Takeuchi wanted to make this a dance song with a city pop vibe. “Plastic Love” is a song about a woman who lost the man she loved. The song has that Beatles style and is quite catchy. “Mersey Beat de Utawasete” is a song dedicated to The Beatles. The lyrics suggest that Takeuchi will try again as a singer since her hiatus is over. “Mou Ichido” translates to “Once Again.” This song is about a relationship trying again towards happiness. Many new artists in the city pop genre cite the song as their gateway to music. Many artists that work in vaporwave and city pop cited that “Plastic Love” is the best pop song in the world. A YouTube user called “Plastic Lover” posted an eight-minute remix version of one song from Variety called “Plastic Love” and sparked international fame for Takeuchi. Originally, Variety did modestly well with success and Takeuchi was back on the scene.įlashforward to 2017. One should note that Takeuchi’s first five albums had songs written by other artists, but Variety would be the first to have all songs written by Takeuchi herself while the arrangements were skillfully made by her husband. Then in 1984, Mariya released her sixth album Variety as a comeback album. She also wrote some songs in the meantime. Since then she remained in the background doing backing vocals for some of Yamashita’s compositions and songs. A year later, she married fellow musician Tatsuro Yamashita of “Ride On Time” fame.
She felt exhausted and suffered a sore throat. Retrieved 10 November 2021.In 1981, Japanese singer Mariya Takeuchi went on hiatus after the release of her fifth studio album Portrait.
A promotional single, "Mou Ichido", was released on 10 April 1984, followed by a full release on 25 April. Yamashita originally planned for Takeuchi's comeback album to be written by other songwriters, but changed his mind after listening to some of Takeuchi's work. Meanwhile, Takeuchi began writing some of the songs which would be included in Variety. ĭuring her break, Yamashita left his record label, RCA Records, for the newly-founded Moon Records. She went on hiatus at the end of 1981 due to a sore throat, as well as to marry Yamashita in 1982. Takeuchi's five albums released before Variety were mostly written by other songwriters which, although featured industry stars such as Haruomi Hosono and members of Toto, left her feeling "exhausted".