Monthly Listening: Dec 2022

[adevyish]

Longer post than usual because I was trying to clear through my albums backlog for my annual round-up and people were rushing to release songs and albums before the end of the year.

Special New Wave Corner

• Sayonara Ponytail / Curious Girl
  • Me, every few months on one of these posts: the MTV era is back!
• Hoshimiya Toto + Templime / Lonely Girl
  • ~Nintendo-core~ à la Floppy.
• Capsule / Starry Night
  • Capsule tricks you into think this isn’t going to be yet another 80s song on an album full of them but: it is!
• Alvvays / Very Online Guy
  • The Devo-esque section in this is so good.

The Usual

• Sobs / Last Resort
  • Dream pop takes on pop punk.
• Niiiya / Shiori (CW: kitchen knife)
  • Bedroom j-pop rock with a dance beat.
• tricot / #Achoi (CW: emetophobia)
  • Pink toilets? tricot must be in their cali≠gari era.
• Limre / Kimi to Jinkoushoku
  • Remind me to listen to summer albums when they come out in the summer, so I’m not sadly listening to cheery pop rock in the middle of an unusual cold snap.
• For Tracy Hyde / Lungs ★
  • Like being submerged in a fuzzy bath of 90s alt-rock.
• culenasm / Futari no Kizuato
  • culenasm are back in proper sad pop rock form.
• Sari / Milky Way
  • Dark electronica meets traditional melodies.
• Sugababes / Beat Is Gone ★
  • This was written in 2012/3, and although it’s been leaked for some years now, I never listened to it. Finally sat down with it now that it’s officially released!
• Enno Cheng / Before dawn (thiⁿ í-keng beh kng) (CW: flashing)
  • Dark dance pop softened to match Enno Cheng’s vibe.
• Sweet John (Tian Yuehan) / Chuzhong
  • Sweet John’s usual style is soft, intricate guitars and percussion woven with uneasy melodies, but they struggle with choruses. This song lets go of some of the intricacy to build emphasis.
• neochi / Yubikiri Genman ★
  • So happy to see Daijiro Nakagawa of Jyocho sell out produce a girl group! Musically, this is slightly stripped back Jyocho.
• Ai Kamano / Light (Hikari)
  • Soft chorals vocals and light guitars slowly build up to a cathartic finale.