Albums etc. of 2022

[adevyish]

This year’s list isn’t strictly my top albums (etc). A couple snuck in solely due to the fact I wrote so much about them. And one of my draft top 6 got crossed off because I barely wrote a sentence about it when I listened to it — surely it’s not important enough for the roundup!

Here’s a Spotify playlist of selected songs from these albums, along with some other songs.

On repeat

Perfume / PLASMA

On Perfume’s last full-length in 2018, songwriter-producer Yasutaka Nakata answered the question What do I do now that Perfume is the group that everyone sounds like? with Sound more like Western EDM trying to sound like Perfume. Post-pandemic, though, Nakata’s just decided to have fun and draw on the sounds of his childhood — 80s and 90s j-pop.

The first chunk of Plasma is all about retro futurism, from the overly electronic synths on “Time Warp” to funky guitars on “アンドロイド&” (Android&). Though firmly rooted in 80s sounds and aesthetics, it doesn’t adhere to it religiously — “ポリゴンウェイヴ” (Polygon Wave) has nice sparkly synths that are more this decade than anything else. There’s also more classic Perfume tracks like “さよならプラスティックワールド” (Sayonara Plastic World), and “再生” (Saisei) where classic Perfume meets 8-bit.

Overall, a great electropop album and one of the better recent Perfume albums.

Louis Tomlinson / Faith in the Future

This entire album is nostalgic for Louis’ teenage years (and mine!)

On the rock half of the album, you can hear Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys, and a little bit of Franz Ferdinand. “The Greatest” is a solid opener; “Lucky Again” is an intricate nostalgic paean; “All This Time” has a bit of that Montreal indie pop sound. There are three co-writes involving Theo Hutchcraft (Hurts) et Hurts al, and one of them, “She is Beauty We are World Class”, is more or less “Hurts does Stuart Price during Pet Shop Boys’ Super”. It’s not what I expect on a Louis Tomlinson album! The others — “Saturdays” and “Silver Tongues” will be amazing to scream-sing live in person.

The pop half could easily be on any late 2000s teen drama soundtrack. (I hope you like Lifehouse and Switchfoot.) “Chicago” is an alt rock power ballad to spec; “Holding On To Heartache” builds to gospel vocals (on a Louis Tomlinson album!?). Knowing Louis’ 2009 taste, this is not unexpected, but it doesn’t feel like he’s fully made the sound his own yet. In some ways, it seems a little soon to revive music of the late 2000s?

kinoue64 / Space, Circumstances, Time, and Events.

kinoue64 / 空間、事情、時間、事象。 / Bandcamp

Vocaloid take on shoegaze, but shoegaze is already so overprocessed it kind of works? The songwriting is great, but there are places like the choruses of “明日世界が終わるらしい” (Tomorrow, the world will end) or “空間、事情、時間、事象。” (Space, Circumstances, Time, and Events) that would have been incredible with a person belting, voice going hoarse. They don’t have quite the same impact without that.

Utada Hikaru / BAD MODE

宇多田ヒカル / BADモード

Parts of this album call back to old Utada: “Time” sounds like an R&B track off Deep River; “君に夢中” (Kimi ni Muchuu) could be tucked into Heart Station.

The beauty of Bad Mode, though, is in the breakdowns: the titular song’s jazzy Shibuya-kei turn, the use of vocal in “One Last Kiss” as both percussion and motif, the ambient outro to “気分じゃないの” (Not In the Mood). There are also two tracks that are basically all breakdown: “キレイな人” / “Find Love” and the 12-minute “Somewhere Near Marseilles ーマルセイユ辺りー”.

The one weird point of this album is “Face My Fears” — it doesn’t fit well with any of the other songs, and the Skrillex production sounds incredibly dated now.

Briefly obsessed

Alternately, music that came out late enough in the year that I haven’t really sunk my teeth into yet.

For Tracy Hyde / Hotel Insomnia

Every song brings something different, despite being rooted in the same melodic basis and shoegaze amps.

