THE MUSIC

If You...: The album starts us off with a fade in of a very familiar guitar riff, and suddenly explodes into a bombastic disco number complete with tight horns and a catchy hook about inviting that special someone to a night of partying. It even features both an awesome saxophone solo and a punchy bass solo. Midnight Girl: A laid back synthesized yacht rock tune about a guy's encounter with a lovely woman in the back streets, who seems to be tipsy after a fun evening. Airport Lady: A heart-palpitating disco song about someone's crush on a "Chestnut Haired" flight attendant at the airport. Maybe It's Love Affair: Another yacht rock inspired track featuring an awesome synth keyboard solo. Will You Wait For Me: The quintessential ballad of the album that masterfully combines mid 80's synths with a 70's R&B inspired melody, including dramatic piano playing and a surprise guitar solo. Step Into The Light: We get a very deceptive kabuki drum style intro, that leads us into a funk heavy contemporary boogie with awesome chorus work. There's even various hip hop elements mixed in, including some very goofy but entertaining "rapping" by Noriko Miyamoto, Eiji Nakahira & Kadomatsu himself. The song samples the 1983 single by Unique , What I Got is What You Need. After 5 Crash: The (almost) title track of the LP is another bombastic dance number where Toshiki paints the scene of what the big city looks like once the sunsets and the neon lights turn on. Never Touch Again: Another quintessential dance track, this time featuring some cool Zapp & Rogers style talk-box rapping at the end. I Need You: Another standard ballad, but going off of the more sultry piano playing, definitely more gospel influenced than the first one. Heart Dancing (あいらびゅ音頭) : Toshiki goes for an even bigger subversion of expectations by ending the album on a traditional inspired ondo (folk dance) melody with a jazzy big band arrangement, that surprisingly fits together perfectly. The cherry on top is when the song fades out like a slowed down record, then rewards the listener with the exciting explosion of fireworks.

THE VERDICT

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After 5 Clash definitely feels like the night time version of Timely by Anri, which is appropriate considering both are Kadomatsu productions. So I basically feel the same way about this album that I feel about the latter; it's a really groovy album with cliche songs, but those cliches are wrapped up in such well crafted and tight arrangement's that it's really hard to care. When I listen to songs like If You..., Airport Lady, & I need You, I hear clear inspirations from Yamashita's Sparkle, Loveland Island, & Futari respectively. Although I'll give Toshiki some credit and say that this album has more of its own identity in comparison, you got his signature tight brass section, the ever present slap bass, plus some awesome and creative synthesizer work thanks to Ken Muramatsu. You can definitely tell that Kadomatsu was paying close attention to the New York music scene in the 80's as many of the songs fit right alongside stuff by the Gap Band, Zapp, and Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam.I think the biggest fault I can give After 5 Clash is that it overplayed its hand in literally the first song, which (minus 2 songs) gives you everything the whole album has to offer in terms of arrangement. You can literally switch out the 1st track with After 5 Crash and it wouldn't break the flow of the album at all, of course that's not necessarily a bad thing, but show how samey some of the songs are. That's another thing, why does After 5 Clash have to share the same track space as Step Into The Light? In order to listen to it you have to listen through Step Into the Light, which isn't a bad, song, it's one of the more stand out songs in the set despite how corny some of the rap verses are (their pretty short and brief too), but the fact that I can't enjoy either song individually is dumb.I would say the most stand out track to me is actually the closer, Heart Dancing, which combines traditional Japanese folk dance music with contemporary New York style big band music, to create a brand new musical experience. It also hearkens back to the type of stuff Eiichi Ohtaki would do in albums like Let's Ondo Again, and Niagara Triangle, but here it's executed to much greater effect.As a whole though After 5 Clash is a super fun album to listen to and probably one the best disco records City Pop has to offer. I'd kill to hear any track from this album while I'm out at the club. Toshiki Kadomatsu made the right call by moving away from the sunny tropical beaches into the neon lit metropolis, which helped him unlock his true potential as a producer and a musician.