Monthly Listening: December 2021
A rundown of This Side of Japan's top 25 Japanese albums of the year
Hi! This is December’s Monthly Listening list. Usually for this section, we do a quick rundown of new Japanese albums I checked out this month that I enjoyed. But since its the end of the year, I listed my 25 favorite Japanese album of 2021 instead. You can browse past Monthly Listenings in the archives.
The list you’ll see below is organized by artist in alphabetical order, but if you must know, I’m currently settled on Pasocom Music Club’s See-Voice as my choice for Album of the Year. Every voice on that record seems to yearn for a sense of closeness they can’t quite get from where they are, and they seem to grasp at something always just out of reach. The music sounds fleeting as the feelings and memories the voices pine for, with the singers trying to hold on to them as best as they can. But it’s ultimately about finding peace in that transience, an idea that stuck to the forefront for me in all of my favorite music this year.
Here are my top 25 Japanese albums of 2021. I pulled some of my past writing in previous issues to add accompanying blurbs for some of the albums. I apologize that this month doesn’t have a playlist; I’ve been too busy with work and life to do any decent music-browsing for it. But here is the playlist of my top 100 Japanese songs of 2021 to give you something to go with this list.
This Side of Japan will return next year some time in January. Until then, happy listening!
Annihilation by AAAMYYY
pop / R&B | ► “Utopia”
“Honami Furuhara streamlines disparate influences such as synth-funk, R&B and psych-rock that previously laid scattershot in her last album, Body, into a cohesive, shimmering sound. She lyrically turns more inward, the resulting songs often taking a point view as if you’re caught in the middle of a heated argument.” (Read more about the album in issue #40.)
omen EP by ASA Wu
R&B / hip hop | ► “Bloomer”
“‘Bloomer’ hits extra heavy in the track list of ASA Wu’s omen EP as it follows a set of flirtatious dance-pop. The nights out and the negotiations made on the dance floor in previous tracks seem like a distant, poignant memory in this painfully lonely space.” (Read more about “Bloomer” from the EP on issue #41.)
Attitude by B.O.L.T
pop punk / idol | ► “Smile Flower”
“If their debut full-length, last year’s POP, was the idol group testing the waters of their then-new pop-punk sound, they detach the training wheels to sprint full speed ahead in their latest LP, Attitude. It’s a fitting vehicle for naive, wide-eyed youth music that wears its heart proudly on its sleeve—a description apt to define both pop punk and traditional idol songs.” (Read more about the album on Behind the Attitude of B.O.L.T from issue #41.)
The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth EP by Dai Dai Dai
industrial / idol | ► “Yuukai”
“Dai Dai Dai carve out more new niches within their goth-dance aesthetic in their brilliantly titled new EP. The idol group loads the front half with heavier, noisier music and then offers a mesmerizing juke-trance track right before the last lap.” (Read more on “Yuukai” on Idol Watch #7.)
DIALOGUE+1 by DIALOGUE+
pop | ► “Ayafuwa Asterisk”
“This ending-credits song by the voice-actress idol group is decidedly more low key than its sprightly opening-title counterpart, “Jinsei Easy?,” but the song still shines with brief flickers of synth zaps and guitar squiggles flashing from the mellow, jazzy piano arrangement.” (Read more about “Ayafuwa Asterisk” from The Anime Issue.)
BLINDNESS by Dope-chan
hip hop / idol | ► “stargaze”
“A leading group of the exciting Doping! Records, Dope-chan strike a balance between cool and pensive as they lay down acrobatic raps over a lonely synth beat. They lace Auto-Tune croons, spoken-word interludes and scrawled electric-guitar breakdown without tampering the pop or moodiness.” (on “stargaze” from Top 100 Idol Songs of 2021)
Ethernity by For Tracy Hyde
shoegaze / dream pop | ► “Interdependence Day (Part I)”
“For Tracy Hyde’s triumphant shoegaze music remains fertile land for teenage innocence to flourish. But while their dream-pop often stood abstract in its reminiscences, here they detail a specific era and place in which to pin its nostalgia.” (Read more on “Interdependence Day (Part I)” on Top 100 Japanese Songs of 2021)
AiR by HEAVEN
emo rap / hip hop | ► “BOLT”
High school, how are you? by Hi,how are you?
indie rock / twee | ► “Natsukaze Date”
Pale by I.P.U.
ambient | ► “Transition”
OYOGUMANE by Kabanagu
electronic / pop | ► “Iidake”
“For all that it accentuates his best music, damaging noise that provides the album’s thrills ultimately acts as a force Kabanuga strives to transcend from. The overwhelm from both internal and external noise best expresses the mindset behind the music of OYOGUMANE.” (Read more about the album on issue #34.)
