Under the Sun is the 16th studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter Yōsui Inoue, released in September 1993.
Two songs "Gogatsu no Wakare" and "Make-Up Shadow" were released as a single prior to the album, and the latter became a massive hit.
"Make-Up Shadow" was featured as the theme song for Subarashikikana Jinsei, a television drama aired on Fuji TV. The music was composed by Jun Sato (who used the pseudonym Utsuru Ayame), and Inoue wrote the lyrics. The song became the highest-charting single for Inoue, reaching number-two on the Japanese Oricon Weekly Singles charts, selling in excess of 800,000 copies. Sato also arranged the song, and his arrangement won him a prize at the 35th Japan Record Awards.
The album debuted at the number-one on the Japanese Oricon, and became his fifth chart-topping non-compilation album since 9.5 Carats released in 1984.
Track listing All songs written and composed by Yosui Inoue (except where indicated) "Be-Pop Juggler" - 3:10 "Eleven" - 4:43 "" - 4:37 "Power Down" - 4:42 "Make-up Shadow" (Utsuru Ayame/Inoue) - 4:07 "" (Kyouhei Tsutsumi/Inoue) - 5:34 "" (Inoue/Natsumi Hirai) - 4:28 "" (Inoue/Jun Satō/Yasushi Akimoto) - 5:50 "" - 5:06 "Under the Sun" - 5:41 "" (Inoue/Banana-UG-Kawashima) - 4:06
Personnel Yosui Inoue - Lead and background vocals, acoustic guitar Jun Sato - Piano, electric piano, keyboards, synthesizer, acoustic guitar, percussion, background vocals Banana-UG-Kawashima - Synthesizer, piano Yoshinobu Kojima - Organ, piano Yasuharu Nakanishi - Piano Yasuhiro Kobayashi - Accordion Tsuyoshi Kon - Acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar Susumu Osada - Electric guitar Haruo Kubota - Electric guitar Koki Ito - Bass guitar Chiharu Mikuzuki - Bass guitar Hiroshi Igarashi - Auto harp, banjo, steel drums Motoya Hamaguchi - Percussion, kalimba Nobu Saito - Percussion Hideo Yamaki - Drums Jun Aoyama - Drums Shin Kazuhara - Trumpet Jake H. Conception - Saxophone Taro Kiyooka - Trombone Hidefumi Toki - Clarinet Aska Strings (conducted by Aska Kaneko) - Strings Ma*To - Computer programming Keishi Urata - Computer programming Hideki Matsutake - Computer programming Naoki "Taro" Suzuki - Drums programming Seri - Background vocals Nisa - Background vocals Anna - Background vocals Eve - Background vocals
Production Arranger: Yosui Inoue (#1,4), Jun Sato (#5,6,8,9), Tsuyoshi Kon (#2), Banana-UG-Kawashima (#3,11), Yasuharu Nakanishi (#7), Haruo Kubota (#10) Composer: Yosui Inoue (All tracks except #5,6), Utsuru Ayame (#5), Kyohei Tsutsumi (#6), Natsumi Hirai (#7), Jun Sato (#8), Banana-UG-Kawashima (#11) Lyricist: Yosui Inoue (All tracks except #9), Yasushi Akimoto (#9) Mixing Engineer: Tamotsu Yoshida, Jun Tendo, Takayoshi Yamanouchi, Yuta Kagema Recording Engineer: Jun Tendo, Junichi YAmazaki, Takayoshi Yamanouchi, Yuji Kuraishi, Kazuya Yoshida, Kazuya Miyazaki Session Support Engineer: Kenji Igarashi, Yutaka Uematsu, Motoyoshi Komine, Junichi Hohrin, Yuko Suzuki, Hajime Nagai, Kenji Matsunaga, Kaoru Matsuyama Mastering Engineer: Toru Kotetsu, Masayoshi Nakajo Art/Styling: Sachico Ito Photographer: Kenji Miura Artwork producer: Noriko Shimoyama Artwork designer:Shuzo Hayashi Artwork supervisor: Tomio Watanabe Artwork: Hiroshi Shoji Promotion Staff: Mitsuo Sakauchi, Yasuhide Sasa Production Coordinator: Sei Sato, Takashi Yokoo, Yasuko Makino, Chiharu Senoma Production Manager: Nao Funatsu Production Assistant: Hidenori Muto, Rie Nishioka, Satoko Ishizaki
Chart positions Album YearChartPositionSalesRIAJ Certification1993Japanese Oricon Weekly Albums Chart (Top 100)1370,000Platinum
Singles YearSingleB-SideChartPositionSalesRIAJ Certification1992"Gogatsu no Wakare""Be-Pop Juggler"Japanese Oricon Weekly (top 100)2789,000Gold"Make-Up Shadow""Present"2817,0003× Platinum"Canadian Accordion""Hikiage Mono no Uta"3524,000—
Release history Country Date Label Format Catalog numberJapanSeptember 15, 1993For Life Records CD FLCF-30220 Audio cassette FLTF-28040March 25, 2009For Life Music Entertainment/BMG SHM-CD FLCF-5013
References