*I have a purple banner that says this post is too long for email. I promise I am not trying to make people click through to substack to see my dumb song list, it’s just the limit.
IN REVIEW
In my opinion, this has been one of the best years since for Japanese smooth pops/alternative R&B since 2022 (maybe even 2021?). The theme of the year seemed to be international outreach and collaborations, with countless artists linking with acts from Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, the U.K. and more, in addition to completing several Asia-wide tours, stop-overs, and festivals. Some of the biggest collaborations are fairly recent - STUTS with Jordan Rakei, Hitomitoi with Wild Nothing, Punipunidenki with Paul Grant, and Hannah Warm with Revo Marty. Other notable common threads are a number of works by Australian-Japanese producer Taka Perry and the Taiwanese artist LIU KOI, who injected many of my favorite artists work with a much needed jolt of Pop Soul.
I normally don’t do a yearly wrap-up thing because I end up missing so much stuff, and then look back at my list and think, “What, how did I not have X1 on here?” And then I saw Ryo Miyauchi’s top 100 song list over on This Side of Japan and realized that at most, 10 songs on that list had been featured here, and none of them appear in my top 25. That gave me confidence that I’m actually doing something unique, covering ground that isn’t normally, etc.2
To kick things off, here is a full playlist of almost every song featured this year (I may have missed a few, and there may be some extras), including those from the final newsletter of the year, which has not been released yet (spoilers!) This is the one playlist of the year I’d say is OK to listen to on shuffle!
ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Punipunidenki
Simply by the numbers, Punipunidenki has put out more quality music this year as a lead artist than anyone else combined. 5 of their 9 new tracks3 made my short list for song of the year, and I would not be shocked if there were people that preferred the 4 I didn’t have on the list! With all due respect to artists who put out incredible albums and countless catchy singles, Puniden’s 2 high concept EPs and 2 collaborative singles cover so much ground that it’s hard to top. Plus a new song of and about a smoked lager and ‘working for the man’? Be still my beating heart…
Let’s not forget the theme of the year is collaboration - specifically international collaboration - and Puniden had that on lock as well with Star Runner feat. Pikes from Sweden (the guy from the Kung Fury soundtrack!?), Paul Grant from the US, and Ace Hashimoto whose work spans from Fukuoka to LA and whose own credits include Devin Morrison, Slom, and Kero One.
One final note - I wrote this before they even announced a long-awaited, long-teased new song with Kan Sano, which released on Christmas Day.
TOP 3 LIVE ALBUMS
Eminata the Red Show Live - Live at TOKIO TOKYO, Shibuya2024
The studio verson of Eminata’s debut album “Red” was released in May alongside this live version. While “Red” is a nice collection of R&B and soul songs, the live recording with live instruments emphasizes the jazz-singer nature of the project. You can tell Eminata has performed in clubs before and isn’t just a bedroom pop wonder. Not that there is any problem with artists with limited resources who start out in the bedroom, but they often have a few rough years when they start doing live shows. I do have one complaint about this one - they reordered the recording of the performance to be in the same order as the album, which leads to the super-awkward situation of having the last song she performed be the first on the album! Why would you do that?!
Recommended track: Selfish
iri PLUGLESS Tour - Live at SHOWA WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY HITOMI MEMORIAL HALL 2023.11.17
I would love an album of iri A capella tracks. If I went to see iri live and there was no backing music, I’d be perfectly OK with that, even though I love the production work on the majority of her songs! The closest I’ll get - short of a technical malfunction which leaves her without any backing instruments - is this album: a live recording of a performance from her “Plugless” tour - a whole bunch of hits rearranged with presumably all-acoustic instrumentation.
Recommended Track: Awa
Kroi Live at Nippon Budokan
For anyone that has seen a recording of Kroi performing “Fire Brain”, you know it would be a blast to see them live. This album confirms that - missing are all the boring, strange, and possibly filler tracks that have cluttered some of their recent albums. If any of those songs are performed here, they changed up the arrangement to make them jive with all their other high energy funk-rock tunes. My throwaway complaint - this thing goes on for 2 hours! Amazing if you were there in person, but gets a little long if you’re just sitting at home listening.
Recommended track: HORN
TOP 5 ALBUMS
Rules for album of the year candidates - first of all, I tried to pick albums that were mostly fresh - like everything should at least be from 2024, with maybe a single or two from the previous year. I understand this puts certain acts at a disadvantage, but it is really difficult for me to evaluate these albums at this point in time when I’ve listened to half or more of the songs ad-nauseum for a year leading up to their being compiled in a single place.
