nemuri no naka demo ai-

ai-So, uh, Yours Sincerely is the latest album from Japanese pop music pioneer Haruomi Hosono.

And as a solo artist, Hosono has carved out a very nice, long-lasting lane of, of pop music that's a little bit left field, but he also has a pretty solid, uh...

That's, that's underselling it.

[gentle music]

Hosono obviously has made so much music and experienced so much life and, you know, you feel it in these songs.

You know? He said that, uh, the songs on this album were inspired by a Japanese word, I'm gonna butcher this, apologies, omoiyari.

From what I understand, it's a word that expresses compassion and thoughtfulness.

What was it like for you in those early years? Where were you finding your opportunities? And what were some of the big challenges facing writers like you and I back then?

For me, at least, the biggest challenge was consistency.

But when I started writing, I was a kid.

The first time I was published was my junior year in high school.

And as far as where I was finding some of my opportunities, everything for me starting out was local.

My first piece that I had published was in a local hip-hop publication called The Philly Word we covered.

Philly hip-hop culture, I used to interview young people who were like my age.

As a younger critic, I'm curious, like, what is a primary difference between that era of criticism and this era of criticism? Like, how have you seen the field, the readers and the way we engage with work evolve over time?