VARIETY

On Mariya Takeuchi’s VARIETY, Plastic Love is immediately followed by a marriage proposal. That placement alone complicates the idea of an album devoted to detached urban nights. Takeuchi wrote the words and music for all eleven original songs, with Tatsuro Yamashita producing the 1984 record. Dance music, direct commitment and affection for earlier pop traditions become different settings for the same recognisable voice.

Mou Ichido opens the sequence before Plastic Love and Honki de Only You (Let’s Get Married). One Night Stand and Broken Heart change its emotional direction again. The later stretch includes Amphitheater no Yoru, Todokanu Omoi and Mersey Beat de Utawasete, eventually closing with Shetland ni Hoho wo Uzumete. Rather than treating those scenes as a continuous diary, hear a writer choosing different speakers and situations.

Give the writer and producer distinct roles

Takeuchi’s authorship and Yamashita’s production both matter. An elaborate arrangement should not make the songwriter disappear, while self-written material does not erase collaboration in the studio. A melodic phrase can acquire a different expression according to the sounds placed around it. Separating the song’s situation, its tune and its instrumental setting provides a useful route through the album’s changes of style.

The city is an imagined setting

Speaking to TOKYO FM, Takeuchi explained that Plastic Love imagined urban loneliness rather than documenting her own nocturnal routine. The song’s speaker therefore need not be identified with the singer’s private life. Continue into the marriage song and later towards Mersey Beat de Utawasete: the range becomes clearer when each piece is allowed its own situation, rather than being expected to resemble the most familiar track.

Finish the original before exploring the additions

The anniversary programme adds Aka no Enamel, two Plastic Love remixes and four karaoke versions after the eleven originals. Those instrumental counterparts offer another view of the arrangements, but they are not further original vocal songs. The extended club mix also differs substantially in length from track two. Hearing the original ending first preserves the album’s varied songbook before the bonus material turns attention towards alternative presentations.