Second - all killer, no filler, it should go without saying. Any one of the songs on these albums could have made the song of the year list (some of them did, in fact), but whereas a song is a singular event, an album has a completely different gravity to it. I don’t want people to listen to just one song or skim through a few - you should listen to these as a complete project.
VivaOla - APORIE VIVANT
By the time this third VivaOla was released, it wasn’t a surprise that it would be filled with brooding club tunes rather than ‘Neo City Pop’ or even the danceable house tracks that filled the first two albums. The artist’s evolution is impressive; While his upper range vocals and general R&B and soul influences are a constant, the flavor of each album is remarkably different. While “APORIE VIVANT” draws on popular contemporary sources, it is not VivaOla’s project with the most mass appeal; Upon release of the video for “GIVE MINE”, I joked that he had created Goth R&B (he agreed!). Despite being admittedly derivative, the album hits the mark for being unique in a landscape awash with retreads.
There isn’t much else I can say about the album that wasn’t covered in Rolling Stone’s long-form interview with music writer Tsuya-chan. This interview is so central to understanding the work that a print copy is included with the vinyl release!
showmore - liquid city
Whether showmore realize it or not, the theme of water in alternative R&B and soul has been tread at least once, if not for several laps. They do not list the quintessential work - Maxwell’s groundbreaking “Embrya” - as an influence, but instead a number of UK alternative acts. Whatever their inspiration, “liquid city”, their first full album in three years, is better for it. The album contains no overly theatric pieces like “Circus” or “Now” (their signature songs), remaining submerged throughout. Other than a deliberate change in sonic direction, many of the unique sounds are the result of Inoue handling much of the production work rather than (wholly) relying on Neo City Pop mainstays like A.G.O and Shin Sakiura. I was surprised to find out that my favorite tracks - “siren” and “liquid” were both complete Inoue productions!
SPENSR - DRUNK
In 2023 SPENSR had hit after hit with a number of featured artists including “COLDNESS” with MPC GIRL USAGI4, “Tattoo” with michel ko, “Bad Seeding” with the rapper hamma, “SIGNAL” for AKIRA, “mellow glow” for Som, and on and on. In addition to continuing an impressive stream of trackmaking, SPENSR somehow found time to make his own album which meets and often exceeds the quality of his previous works. Performed entirely in English, some choppy phrasing here and there gives way to a series of clever, goofy, and relatable tales of a bad hangover. I don’t know why, but it always brings a smile to my face when he has a moment of deep regret for smashing a window open because he couldn’t figure out how to unlatch it in his drunken stupor.
SPENSR’s sound has always been heavily electronic, either using samples from retro game consoles (little notes and effects, not a full-on loop of the damn Zelda theme) or just stretching all of the sounds and vocals to give an unnatural accoustic quality - forget the shower-stall studio, we’re recording from inside a hard drive! The introduction of guitar to the equation on “DRUNK” combines that wild and unique synth pop with the musical jam sessions of Neo Soul. It’s an absolute treat beginning to end, and it’s available on vinyl! One of my two brand new Japanese album purchases this year, along with my #1 pick.
salasa - Golden Child
Released on the same day as my pick for the number one Japanese album of the year, perhaps the only thing that sets it back is uin5 putting his damn producer tag on opening track! Filled with mellow soulful grooves courtesy of uin, Kota Matsukawa, and Nishida Shudai, missing out on “Golden Child” is tantamount to missing out on the future of Japanese R&B.
Regardless of what sort of music she does, salasa has been one of my favorite vocalists since her 2022 comeback EP, “Nail no Shima”. Her sound is rich and emotional, yet unwavering. She’s able to deliver deeply soulful and funky tunes without getting lost in theatrics. Also despite having a richer, deeper voice than most Japanese artists, she’s evaded some of the pigeon-holing of an artist like iri, likely due to having a bit of the vocal quality of Utada Hikaru. There was even a song that was sort-of an homage to the song “Time Will Tell”, complete with salasa all dressed up to sort-of look like Utada.
Anyway, while that time-honored pop star has been touch and go with R&B for the past two decades, it was unclear where the comparatively fresh salasa’s career would take her. For nearly a year it felt like the only song she was known for was the rock-leaning “Hi wo Tsukete” (which was later re-recorded with Remi Matsuo of Glim Spanky). Come the release of “Golden Child”, there was a sigh of relief6 in realizing she would not abandon R&B music as her predecessors did. While the final three tracks of the album (not even the entire ‘B-side’!) could just as easily appear on a folk-rock album, her live performances show she’s still a soul artist at heart. One complaint - Where’s the vinyl release? Will there even be one!?
