Coming to you in the quarantine with another hot playlist! Previously I hoped to soothe your mornings with gentle caresses of folk and ambient music. This time I’m centering on something a bit different, but it still attempts to answer a great need in humanity right now.

What is it in quarantine that we miss the most? Is it the people? The camaraderie?  Is it the sense of normalcy? Is it routine? What is it that we cannot grasp while stuck inside our homes? Well folks – it’s the city! Nightlife! People watching! Decadent, in-person retail! Drinking! Leisure! Sure, you can go out and pick up groceries or essential items, but the whole time it feels like there’s a poison meter floating over your head, slowly filling up until it starts flashing red: “virus imminent!” That’s no way to be living. And sure, a lot of us think that this time is nothing but leisure, surrounded by hobbies, comforts and distractions at all times. But a chosen time of leisure is different than a mandated one. That’s what the city is for. You need to be able to soak in the city, breathe its fumes, bask in its lights. Remove yourself from the personality you inhabit while in the office or at home and embrace one totally outside your own body in the twinkling streetlights and streetside chatter of the city.

I personally don’t party and go wild every night so this pandemic hasn’t interrupted any bad habits of mine, but I do have to say one of my greatest pleasures is taking time and just wandering around the streets of New York City with no real agenda in place. Perhaps popping into a convenience store or bakery and picking up a snack, maybe stopping by a record store, maybe sitting on a park bench; it all depends. What is for certain, is the people watching and the rush of being swallowed by crowds. I love that.

So what better way to synthesize the feelings of being out and about, drinking in the jubilation, the debauchery, the release of folks all around you than listening to city pop, Japan’s very own breed of economically-fueled pop music from the 80s. I’ve made another playlist like this called Ecstatic Affluence that served more as a sampler platter of all the Japanese music I had accumulated up until that point. A good amount of pop and funk, but also delving into ambient, experimental and folk. NIGHTLIFE DAYDREAM, on the other hand, almost entirely devotes itself to the rush of early synthesizers, the glimmer of beachy guitars, the rhythm of hand percussion, and sway of buoyant bass. There’s a section in the middle that gets a bit more intense / experimental, featuring great cuts from Motohiko Hamase, Colored Music and Hiroshi Yoshimura I couldn’t will myself to cut.

Find the track list and listen to the playlist via YouTube (the true city pop streaming platform) below, or if I know you personally and you’d like me to send you a zip file with the music (as some of the songs on here weren’t on YouTube, please reach out. Happy to share all these tunes with you and hopefully brighten up your quarantine routine.

“NIGHTLIFE DAYDREAM” YOUTUBE PLAYLIST

1. Masayoshi Takanaka – “Oh! Tengo Suerte”
2. Hiroshi Sato – “Picnic”
3. Mariko Tone – “Broken Eyes”
4. Haruomi Hosono (Pacific) – “コズミック・サーフィン”
5. Taeko Ohnuki – “都会”
6. Imitation – “Watashi No Suki Na Kuni”
7. Miki Matsubara – “Manhattan Wind”
8. The Milky Way – “波”
9. Masayoshi Takanaka – Straight From Your Heart”
10. Safari – “Safari”
11. Hiroshi Sato – “Always”
12. Atlas – “Summer Breeze”
13. Casiopea – “Time Limit”
14. Yellow Magic Orchestra – “Firecracker”
15. Akiko Yano – “I Sing”
16. Miharu Koshi – “IMAGE”
17. Haruomi Hosono – “LIVING-DINING-KITCHEN”
18. Jimmy Murakawa – “COUNTERCLOCKWISED”
19. Kisaragi Koharu – “Neo-Plant (Posi)”
20. Jagatara – “BABY”
21. Suzuki Shigeru (Pacific) – “パッション・フラワー”
22. Air Suspension Club Band – “In The Hot City”
23. Masayoshi Takanaka – Dancing To Cat Guitar”
24. Casiopea – “Ripple Dance”
25. Hiroyuki Namba – “メッセージ”
26. Kay – “Cause I Ended”
27. Masanori Sasaji – “バラーの手の内”
28. Mizuki Koyama – “Kareniwa-Kanawanai”
29. Dip In The Pool – “It’s So Different Here”
30. Mioko Yamaguchi – “夏”
31. Sonoko – “Danse Avec La Tristesse”
32. Motohiko Hamase – “Rain Calls For Bird”
33. Colored Music – “Sanctuary”
34. Pegmo – “リトルラブ”
35. Hiroshi Yoshimura – “Rain Dance (Rain Mix)”
36. Logic System – “I Love You”
37. Sandii – “Zoot Kook”
38. Dip In The Pool – “はすのえにし”
39. Piper – “Angel Smile”
40. Tatsuro Yamashita – “翼に乗せて”
41. Taeko Ohnuki – “Jacques-Henri Lartigue”
42. Azumi Inoue – “My Neighbor Totoro -Ending Theme Song-“
43. Mariya Takeuchi – “ふたりはステディ”
44. Momoko Kikuchi – “波になりたい”
45. Makoto Matsushita – “THIS IS ALL I HAVE FOR YOU”
46. Hiroshi Sato – “Shiny Lady”
47. The Mystery Kindaichi Band – “あざみの如く棘あれば”
48. Seaside Lovers – “Evening Shadows”
49. Fishmans – “Shiawase Mono”
50. Shigeo Sekito – “青い影”