Pacific (Hosono / Suzuki / Yamashita)

Released on 21 June 1978, "Pacific" was a collaborative concept album by Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki, and Tatsuro Yamashita built around tropical, resort-leisure imagery. Its breezy instrumentals and exotica touches prefigured an entire mood that city pop would commercialize. The record sits at the hinge between the Tin Pan Alley milieu and the genre's high era.