Yuga - Love Deluxe
If you have the gall to name your album after one of the most noteworthy R&B albums of all time, you best not be messing around. And mess around Yuga does not! Wholly produced by Takuro Okada, who also worked on Satoko Shibata’s “Your Favorite Things7”, “Love Deluxe” seamlessly shifts between funky, smoky dance grooves and more mellow tracks with lush vocals comparitive to the album’s namesake. More words on the top two albums from my post at their release.
Honorable Mentions:
Sala - EVERY HOUR
Furui Riho - Love One Another
TOP 25 SONGS
The only criteria for top songs were:
-Must have been stuck in my head for a few days (there is one exception, which I noted)
-Must bang
STUTS + SIKK-O + Mamiko Suzuki - Ai wo Sawaretara
In April of 1994, Nas released “Illmatic”, considered to be one of the greatest rap albums of all time, combining the much-hyped rapper and a who’s who of New York hip hop producers. What’s crazy is not how that album has endured over the decades, but how the hope that DJ Premier would do another album with Nas has endured. Nothing could possibly meet the expectations people have for such a project, so I’m not sure why people are encouraging this.
Less crazy, and considerably fresher, is Japanese beatmaker STUTS, the rapper SIKK-O, and rapper and vocalist Mamiko Suzuki getting back into the booth again to try to recreate one of the biggest moment of their careers. It could have just as easily been met with disappointment, but STUTS is still at the top of his game.
RiE MORRiS - Crave
For all the energy behind R&B-influenced compositions in recent years, few artists have reached for the longing emotions of 90’s soul ballads. RiE MORRiS does that and more in this Sho Asano-produced single from her debut album.
Punipunidenki + valknee - Dark, Smoky, But…
A new collaboration between Punipunidenki, trackmaker Yohji Igarashi, and a craft brewery. Puniden, who often changes vocal styles from track to track, uses their soft, sultry voice for this single, which is startlingly offset by the rapper valknee.
DJ HASEBE + mahina - By Your Side Tonight
If there exists a bigger advocate of modern Japanese Smooth Groove music, it’s DJ HASEBE. This year he was also one of its biggest practitioners, with four brand-new singles, including collaborations with CHICO CARLITO, Ryuto Kasahara, Rinne, and CHIAKI SATO. It must have been a dream for him to work with mahina, the voice behind the seminal Neo City Pop track, “Night Distance” and further cement both of their legacies.
reina - Dogs
While there is nothing wrong with the reina’s impressionistic debut album, a veritable ‘sampling platter’ of nostalgia-based R&B, this year marked her and producer Kota Matsukawa’s foray into original compositions. reina seamlessly transitions from the old school to more contemporary productions, while still maintaining her masterful toplining skills.
maco marets + FKD - BURN
The poet/rapper bares his heart, as ever, in his return to lo-fi, chill, emo rap collaborations with hip hop producers. “BURN” was released as the lead single to what would become his 8th album (released this week, more on that in the main post). Despite the heavy introspection, the track is undeniably one of marets’ most catchy in recent years.
SUKISHA - Majo to Tsukiyo (Witch and the Moonlit Night)
A deep cut from SUKISHA’s latest solo album, the artist’s signature blend of pop sing/rapping and ‘lo-fi’ trackmaking collide with his newfound appreciation for guitar solos.
Eminata - 99
Like many brilliant artists, I learned about Eminata through a collaboration with the rapper maco marets, which was later reworked into the mellower “PBJT” sans marets. “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” did not make make the top song list this year, but “99” did solely for its infectuousness. I have no idea what the lyrics mean, but damned if at least once I day I’m not all, “8 days a week.. as the boys said”8.
Amiide - LET GO
I used to poke fun at Amiide for being so obviously influenced by The Internet that I couldn’t really treat CIRRRCLE, her group with A.G.O and Jyodan, seriously. Like, “Look, they’ve got their own Syd too!” That may seem discriminatory, but their streaming profile also said as much… Whatever the case, all of the members of CIRRRCLE have proved themselves in one way or another, and for Amiide it’s this track, “LET GO”, which could easily be dropped into any chill alternative R&B playlist without a second thought.
lo-key design - Nettaiya
There’s little that R&B duo lo-key design release that I don’t like, but “Nettaiya” was an instant favorite. More than any of their other singles released this year, it exemplifies their ability to nail the classic soul sound.
