This Side of Japan's 100 Favorite Songs of 2020 (Part 1: 1-50)
Looking back at the year's best songs from Tofubeats, Chara & YUKI, BBHF and more
Hi! Welcome to the year-end portion of This Side of Japan, a newsletter about Japanese music, new and old. Our December issues are dedicated to the best Japanese songs of 2020. You can check out previous issues here.
Japan’s new decade in alternative music echoed the beginning of the last decade. Some of the year’s most memorable songs recreated the feeling of spending time online as much as offline. The platform of choice grew from Nico Nico Douga onto YouTube, TikTok, and even Zoom, but the self-produced aspect remained the same if not more refined. While the remotely-made nature of music-making was partly circumstantial in 2020, the rise of an act like YOASOBI argues that a move into such a practice was already underway.
Mainstream Japanese music has yet to fully tap into what’s online with YOASOBI still treated more as a pop curiosity, though the change may be going underway. The current faces of J-pop are starting to look and sound different thanks to streaming, calling a need for broader definitions of pop. Aimyon, Official Hige Dandism, King Gnu, Kenshi Yonezu, and LiSA—each of these names produce pop music either outside of R&B and dance music or, in the case of Yonezu, of singularly defined genre altogether.
The fragmented nature of Japanese music as a whole has been a topic of conversation for a bit now, and that trend has only continued in 2020. The scene eludes simple explanations and resists easy narratives, not just J-pop but also the communities of indie rock bands, electronic producers, idols, rappers, and many more. The more scattered it gets, however, the more exciting it feels to try and make sense of it all. These 100 songs are my attempts to do just that.
You can listen to the songs on this list on this Spotify playlist. If you want even more music, I will also provide what I call my Year in Review playlist, which compiles and sequences all of the Japanese songs that I’ve come across throughout the year. (Here is an index of what’s inside—you might want to keep it handy.)
Here is also a text list if you would like to just see the list of 100. This list excludes idol songs, but you can find the separate list for my favorite idol songs of the year here.
You can skip to part 2 (#51-#100) here.
1) 4s4ki & Masayoshi Iimori: “I Love Me”
For a few years now, the sound of a voice trying to break free from noise has been the music I’ve found an intense, visceral connection with. The obscured yelps by Phew, the bleeding screams of Lil Uzi Vert, the exhausted moans of Chino Moreno of Deftones — they are some of my favorites that get at how I feel internally with their voices yearning but ultimately failing to escape their physical vessels. That desperation, however, spills over as they confront the imposing confines of sound, manifesting into static, feedback and distortion.
4s4ki joins these voices in “I Love Me.” The chorus finds her screaming “I love me / everything is me / I love myself” from the center of a huge, blown-out bass beat, courtesy of producer Masayoshi Iimori. The intensity in which she screams those lyrics makes it seem as though she’s trying to convince herself of it as actual truth. The beat, meanwhile, pushes back with its wall of digital sound, threatening to reduce her voice into pure noise. She couldn’t make more clear the mental war forged inside of her psyche.
Or perhaps the distortion is a side effect of deep sincerity bleeding out of an otherwise cold, harsh world. 4s4ki has been sliding in similarly tender, earnest messages in a series of maudlin electro-pop beats for a while now; “you wanna see your friends / I wanna see your friends,” she sang in “Nexus” from the year’s best album Your Wonderland, not long after the world began to shut down due to COVID-19. She has shown empathy and understanding for modern loneliness and the depression it inspires since her rebranding as 4s4ki. “I Love Me” is her most direct confrontation yet against our personal demons. Only a few can articulate it, verbally and sonically, as clear and concise as this.
2) Iri: “Sparkle”
Iri released the title track to her incredible album, Sparkle, a couple months before the hours truly felt like repeats of what happened before, but it already had provided much needed relief to get back up and face another day. She knows we’re not looking for a solution but instead simply a permission to stop caring altogether. “So you can look back fondly / of these nights spent crying / drive,” she sings in the chorus, insisting to just hit the gas, speed off to nowhere and leave the frustrations behind for a moment. She sings of compassion over a R&B melody so breezy, it practically asks you to stick your hand out of that car window and let it swim in sync to the tune. “Sparkle” doesn’t fully absolve your issues, but the chorus only sounds more free after she wholeheartedly acknowledges what’s been tying you down.
