Ballsack’s J-Pop Midlife Crisis, pt. 14: 佐井好子

Starting sometime last year, I started really getting into Japanese music. This came as a bit of a surprise to me, because I had always thought I hated singing in Japanese. Turns out I don’t! In the night threads for the following week, I’ll write a little about each of my favorite artists that I’ve discovered, and share a streaming album for you to dutifully ignore.

Yoshiko Sai is a singer/songwriter mainly active in the 70s. She makes somewhat psychedelic folk. She’s also an illustrator, creating the artwork for a number of her albums. She stopped creating music in 1979, but Jojo Hiroshige, of seminal noise act Hikokaidan collaborated with her in 2000, and she has since done a number of shows and other projects.

Japanese label P-Vine rereleased her studio albums on vinyl in 2021, and released three live albums in 2023. Last year Wewantsounds rereleased her first album as well. Since the P-Vine albums are now out of print, and were expensive, anyway, I’m hoping the continue with her other albums. Here’s her third album, 1977’s 胎児の夢