Masahiro Okamura - Paraíso
Despite some incredible tracks blending indie pop, rock, and soul, Masahiro Okamura is not a name I see show up on many music sites or playlists. Though not to discount Okamura’s mellow vocals and the grooving jazz-fusion ensemble, “Paraíso” would make the cut off its irresistible baseline alone. I’m not proud to say this is a recurring theme - I bought Sade’s “Love is Stronger than Pride” off the strength of “Keep Looking” (worth it!).
Ovall + salasa - Kage
As if having her own entire album of hits wasn’t enough, salasa made it onto this once-a-decade Ovall album, as a deep cut no less! This is one of those songs that will just creep into my head as if it’d always been there - instantly familiar, yet rich with its combination of jazzy breakbeats and shining guitar.
Sakepnk + MÖSHI - Lean On Me
MÖSHI has always played with a unique mix of jazz and electronica, but his transformation to a gutter rapper blessing the progressive house and breakbeats of w.a.u artists continues to be one of this year’s best developments. It all started here, on Valentine’s Day of 2024 with, “Lean On Me”.
xiangyu + Tavito Nanao - Piece of Cake
I have to admit I never actually watched the video for this, so I did not realize famed alternative Pop artist Tavito Nanao was played by a weird cake puppet.
For as varied and unique as his discography is, the people yearn for the breezy, calming, chill city grooves of Tavito classics like Rollin’ Rollin’, and they finally get them courtesy this duet with singer and rapper xiangyu.
Punipunidenki + Pikes - Star Runner
Sing it with me now: STARLIIIIIIGHT, TAKING ME OVERRRR!! No song this year has soared as high, emotionally, as “Star Runner”. Few songs this decade have, in fact. Imagine a world where this was the Space Jam song and not “I Believe I Can Fly”, by disgraced pedophile and sex trafficker Robert Kelly. While “Star Runner” doesn’t really match the chill vibes I’m usually trying to push week to week, I can’t imagine anyone into J-Pop hearing this song and not having it on their best-of list.
Punipunidenki - Maze Maker
You know what song does match the chill vibes I’m usually trying to push here week to week? Producers Ace Hashimoto and MONJOE killed this one with their slow-building retro-futurist R&B melody contrasting perfectly with the chorus’s chopped vocals and thumping hook. World class song9.
Kuro + Takumi + ji2kia - Makyou
The B-side to Kuro’s Rashomon EP is a murky, moody, killer of a track that you could run 4 or 5 times in a row in the club without complaints. Producer ji2kia absolutely murders the beat along with his partner from aTTn, TAKUMI. It’s clear we don’t deserve Kuro as a solo artist between the weak online performance of this and her other 2024 fireball of a track, W4VES (w/Chocoholic).
maco marets + reina + FKD - In my eyes
This is purely a guilty pleasure pick - maco marets is often a deep and introspect artist, which is to say he doesn’t really do throwaways. But he is a such a good artist that he could totally do a bunch of dance tracks, and they would be sick! Exhibit A: This tune put together for a dance routine by the DYM MESSENGERS, featuring reina on a track not produced by Kota Matsukawa. Instead we have FKD, the genius behind 2023’s album “SEND” with vocalist erie, and many new maco marets tracks from his just-released 8th album “Wild”. Yes, it may be derivative, but I love how, thanks to the vocalists, it sticks toward smooth rather than the cartoonish performative New Jack Swing we give from artists all over the world (I like a lot of those songs too, but not all NJS was like that!).
Aile The Shota - Sayonara City Light
This unbelievable track has the unfortunate circumstance of having been released so recently that it hasn’t had time to bore itself into my brain the way the others have. In fact, one unique thing about the song is that it hasn’t been stuck in my head even once! That’s not to say it’s failed as a pop song, or that it isn’t catchy. In fact, no other song on Aile The Shota’s debut album, “REAL POP” so encapsulates the title. The way it blends together the pop piano melody with sappy chords on the bridge only to tear them away with a beat drop into the musty latin-light rhythm of the chorus… Surely there are plenty of folks who have followed this artist over from his idol days, and I’d love to know what they make of this.
Haruy - Saintwood
This surprise deep cut that kicked off Haruy’s debut album was a song I would always let run when it would inevitably come up on autoplay (thanks Spotify…). In a year with some incredible chill and alternative R&B records, it’s difficult to top “Saintwood”, if not for Haruy’s understated delivery, than for the absolutely killer funk bassline. Alas that groove comes with a sad coda - Haruy’s “CIRCLE” marks the last production and performance credit by the late HSU (nee Hayata Kosugi), bassist of the original Neo City Pop band, Suchmos.