3) Valknee, Haruko Tajima, Namichie, ASOBOiSM, Marukido, Akko Gorilla: “Zoom”
The quarantine inspired countless online collaborations, but none could match the fun and chemistry shared by these six artists of Japanese hip hop. For all the colorful personalities involved, the Zoom cypher impressively stays in equilibrium with no one rapper overshadowing another. That’s not to say the track isn’t full of standouts, and there’s too many highlights to easily crown a winner. Is it Valknee’s snappy diss lyric of “OK, boom bap boomer”? Is it ASOBOiSM’s whole bit as a yawning banker who just wants to stay home? Or is it Marukido with her dancehall-inspired flow? Zoomgals complement each other like they’ve been working together for years, accomplishing more than many posse cuts care to achieve.
4) Tofubeats: “Club”
Tofubeats couldn’t have imagined how the lyrics of “Club” would read by the time he released the TBEP. “I wonder who would be at the club tonight,” ponders guest singer Kiki Vivi Lily over the mellow house track, and, well, with closures of venues since spring, the actual answer is very grim. “Club,” however, was supposed to be about the hypothetical anyway, and the thought of possibilities overshadow any depressing details creeping in from reality. Tofubeats depicts the discotheque as a place of bliss and an emotional escape from the very least from a mundane 9-to-5. The current situation may place the titular destination even more out of reach, though the distance only makes desire to visit the venue fonder.
5) Kitri: “Akari”
While Kitri has indulged deeper in emotional bleakness, and teased a more stylistically adventurous side to their piano pop, all the sister duo has needed is a catchy pop bounce to build a lasting song. The piano tune of “Akari” moves along with a pep to its step while the two pins its skips with a sweet melody to follow. Listen close to the lyrics, however, and it’s evident that Kitri doesn’t exactly walk with ease. “But even then, I can’t keep up with what’s next / and time keeps passing by,” they sing under hushed breath, trying to convince themselves to be relieved from the ghost of a relationship past. If they play and sing a joyous song, maybe they’ll eventually regain the joy they once felt, Kitri seem to think, but a catchy melody isn’t enough to distract themselves from their doubts.
6) Hikaru Utada: “Time”
“Time” rocks a deceptively simple beat, like Hikaru Utada softly tapping percussion on a desk late at night, for it to carry a story of such tragic love. “We were always too close to tell you that I liked you,” she sings, recounting a pair of lovers who both realize their true feelings a bit too late. While Utada writes an experience that hits almost too close to home, the precision in which she write it is equally staggering. She shared during her Instagram Live that “Time” took months to complete, though her painstaking labor hardly shows through while wasting no space nor rhyme to tell the story in her head. Only Utada can tell such a complex scenario with ease.
7) Reol: “The Sixth Sense”
Reol’s powerful embrace of right here, right now made her music one of the most inspiring pop works this year in Kinjitou, and she sharpens the album’s colorful electro-pop maximalism even more to its most streamlined form in “The Sixth Sense.” The chorus is pure sonic spectacle with a series of electronic booms, zaps and hiccups colliding from all sorts of directions. But while the drop is a magnificent construction, the song shines from how Reol uses that atomic energy to propel her earnest, forward-looking message: “Now is when I’m at my youngest / I want to ride on my sixth sense / and do something today that I know better than to do at my age,” she shouts in the chorus. She’s itching to live the day to its fullest without a care for how it affects her future, and Reol surely can’t hear the detractors with such a powerful beat pounding behind her.
8) (sic)boy & KM: “Akuma Emoji”
Initially for his collaboration with multi-faceted producer KM, (sic)boy leaned on slower beats built upon one bleak guitar riff. For “Akuma Emoji,” The two channel instead the spiked rush of blink-182 from KM’s loop of a huge power-pop riff to (sic)boy’s nasally, Tom Delonge-esque chorus. “Akuma Emoji” is this year’s crown jewel when it comes to rap tracks that represents my favorite not-so-micro trend from not only Japan but also in other parts of East Asia like South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and more. The downcast trap beat and the melodic bellows heavily crib from Drain Gang. But they also spread their reach to the late Lil Peep’s flirtation with pop-punk and alt-rock, echoes of Travis Scott’s as well as Juice WRLD’s Auto-Tune’d croons, sadboi postures of Joji and the grunge synthesis of all of these influences by Post Malone. Their producers, meanwhile, are increasingly adopting guitar riffs of the post-grunge and pop-punk variety as the main loop — perfect sounds for these rappers to mope and sing out their feelings.
9) Envy: “A Faint New World”
An alchemy of metal, post-hardcore and shoegaze plus the interplay of the screams and deadpan reading of Tetsuya Fukagawa — Envy in The Fallen Crimson stay consistent with what has made them such a cornerstone in their respective scene for decades. This very consistency adds lyrical power particularly to “A Faint New World,” the first echo of a band reunited after Fukagawa’s brief absence. The vocalist narrates a cycle of life and death but also rebirth — “exhaust it and then use it again / repeat the repeat,” he closes out the song — as the rest of the band summon their classic sound. “A Faint New World” may as well be about Envy themselves, not just in regards to the personal fallout but their overall history of sticking to the same creative pursuit.
