Single Review: Beni - Fly-Day Chinatown

So. Beni has released a new song, and it’s a cover of Yasuha’s city pop bop “Fly-Day Chinatown”.

I have a feeling that we might be getting a Covers the City 2 or a Covers 4.

But before we get into the nitty gritty of Beni’s cover, I just want us to appreciate the song choice, because it ticks so many of the right boxes.

“Fly-Day Chinatown” is the song that former J-pop star Yasuha is best known for, but it was far from a hit when it first released in 1981. Yet despite this, it is a very well known song which has been covered several times over the years by artists (Ms. Ooja and a pre-debut Kaze Fujii to name a couple) and YouTubers. “Fly-Day Chinatown” had a similar path to cult popularity as Mariya Takeuchi’s “Plastic Love”, in that it became a sensation later in its life cycle, catching on with Millennials and Gen Z’ers who were fans of the city pop genre. But whilst “Fly-Day Chinatown” is a known song, it isn’t a song which is so widely revered that it would be seen as blasphemous to ever cover it. Although this sentiment of a song being untouchable is one which isn’t as prevalent in Japanese music as it is in America outside of talent shows; because any and every song, regardless of how ‘iconic’ it may be, will get covered to fuck in Japan. If Japanese artists have one thing, it’s the nerve.

Disco and club music is also big on the charts right now. So, not only has Beni chosen to cover a song which the locals will know, and the city pop fandom will know, but the end result is also a song that musical listeners in the US will latch onto because of the sound sitting between the two most current trends - reaching the very audience that Beni sought to with her Made in Love EP. And the fact that it’s a cover in and of itself is a smart choice, because it has instant familiarity to those who know the original. But also, one of Beni’s best selling album to this day is a cover album.

So, everything about Beni choosing to release a cover song in 2022, for it to be “Fly-Day Chinatown” and for it to sound the way it does? A bitch wants a hit. But not only has Beni ticked all of the boxes on paper for a good single, the actual thing sounds good. Easily being one of the best things Beni has put out in years.

The cracks started to show in Beni’s music around Fortune, where her sound started to morph into something different. That something different would have been fine, if it came with finesse, some actual good songs, and a sense that Beni was moving towards something, and not just away from Daisuke “D.I” Imai, who primarily helmed the Bitter & Sweet, Lovebox, Jewel and Fortune string of albums. All of Beni’s albums from this point on became directionless and lacked the hooks and instant appeal of the material she was putting out prior. And the identifiable sound that she and Daisuke Imai had built, a sound so identifiable that when Daiskue would produce for other artists and give it to them, I would say ‘That’s the Beni sound’ - it just got wiped off the table. Beni really lost her way musically.

Beni started to find her way back somewhat with her 2018 album Cinematic. But things really started to seem like they were clicking again with her 2020 EP’s Y/our Song and Made in Love.

Beni - Fly-Day Chinatown | © 2021 Universal Music Japan

“Fly-Day Chinatown” is the song that feels like the Beni we knew has returned. It’s the song that she needed to work her way back into the consciousness and playlists of her fans who ended up passing on her music after 2011. But this cover of “Fly-Day Chinatown” is so damn good that casual music listeners may just perk up and take notice of it. The timing for a song like this is so right. But it’s unfortunate that the way the song was just flung out, and there being no promotion for it will probably result in it doing absolutely nothing commercially. Maybe the journey to success of Beni’s cover of “Fly-Day Chinatown” will follow that of the original, and be a real slow burn.

Beni’s cover of “Fly-Day Chinatown” does a great job of retaining the city pop vibe of the original, whilst balancing a bit of house. The use of house here doesn’t feel shoehorned or overbearing to the point it takes over the whole song. Nor does it feel deliberately opportunistic. It sounds how I would expect a good “Fly-Day Chinatown” cover to sound. Not just in 2022, but in general. But it just so happens that Beni’s cover is straddling the current music trends. The inclusion of house also doesn’t feel like an obvious chart ‘n’ cash grab, because house has always been present in Japanese music. Even in video game soundtracks. This cover of “Fly-Day Chinatown” would sound right at home in a Persona game. So everything about this cover just feels and sounds right for now, but not in a way that would ever date it. It’s just a case of real perfect alignment.

The only notes I have for this cover is that I wish it were a bit longer, that Beni had a greater presence on it, and that the cover deviated from the original just a smidge more. Beni’s cover is faithful to the original to such a point that even the runtimes are more or less the same, (there is only 1 second’s difference between them). I would have liked to have heard Beni giving me harmonies and ad-libs during the instrumental sections of the songs. I would have liked a saxophone solo. And I know that REALLY long songs are quite unorthodox in Japanese music, especially with this 2 minute runtime trend that’s sweeping the globe - but I really would have liked this cover of “Fly-Day Chinatown” to have been a 5 minute vibe, because even the original song felt like it was too short.

Beni has always had a pretty high and somewhat fragile voice, which never had any real consistent tone or texture to it. But it was pleasant enough. And Beni had an R&B-ish way of singing and layering her vocals, which made her sound more interesting than she otherwise would have done. When Beni was working predominantly with Daisuke Imai, his production complimented Beni’s singing style. But once Daisuke was out of the picture, the production of Beni’s songs became wildly inconsistent, and she ended up working with producers who didn’t know how to frame Beni’s vocals in the best of ways or direct her to sing better. But Beni also seemed to lose that vocal spark and vocal hunger she had during her D.I run. Beni’s voice sounded thinner. We got no smooth layering. She took zero risks. She never pushed herself. Only with Y/our Song and Made in Love did Beni start sounding good and committed again, and I wonder if pregnancy was the reason why; given that Beni was pregnant when she recorded those EP’s, and Beni was pregnant when she recorded “Fly-Day Chinatown”. Beni sounds the best she’s sounded on a song in quite some time. On a studio recording at least. Because whilst Beni fell off in terms of how she sounded on studio recordings, she has consistently sounded good live.

Beni’s cover of “Fly-Day Chinatown” is one of her best releases in quite some time, and it’s a damn lot better than anything we got on Covers the City. So if this song is to be a sign of what we could expect from a Covers the City 2, then Beni may be onto something. Consistency hasn’t been Beni’s strong suit over the past decade. But let’s give a bitch a chance on the merits of her cover of “Fly-Day Chinatown” being pretty damn good.

VERDICT: AIR CHINA