Gold Digger

Kadomatsu adopts a harder funk stance on "Gold Digger," and the result is among his most rhythmically driving recordings — the production leans into the American funk tradition more directly than his smoother city pop work, with guitar playing carrying a wetter, more percussive quality and a rhythm section sitting in a groove that owes something to Tower of Power filtered through the specific sensibility of Tokyo session musicians who had absorbed that influence and made it their own. There's a knowing quality to the lyric and its chosen title: not judgmental, not celebratory, but observational of a particular urban type with the detached attention of someone who has watched the city long enough to recognize its recurring characters and find them interesting rather than troubling. The horn arrangement punctuates the track with a confidence that keeps the energy elevated throughout, providing counterpoint to the vocal line without competing with it. This is Kadomatsu at his most extroverted — the showman aspect of his persona rather than the introspective one — and it suits the material's energies well. The track connects city pop to the wider tradition of Japanese funk and soul developing simultaneously in the same Tokyo studios, suggesting that genre categories were always more permeable than promotional categories made them appear. These musicians were listening to everything and synthesizing freely. Best heard in a car with the stereo turned up, or at the beginning of a party before things have settled into their later-evening groove.