Where this album really shines is when it takes 90s pop-rock instrumentation and puts through a shoegaze filter, resulting in something that’s neither one nor the other. “Lungs” showcases this with clean steely guitar, fuzzy fadeouts, and psychedelic chords. Or “Subway Station Revelation”, which takes shoegaze and throws it on top of early 2000s j-pop-rock.

There’s even non-rock tracks: the dreamy “Natalie” with beautiful vocal layering, and the chill hop “House of Mirrors” (there’s rap on a For Tracy Hyde album!?).

ayutthaya / Lighthouse

‌Lighthouse sounds like typical j-pop-rock at first verse, but its chords and breakdowns prove otherwise. There isn’t a complacent moment — every detail seems thought out. Standouts include “fog” with its messy bridge, the math rock “ランドマーク” (Landmark), and the bass-driven “Stomach ache”.

neochi / neochi (mini)

ねおち / ねおち / Bandcamp

An idol group with all music by Jyocho’s Daijiro Nakagawa. A poppier approach to Daijiro Nakagawa music™, leaning into baroque pop at times.

Dear Rouge / Spirit

Bandcamp

Spirit is Dear Rouge’s first album under an indie label. (They had released two EPs before signing to Warner that they sold as a single CD at shows, but I believe those EPs was self-released and also not technically an album.)

For this album, Dear Rouge have dropped the dark, bass-heavy sound of their Warner-era music. Instead, it’s a more polished, dreamier version of their self-released EPs from 2012. A lot of the tracks are alt pop, if anything. Within that, there’s variation: from Imogen Heap–style overprocessing in “Dream Dreamer” (among a few other songs) to prog rock chord progressions in “You Rattle Me”. There’s several songs in the in-between of pop and rock, like “Gimme Spirit” and “Relationship Problems”. And as for the rock lovers: well there’s “Meet Me at the Rio”.

Sugababes / The Lost Tapes

This album was originally supposed to be released when Sugababes were going as Mutya Keisha Siobhan due to a legal dispute — “Flatline” came out in 2013! The album leaked in 2016 or so, though a couple tracks didn’t make it into this final version.

What I find impressive about this album is that the melodies and style very much draw a throughline to the sound of Sugababes’ first album from 2000 (the only album with all three of MKS on it). This album instead relies on updated production to make it sound more current. It doesn’t quite sound like an album for 2022, but it does manage to not totally sound like 2012–4 either (despite being that old!)

One (or two) songs on repeat

Mom / Yen no Sekai

Mom / ¥の世界

Listening to Mom’s music is like gazing at a quilt made of scraps with embroidered joins — on paper it doesn’t work, but as a whole it makes sense.

Yen no Sekai opens with a track with chill hop production and harmonica: Mom is at it again. Mom does an amazing job of tying what would otherwise come across as pop standards with his brand of imperfect weirdness. For example, with “勝手にしやがれ!” (Katte ni Shiyagare!), what could have been an inspiring trope of a song with gospel vocals ends instead with screaming rock vocals.

CAPSULE / メトロパルス

CAPSULE / Metro Pulse

Retro-futurism goes for a drive through bass and sax highlights. Shoutout to Nakata Yasutaka for making new mixes of every single for this album; the new breakdown in “フューチャー・ウェイヴ” (Future Wave) is great. “シーサイド・ドリームス” (Seaside Dreams) and “エスケープ・フロム・リアリティ” (Escape from reality) are both faithful 80s reconstructions on opposite spectrums, while “スターリー・ナイト” (Starry Night) experiments with the sound. Also fun: the phone sounds in “トゥー・マイ・ワールド” (Welcome To My World).

wowgokoro / Spell the End

魚心 / Spell the End / Bandcamp

The mix of underproduced bedroom electronica and pentatonic scales sent me straight back to the Touhou doujin days. Spell the End is (deliberately?) unpolished to the point where sometimes the rough edges detract from the music. But it makes up for it with some great transcendent moments in “暗渠” (Ankyo) and “Flash Freezing”.