10) Laura Day Romance: “Rendez-vous”
Laura Day Romance looked up to film as an inspiration for the concept behind the band’s amazing debut, Farewell Your Town, and the record closer “Rendez-vous” lives up to their cinematic ideals. Rather than buff up their indie rock into a grand emotional epic, however, the four piece tease out the most while staying true to the track’s suburban smallness. The scene feels intimately familiar thanks to the cozy countryside arrangements while Kazuki Inoue keeps warm an everyday yet nevertheless treasured romance. “Still feeling a little murky / I wave to the boring stars,” she sings in the chorus. “Tonight, I want to seeing everything with you / so this rendezvous will go on.” Laura Day Romance write about a bite-sized love that can be happening any nameless town as though it’s one of a kind.
11) Chara + YUKI: “Tanoshii Kenobi”
Two iconic powers of J-pop reunite, and they call up TENDRE for the collaboration. They rock to the lush, smooth R&B all laid back, and the affair remains a casual meeting between friends. But this is Chara and YUKI: they make a song look inimitably cool even if they’re just fooling around.
12) Ging Nang Boyz: “Otona Zenmetsu”
What finally emerges from the wash of guitar screech is a declaration song. The guitars thrash, the drums pound an anthemic beat, and Kazunobu Mineta sings the refrain — “so we as we once were can laugh from our hearts again” — with no signs of giving up until it comes true.
13) Tricot: “Omae”
Tricot get right to the point. The band iron out the complex knots of their math-rock for a swift, straightforward rush. Ikkyu Nakajima, meanwhile, spells out the obvious — “I have to live with me every day” — but the obvious only lets the exhausting nature of her love-hate relationship with herself hit more visceral.
14) Eill: “Odorasenaide”
The wistful midnight funk soundtracks Eill’s moody Friday evening, and she wants to escape and check out from reality. “Let’s throw on whatever T-shirt / and go out to the city tonight,” she sings about how things just aren’t going right. Thankfully, dancing lets her forget for a little while.
15) Haru Nemuri: “Trust Nothing But Love”
Guitars rage on, and Haru Nemuri screams as urgent still to ensure her words reach you before it’s too late: “make me that piece you need so you can get on that train,” she insists in the chorus. She reminds non-stop of how much she needs you here, repeating the titular lyric so it’s drilled down to the core.
16) Meimi Tamura: “Ichijiku”
While the ugly duckling of “Ichijiku” sings of a blooming bud, she’s nothing but a fig — no chance to ever grow into a traditional beauty. But it’s her full embrace as an exception — “wouldn’t you get bored if I was just pretty?” she quips — that fills this pop bildungsroman with its giant, lively heart.
17) m-flo loves Eill, Taichi Mukai, Sik-K: “Tell Me Tell Me”
After a decade and change, the m-flo loves… series has yet to lose its touch when it comes to curation, with the trio recruiting today’s key voices of R&B and hip-hop. If anything, the passing of time comes full circle with how eill and Taichi Mukai wear the influence of m-flo circa 2001.
18) Kaela Kimura: “Tokei No Hari ~Aishitemo Anataga Tookunaruno~”
Buzzing guitars leaves behind passive-aggressive tension as Kaela Kimura’s frustration boils. It’s hard to fault her after getting her feelings constantly played, and if the unsettling music suggests anything, her issue isn’t ever going to be resolved.
19) DJ Chari & DJ Tatsuki (ft. Tohji, Elle Teresa, Uneducated Kid, Futuristic Swaver): “Goku Vibes”
Tohji threatens to devour this neon-rap posse cut with his Auto-Tune-dripping chorus that gives the song one bugged-out bounce, but the others hold their own, especially Uneducated Kid and Futuristic Swaver, throwing flows in unexpected directions.
20) Pearl Center: “Humor”
Pearl Center’s starry-eyed new wave carves out a vibrant pop identity. The scenery inspires vocalist Matton to stop being so shy, shake off his heartbreak and grab a lover close. “I just wanted to get over that phase of setting up what looks like ‘romance,’” he sings, yearning to get on to that next level already.
21) Yonige: “Kenzen Na Asa”
Yonige depict the morning after, when the dust has settled and the mundane sets in again. The guitars strum plaintively while Arisa Ushimaru sighs sobering lyrics that’s not quite at peace but still ready to move on: “dreams don’t come true / the days go on,” she concludes like it’s the obvious truth.
