Y.M.O.* – 浮気なぼくら = Naughty Boys

Worth it for Ongaku alone. Absolutely brilliant track that perfectly captures a mid-80s Tokyo street scene. Brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it.

It's such a sarcastic pop album. A damn near perfect one, too. Make sure you get the version with the instrumental disc, it replaces all the vocals with goofy synths which makes the album even funnier.

i have a copy with a huge poster of the front cover. Anyone know more about it?

The previous album was made for the world but this album is made for Japanese domestic use.
As YMO became famous, they were much involved in the production of Japanese pop music, and this album was made with the methodology they got there.
This album was aimed at big sales and it was achieved.
Single release Kimi Ni Mune Kyun was made for Shiseido cosmetic CM and took the top of Japanese chart.

If the second half of YMO's original run is grossly overlooked and underappreciated (which it is, at least in the west), then Naughty Boys is YMO's most unsung work. It might also be their best.

Easily YMO's poppiest record, but by no mean /merely/ "the YMO pop record", Naughty Boys stands in somewhat of a contrast to their previous work, particularly BGM and Technodelic, the two albums directly preceding it. Those albums both seemed to be headed towards a jagged edged, sometimes bone-chilling approach to synthesis and sampling, but it's worth noting, however, that both of those albums also saw YMO becoming more comfortable with vocal driven, pop-structured songs, in comparison to their earlier work that exemplified the mostly instrumental, hyper-melodic proto-techno that the band is usually associated with.

Indeed, Naughty Boys is a very different beast then anything to come before it: a high gloss, spacious--glamorous, even!--synth-pop masterwork. The title alone is golden and when I first heard about the record I couldn't stop laughing. But Naughty Boys is nothing if not a full commitment to a style. On the cover we see the three "boys", each in their early to mid thirties, in softly colored sweaters and lite makeup, an appearance more suited to men at least 10 years younger. It's a humorous image and a strange new look for a band as established as YMO, but also one that radiates a sort of innocence. Boybands do often seem to be sold on a peculiar combination of naughtiness and innocence.

But there's real tenderness there too. The back cover shows one hand from each band member gently holding on to the others.

The boyband image is furthered on the promotional video for the albums opening track and single "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" which shows the trio barely keeping up with the choreography as they dance across a floor tiled with the album's cover. The video is easily found on youtube and well worth a watch by anyone. The song itself is also the albums most airy and whimsical track, one that in the context of the album works as sort of a subtle bait and switch.

The rest of the album, for being as bright and poppy and humorous as it is, is also surprising heavy. The band here has learned how to use huge gated drums and glistening spires of sound to tug right at the heartstrings in just a way that you might not even it realize at first. The final track, "Wild Ambitions," in particular, with it's deadly double dose of longing and confusion has driven me to tears on more than one occasion. Same goes for "Kai-Koh," a swirling mass of soaring synth lines that feels like a strange ecstasy that may accompany the confontaion of an ultimate sorrow. It's also one of the most amazing songs ever recorded.

Elsewhere, the album feels angsty, even. The song "Focus," in one of the album's few ages in English, has Hosono singing "You'll be burning with a new love tonight, and I'll be burning old pictures in my mind."

Another area where the album really shines is in the vocals. The thing about YMO is that not one of them has the greatest voice in a traditional pop music sense. Each of their voices has its own peculiarities, but here they're singing to their fullest potential anyway, straight from the heart. During the second verse of "Ongaku" we hear each of them taking a line of their own before ing together again in unison. The result is one of the more endearing moments in recorded music.

Also worth mentioning is the invaluable contributions from Bill Nelson on guitar, who appears on most of the album's tracks. The guitar itself sounds more like a synth at times, but carries an incredibly angelic tone like nothing I've heard be for.

I recommend this particular pressing of the album if only because it features some of the most beautifully designed center labels I've ever seen.