Yukihiro Takahashi: WHAT, ME WORRY? (ALFA Music)

Yukihiro Takahashi

WHAT, ME WORRY?

ALFA Music

May 13, 2022 Web Exclusive By Hays Davis

Western fans of ’80s electronic pop who enjoy reaching for long-loved copies of old favorites may experience hearing the reissue of Yukihiro Takahashi’s 1982 solo album WHAT, ME WORRY? like enjoying a period piece that somehow slipped past them.

Takahashi found international attention in the early ’70s as the drummer for the Japanese rock group Sadistic Mika Band. As he was releasing his first solo album, 1977’s Saravah!, he co-founded the influential Japanese electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra, serving as their drummer/vocalist. With his fourth solo album, WHAT, ME WORRY?, Takahashi revealed himself as an artist fully embracing pop’s new directions and working intriguingly within that realm.

After opening with some Laurie Anderson-style repetition, the title track bursts into high-energy synth-pop (with Takahashi singing in English, just to note). Throughout the record Takahashi sculpts his tunes with layers of electronic shading and texture, singing with a fluid vocal style that echoes Bryan Ferry or David Byrne at times. Guest musician Bill Nelson appears on the atmospheric instrumental “My Highland Home in Thailand,” which he cowrote with Takahashi, and a catchy cover of The Beatles’ “It’s All Too Much” finds a perfect fit in Takahashi’s WORRY. This release is rounded out with several bonus tracks, as is the simultaneous reissue of Takahashi’s 1983 album Tomorrow’s Just Another Day, which is recommended for further exploration. (www.facebook.com/alfamusic1969/)

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