22) Dreams Come True: “Yes and No”
Rather a surprise by the J-pop veterans, their retro new wave sports a sleek, cinematic synth riff that could be easily re-fitted into a synthwave track. Miwa Yoshida’s soulful vocals gel well with the lush music, adding a golden feel as though “Yes and No” is a lost pop hit from the opulent ‘80s.
23) Anna Takeuchi: “Striking Gold”
Anna Takeuchi has been more innovative with her music, but the lush, breezy melody outshines new tricks. The guitar-pop is so carefree, it almost understates how Takeuchi can hardly stay put from being head over heels. She can’t get enough, and her infatuation inspires such rich pop.
24) Saint Vega (ft. Gokou Kuyt): “Fast Lane & Slow Dives”
The shiny toybox beat suits Gokoy Kuyt and Saint Vega’s daydreams to escape. The former sulks over a break-up while living in his small town. The latter just wants a less boring life where he can get lost in the crowd and bump into someone he might have seen before.
25) Lucky Old Sun: “Machi No Hito”
Mellow, jangling rock — and a wistful touch of a trumpet — make for great music for Lucky Old Sun to reflect on how a place they’ve called home has changed. The band sing about how a station front — “the usual meeting place” — feels totally different after a split and yet the people remain the same.
26) Yoneko: “Set Fire to Now”
Yoneko attempts to put out the burning existential frustrations inside her soul. The shoegaze-adjacent guitars initially suggest a drifter song, but her screams into the void abruptly escalates come the second verse as though Yoneko’s done with adhering to form to instead say what she really needs to say.
27) FNCY: “Rep Me”
“Now’s the chance / dance with us,” invites G.RINA, and she’s so eager to get bodies moving while serving her summertime hip-house with Zen-La-Rock and Chinza Dopeness, switching up the beat three times from a laid-back bounce, a “It Takes Two” homage and finally to a slice of slick tech-house.
28) KALMA: “Kore De Iinda”
KALMA’s gutsy pop-punk in “Kore De Iinda” channels an adrenaline shot of innocence much like the boys in the video, absorbed in their own world. “The days we laughed/ Even the days that turned out messy/ I’ll embrace everything,” they sing while gearing up for tomorrow with enviable optimism.
29) Ayami Muto: “Marmalade”
Ayami Muto channels Ryoko Hirosue’s classic “Maji De Koi Suru 5byoumae.” The pop rock skips along with a pep to its step from Muto being on cloud nine thinking about her crush. She does anything to relive the moment, queuing a playlist full of memorable songs and gazing into the same sunset as him.
30) BBHF: “Bokura No Seikatsu”
“Let’s go sing karaoke! / Let’s fill our void,” goes the chorus to BBHF’s slick 1975 homage, and the feelgood funk makes the invite hard to refuse. Yuuki Ozaki dedicates this karaoke sing-along to the rest of the beautiful losers, and the music’s bounce and the glow provides glamor for one night only.
31) Miyuna: “DeadRock”
After moving between sounds, the brooding Miyuna has yet to find a place to call home. The music reflects the rift, caught between her acoustic pop to interest in stylish R&B. She’s starting to accept her fate as an outsider forever, however, trying to ignore what the rest of the world has to say.
32) Aimyon: “On This Day We Say Goodbye”
For her contribution to News Zero, Aimyon dwells in deep introspection — her favorite mode as much as contemplating about love. “How did he live to see tomorrow,” she wonders in earnest, and her guitar pop greys slightly to match the serious tone.
33) Her Knuckle: “Meury”
Her Knuckle marks ex-BiS member Hanako’s return to music. While the power pop of “Meury” is a lighter take of the grunge of her former group, her lyrics about how life is bullshit hit different knowing she has already tasted failure. It’s a loser’s anthem by someone who has no problem being a loser.
34) Haruka Fukuhara: “Toumei Clear”
Snail’s House offers a more restrained take of his sweet, bursting electro-pop for actress Haruka Fujihara. Bright keys skitter about; string plucks and Fujihara’s voice get filtered. Despite the embellishments, the actress sounds crystal clear as she sighs about trying to stay upbeat in this mad world.
35) Akkogorilla: “SayHello”
Akkogorilla’s pursuit for speedy, off-the-cuff beats to pair with her punk raps logically leads her to take on a recreation of The Prodigy’s “Firestarter.” Despite the track being driven by an aggressive, adrenaline-shot drum ’n’ bass, the rapper remains sharp and stoic as she throws her punches.
36) YOASOBI: “Halzion”
Ikura rushes forward with speed, her voice thrust by Ayase’s breezy, melancholy digital pop. But no matter how far or fast she runs, she can’t quite escape the ghost of her relationship past. She sighs as though she knows she can’t get away as her obsessions threaten to pull her back into the dark.