VivaOla - VIVA
Seemingly mad at people like me who tried to pin him down as a ‘Neo City Pop’ artist, Japanese-Korean singer VivaOla, in collaboration with w.a.u’s Kota Matsukawa, released a dark and moody R&B project as an homage to Bryson Tiller’s groundbreaking debut “T R A P S O U L”. The album opens with this thunderous club banger that blows away any perceptions you may have had about the artist to this point. It just so happens he’s not much a fan of the R&B label either, which led to an interesting live performance of this same track. It may also be worth mentioning that Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby”, which similarly feigns a punk attitude to deliver overtly Black music, debuted a whole month after the VivaOla album.
Vaundy - GORILLA SHIBAI
I beg you, please listen to this song at least once without watching the video. I get it, he’s as much of a film nerd as he is a musical Wunderkind. But please, Vaundy, let your music nerd fans enjoy the effortless, flawless vocals we’ve come to know and love without all the pretension. For just a little while, please.
For as much of a low-key genius as Nariaki is vaunted to be, the song he crafted for iri, “Faster Than Me” sounds an awful lot like “GORILLA SHIBAI”, falsetto and all. I get it, that song was a quickie done for a streaming drama, and “GORILLA SHIBAI” was done for… I don’t know really, it’s not tied to any TV show or product. It seems like it was done just for people like me, worried that Vaundy may never return to his soulful roots.
SPENSR - Smile
Released as the final single for SPENSR’s new album “Drunk”, “Smile” doesn’t employ the same clever storytelling as some of the other album cuts, but marks an evolution for SPENSR in terms of composition. The epic echoey layered vocals key to many of the artist’s works are accompanied now by rock guitar, which in turn does not betray the funky drum rhythm nor the isolated synths that dot the musical breaks. The entire track comes together so flawlessly that it’s no wonder he’s being tapped by both underground R&B acts like ROU and AKIRA, as well as former boyband members like Myuto Morita.
LIU KOI + Sala - May flowers
One of the most interesting developments this year was the appearance of the Taiwanese singer and producer LIU KOI, who has collaborated with four key figures in the world of R&B-influenced J-Pop - Sala, reina, FLEUR, and aimi. Each track is a masterwork of Pop duets, the product of someone who has memorized the textbook but also knows when to go off script. While Ryoma Takamura, with whom Sala creates all of her music10, was involved in this song as well, it’s worth noting that the cutesy lyrics and predictable gospel outro clears much, if not all of the brother-sister duo’s debut album, “EVERY HOUR” which released shortly after.
Sincere - Can’t Stop
From a complete amateur’s perspective, it doesn’t seem like anyone is trying harder to be a star than Sincere. Her solo tracks combine saucy Swiftian asides with the hottest trends in dance music. When she’s not releasing the next number one single that never was, she’s acting as lead vocalist for the now storied City Pop revivalist project RYUSENKEI. Not content with the choreographed mugging of her peers, she’s adopted whole Tik-Tok-ready dance routines and integrated them into her live performances. It’s not entirely clear what else she needs to do to get ahead, but if nothing else let it be known she had the most infectious track of the entire year.
“Can’t Stop”, lyrically, refers to the racing, cyclical thoughts we succumb to when we’re falling for someone, but in practice it refers to how powerless I am to not rewind the track over and over, to not bust a “I hope nobody is watching” move every time the unmatched Teppei Kakuda-produced beat drops. I mean EVERY single time; It is world-class production work. It’s like hearing Timbaland for the first time - it sounds like he tossed a bunch of little melodic balls into a… into one of those lotto spinner things and turned the crank and somehow all the right notes came out. Ah, ah, plus Sincere can actually sing! The control of the vocals, just letting a note ride here and cutting another short there… everything falls into place so well.
The variable, not the disgraced social media platform.
And good thing, because those other blogs are done by professional writers. I’m just some dude who wants people to know about Shin Sakiura and SPENSR.
Actually 10 new tracks, this was written before the Kan Sano collaboration.
This song is so good. It is up there with my favorites for either artist.
Producer of my 2023 song of the year.
From me, but I know I’m not the only one who wishes more artists would stick with it..
Which was also on the short list for albums of the year, before it was blown out of the water by “Love Deluxe”.
I am just now realizing “the boys” is referencing The Beatles. Some day I’ll pay more attention, I promise.
I’ve used this term a handful of times this year. What I mean is if you were in a club anywhere in the world and this song came on, you would have at least a few people shedding their pride, pulling out their phone and opening Shazam.
Not unlike Billy Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, the de facto anti-heroes in a world dominated by Taylor Swift.