The general arc of Yellow Magic Orchestra's discography looks something like this:
1978 - Yellow Magic Orchestra (the "electronic exotica" project as originally conceived; practically a Hosono solo album)
1979 - Solid State Survivor (a sister album to the above, featuring more Sakamoto and Takahashi songs)
1980 - X∞Multiplies (huge left turn)
1981 - BGM (huge left turn)
1981 - Technodelic (a sister album to the above)
1983 - Naughty Boys (huge left turn)
1983 - Service (a sister album to the above)
1992 - Technodon (huge left turn)
...which suggests that, if they'd made a follow-up to Technodon shortly thereafter, it would have been a sister album. (X∞Multiplies, the apparent outlier, has a sister album too, but it's a Takahashi solo record, 1980's Murdered by the Music.)
The crazy left turns are part of what make exploring the band's catalogue so fun. It's hard to imagine the band's debut if you're coming off of Hosono's Tropical Trilogy like I was. Neither Solid State Survivor nor X∞Multiplies would lead you to imagine anything like BGM. And Naughty Boys is probably the greatest blast of all.
It was, in fact, a conscious effort to self-combust. "You know what? Instead of being experimental and trend-setting this time, let's just make a dumb J-pop record that adheres to all the trends. Let's eat ourselves." It wouldn't have been made at all (oh frightening thought) if their record label, Alfa, hadn't twisted their arm. And then Naughty Boys was such a hit that they had to make another, which they named Service: like, fanservice.
The point of all this is that Lotus Love, Hosono's song, is the only thing on Naughty Boys in which you might recognize the Yellow Magic Orchestra from two years before. It has that weird, off-kilter, spiritual vibe; for this one song alone, they allowed half a hand to stray back into that BGM/Technodelic darkness...
...but lyrically it's resplendent.
.
eternally returning and reverberating:
I love you.
Petals in the inner corner of the eye,
the customary incantation in the throat:
I love you.
Baby, come leap through time!
Baby, let's go meet outside the world.
Sitting in the dusk.
Invisible words:
I love you.
And when fatigue overcomes me,
I become like snow, melting in sunlight:
you love me.
Baby, come leap through time!
Baby, let's go meet outside the world.
Baby, let's go meet outside the world.
An incantation surreptitiously grazing
a mouth seen briefly, in a dream:
love, love, love.
Baby, come leap through time!
Baby, let's go meet outside the world.
Baby, let's go meet outside the world.
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