37) Ayutthaya: “Drama”
The steady indie-rock chug carries a melody that’s deceptively sweet for such a resigned rock tune. “If this was TV, we’d already be laughing / holding each other and kissing / a happy ending as usual,” Mio Ohta sings in the chorus of her unrequited love, wishing it would just start.
38) Neibiss: “Thema”
Crackling with nostalgic ephemera, the stoned boom-bap beat inspires freewheeling raps from Kaisei and Hyunis1000. The former is slightly more grounded; the latter stylishly rambles, more urgent to jot down the creative process in real time than organizing them into clean sections.
39) Stereogirl: “Slumber”
Stereogirl stake out a sweet middle between punk and tender pop. Frontwoman Anju Mouri is antsy to get a move on, scoffing about the season change as some grand metaphor. But the rest of the band approach at a more casual pace, reminding her that it’s sometimes better to take in the scenery.
40) Passepied: “Mahiru No Yoru”
After the whooshing synths signal the launch, Passepied freely speeds up and slows down time until you almost lose track of which side is up. Natsuki Oogota meanwhile skips across the topsy-turvy music as if it’s a playground. Her playful singing keeps it pop no matter how off the wall the song gets.
41) Lovely Summer-chan: “Heartless Person”
Lovely Summer Chan revels in her new roaring, woozy grunge sound. Not to be fully buried by the overblown fuzz, she makes sure her verses takes up as much of the huge space as possible by stretching her sighs into oblivion, and it adds a dazed, slacker attitude to pair with her classic ’90s rock sound.
42) Jubee (ft. Sara-J): “Joyride”
While Jubee isn’t new to UK garage, “Joyride” is the rapper’s most fully formed homage to the dance genre. He’s in service to the sleek music than the other way around, emceeing to liven an imaginary party. Sara-J completes the package with her smooth vocals, gracefully riding the slinky beat.
43) Ryusenkei & Hitomi Toi: “Kanashiikurai Diamond”
Ryusenkei set the scene with balmy, cinematic city pop that they’ve been dishing out for more than a decade while Hitomi Toi gazes at a pair of young lovers getting lost in each other. “Like a diamond, they keep stealing each other,” she looks on with adoration and perhaps with envy.
44) Punipunidenki & Shin Sakiura: “Empties”
Punipunidenki appears cool against Shin Sakiura’s mellow hip hop, but her mood is anything but. “It’d be better if you’d disappear,” she begins, annoyed from looking over at a crush who’s out of her reach. They’re fully irresistible in her eyes, and even that frustration soon becomes rewarding to feel.
45) Mele: “Kotasu No Ueniwa, Kimi No Sukina”
While the lyrics later dispel any notion of tragedy suggested by the heavy, buzzing guitars, Iori Nakamura revels in the music’s ambiguity. “Is this love…” she begins with a whisper, first unsure but eventually accepting that any caring gesture should qualify, no matter how small.
46) Ryukku To Soine Gohan: “Seishun Nikki”
The exuberant, youth-obsessed rock songs of Ryukku To Soine Gohan, like “Seishun Nikki,” turns more poignant knowing the lyrics about the fleeting nature of teenhood come from actual teenagers. Despite the clock ticking at a fast speed, the band sounds eager to make the best of the present.
47) AAAMYYY: “Leeloo”
The sparse, droning synth-pop sets up a nice, cozy home for AAAMYYY’s thoughts to just wander as she looks out from the windowpane. Her lyrics are ambiguous, the matters equally abstract, yet she seems at peace that some things are elusive to understanding and best left undefined.
48) Moka Sato: “Melt Bitter”
Even the toy-box Casio keyboard doesn’t try to provide an air of innocence as Moka Sato comes to terms with the totality of her break-up. It’s deeper than separation: “I mistook this pain as something that belongs to the both of us,” she sings in the chorus as she observes her ex moved on with someone else.
49) Ichiko Aoba: “Seabed Eden”
Before you can fully settle into its intimate solitude, Ichiko Aoba sings one crushing line carried by an equally defeated melody: “Even if one day I forget you / those eyes that I can’t put into words,” she sings under hushed breath like she knows she’s forever separated from such a beautiful sight.
50) Kazune Shinonome: “Mani Mani”
Taku Inoue’s cut-up electro-house track bounces with delight, and the glamorous groove inspires voice actress Amane Miho, as Denonbu character Kazune Shinonome, to be more forward — “darling, I want to dig you deeper” — and get closer to the one she feels for.
Continue to part 2 for #51 - #100 >>
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