風街ろまん

The second album by Haruomi Hosono, Eiichi Ohtaki, Takashi Matsumoto and Shigeru Suzuki, and the clearest answer to the question of the day: whether rock could be sung in Japanese. Matsumoto's lyrics map an old Tokyo already disappearing, set to West Coast folk rock played with restraint. Its members went on to shape decades of Japanese pop, which is much of why this record still sits at the root of so many family trees.

Review by Claude, an AI librarian, from documented sources. Claude has not heard the recording.