいたい) 

Music/Arranger: Kawashima / Hayama
Vocals: 4.5 , Music: 4 Production: 4 

Another song that feels like it was from the 80s, but the good part of the 80's. Sakai's vocals are very emphasized and bring a lot of energy with Kawashima's lyrics behind them. That said everything is well balanced, it is definitely a rock song and a slightly more laid back than "Ai wa Kurayami no Naka de."

"It's a Boy"

Music/Arranger: Kuribayashi / Akashi
Vocals: 3.5 Music: 2.5 Production: 1.5 

Being artists have a lot of engineering in their songs, for the most part it worked well for Zard... but not here. It is overwrought. Sakai's lyrics are actually really good, but get washed with everything else going on in the song. It is a feel good song though, but I guess there is a reason it is at the end of "Good-bye My Loneliness.

Overall grade: 4.0 

Vocals: 4.25 

Music: 3.75 

Production: 3.75

"Good-bye My Loneliness" is a good album and while a couple of tracks I feel hold it back from being a great album it does a lot of table setting for jpop going forward from 1991, which Zard was a trailblazer. It might not be as great of a start as Puffy has with their self titled debut, but it certainly had more influence. Groups like Puffy almost certainly could exist because of Zard.

Were "Good-bye My Loneliness" the only thing Zard ever did, I think it would be an album people remember and wonder why we never more. Not the case, much more was to come!

Boring reviewer notes:

Hat tip to u/Fancy-Holiday5519 on reddit for their reviews which inspired me to follow suit.

My reviewing style is something I have used for years. For example, my notes in for each song are my thoughts as they are hearing it so it is deliberately displayed as my flow of consciousness through the song. Sometimes I add some researched notes to give some context.

My Japanese is not sufficient to judge the lyrics much, I am going purely on how good the vocals sound.

When averaging scores, I round to the nearest quarter percent that I think is warranted, so putting my thumb slightly on the scale....

I will refer to all songs in Romaji because I feel that makes the writing approachable to more folks and recommend it for anyone writing about Japanese music for an audience outside of Japan.