RYUTist / (En)

RYUTist / (エン)

Experimental pop that, despite a disparate who’s-who of collaborators, manages to cleanly root itself in the sparkle of idol pop. Lots of very fun neat details throughout, like the syncopated brass in “うらぎりもの” (Uragirimono) and the acid house of “PASSPort”.

Kinoshita Takuto / Girls still dreaming today (EP)

木下拓斗 / Girls still dreaming today / Bandcamp

Same person as kinoue64 but minus the Vocaloid. Still shoegaze, but now more early 2000s alt rock than 2010s j-pop. “Darkside” is the standout track.

Nakamura Kaho / NIA

中村佳穂 / NIA

Nakamura Kaho isn’t too concerned about perfect vocals or sticking to a genre or influence, making for a fresh album. Opener “KAPO” zips from beach pop to sad dance chill hop. Promo single “さよならクレール” (Sayonara wa Claire) has influences from pop&b and Vocaloid pop, and goes at a pace so fast that you can’t help but be anxious even before the song falls into orchestral pop then completely breaks down.

There are certainly places where NIA goes for a really cheerful pop, but even those songs usually layered with weird instrumentation choices and a tinge of melancholy. Honestly if this album reminds me of anyone it’s (more anxious) Mika.

Good but I’ll probably forget it exists

YeYe / Hamidete!

YeYe / はみ出て！

So many fun retro references in a breezy package. YeYe also isn’t afraid to break convention with mid-song changes in rhythm or genre. The opener goes from big band 90s j-pop into 90s hip hop. There are some cafe pop songs, but even those have intricate instrumental details that never bore.

MONDO GROSSO / BIG WORLD

Big World features collaborations with a wide variety of artists, leading to house dance tracks that have influences from orchestral movie scores (Sakamoto Ryuichi & Mitsushima Hikari, “In This World”) to pop punk (Chai, “Oh No!”). Then there’s the tracks that aren’t dance at all: from indie shoegaze rock (Saito Asuka of Nogizaka46, “Stranger”) to gospel pop (Nakano Yoshie of Ego-Wrappin’, “迷い人” (Mayoibito)). Each song is decent, but as a whole this album is doing too much.

ZOMBIE-CHANG / STRESS de STRESS

Zombie-Chang is back and more hardcore techno than ever. The ominous high-BPM chants about stress, Animal Crossing, and knitting speak to how all of us are felt at the beginning of the year.

Zukai / Go Under My Cheap Dream

ズカイ / ちゃちな夢中をくぐるのさ / Bandcamp

Cheery 2000s pop rock, with some hints of more recent dream pop production and also random 8-bit sounds thrown in. There’s definitely a messiness that one can attribute to bedroom pop or early 2000s underproduction or just general discordant experimentation.

Hitsujibungaku / our hope

羊文学 / our hope

The early 70s inspiration brings a new sound to their music. It already lurked in their prior music, but the back-to-basics approach of this album and its weirder chords make these influences all the more clear now. There’s also typical Hitsujibungaku tracks: more shoegaze, a bit of Spitz, and reminiscent of a ever-moving train.

Faves: “hopi”, “電波の街” (Denpa no Machi), “ワンダー” (Wonder)

BATROICA METAL SUMMER JACKET / MUNYA MUNYA

So this is a band that, when it had maybe one song out, was slated to play at Next Music From Tokyo, because three of its members played at NMFT before — 2 of my faves Gozensanji no Taikutsu and 1 of The Taupe. Then the pandemic happened. Two years later, they’ve released their first album.

BMSJ is definitely very different from Gozensanji no Taikutsu or The Taupe. Some of their stuff sounds like indie-era Sakanaction but more polished — “Weekend Dance” in particular. “ゆめをみたことをわすれないで” (Don’t forget to see your dream) sounds like a more lush Asian Kung-Fu Generation. However, overall I’d compare them more to Two Door Cinema Club or Tokyo Police Club, with a sprinkle of new wave most obvious in “Police”.