Akaboshi Aoboshi by Kayoko Yoshizawa
pop | ► “Shishu”
“Where her early output might wander into vastness, Kayoko Yoshizawa emphasizes a sense of quiet intimacy in the production of Akaboshi Aoboshi to stay true to the album’s thematic focus: a relationship between two lovers. The singer-songwriter has yet to shed her use of extended metaphors and fantasy-fiction language to tell her stories, but they’re now re-fit to explore complex, adult scenarios new to the world of her music.” (Read more about the album on issue #30.)
Split by Kudaranai 1nichi / ANORAK!
emo / indie rock | ► “I Guess So” / “The Same Gloomy Look”
“While the split EP format illustrates the contrasts, it also effectively presents the emo greats as two sides of the same coin. If Kudaranai 1nichi magnify purposelessness by applying crushing weight as equivalent to the experience to their music, ANORAK! capture it as an intense feeling that comes and goes.” (Read more about the album on issue #27.)
Fool by Lucie,Too
indie rock / pop punk | ► “Shiwa No Tane”
Wonderland by lyrical school
rap / idol | ► “Fantasy”
“Lyrical school at their best share the sheer joy of rapping through an enthusiast’s lens. And even if other emcees can pen more complex raps, not many can match the idol group’s ability to craft pop songs.” (Read more about the album on issue #31.)
Hikari Mitai Ni Susumitai by mekakushe
pop | ► “Watashi, Fiction”
“While Mekakushe’s arrangements have grown more ornate, employing twists at a micro level, her songs remain hushed like a secret reading of intimate notes. But she isn’t just sharing secrets: she counts on you to keep it between you and her.” (Read more about the album on issue #32.)
VI by mitsume
indie rock | ► “Fiction”
“As if Moto Kawabe didn’t already sound deceptively casual, the chillness of the guitars only make the scenes in ‘Fiction’ feel more ephemeral and poignant: ‘What would you say / and what face would you make,’ he innocently ponders as he gazes at the stars, wondering how they’re doing down below.” (on “Fiction,” from Top 100 Japanese Songs of 2021.)
Strides by Nariaki Obukuro
R&B | ► “Work”
“Nariaki Obukuro effortlessly slides into the hip-hop bounce. Give the prose to another artist, and he’d maybe get more vocal about his fuck-you sentiments. Obukuro instead rolls by with a shrug, his words echoing more as a casual food for thought.” (Read more about “Work” from the album on issue #44.)
See-Voice by Pasocom Music Club
electronic / pop | ► “Uminari” ft. Moto Kawabe & unmo
“Beyond supplying the blissful scenery, the production’s tranquil sounds and solitude-driven atmosphere inspires the vocalists of See-Voice to get introspective, and their perspectives read intimately personal as they react in real time to what they experience with their senses. Pasocom Music’s soothing, environmental album often resembles the physicality of memory with the music as evocative but also gossamer and vanishing, illuminating yet quickly fizzling out.” (Read more about the album in issue #44.)
Sekadepa! by Qumali Depart
pop / idol | ► “Nekochan Ni Nacchauyo~”
“Qumali Depart wraps up an ambitious journey to gain the love of the entire world in their second full-length. The proudly klutzy idol group appear far from exhausted tackling the bubbly, kitchen-sink beats, ready to celebrate their collective success.” (on “Genkai Mugendai Ken% from Top 100 Idol Songs of 2021.)
DAYBREAK EP by Riho Sayashi
pop / R&B | ► “Find Me Out”
“While Riho Sayashi navigates a wide range of dance-pop productions like a stylish pop chameleon, the sequencing plays key to elevate DAYBREAK as more than a business card. The five songs map out a self-redemptive arc of the former idol attempting to grow out of her own cynicism towards her self-worth, following her search for the things that make performing worthwhile despite its torturous moments.” (Read more about the album on issue #39.)
Kokyuu by sassya-
indie rock / post-hardcore | ► “Red”
Floating Mountains by Soshi Takeda
house / vaporwave | ► “Floating Mountains”
4D by STARKIDS
rap / hyperpop | ► “FLASH”
Karada Portable by Yukichikasaku/men
electronic / pop | ► “Move”
“Yukichikasaku/men’s kitchen-sink jazz-pop offers an alluring trickiness from its jagged arrangements, slippery melodies and a surreal string of lyrics that favors rhyme and feel. That said, it’s her ability to make all of the abstraction seem inviting and pop that marks her as one of the best singer-songwriters working.” (on “Move,” from Top 100 Japanese Songs of 2021.)
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