Monthly Listening: Apr 2023
Posting this a bit early because surely no one’s going to release music on a Sunday. Right?
- Patrick Wolf / Nowhere Game (CW: horror)
- Back this year after a decade away from music. A great bit of dark art pop with some electro unease.
- miina and luci / Francoise Gilot (Orange wo Tabeta) ★
- Hesitant melancholic indie pop from Sayonara Ponytail’s vocalist.
- Ozone / Painful Hug (Tòngkǔ Yǒngbào) (CW: flashing)
- Six months and six music videos into debut, Ozone finally drops the K-pop pretensions and goes full Mandopop rock ballad.
- Agust D / Snooze feat. Sakamoto Ryuichi & Kim Woosung (The Rose)
- A sequel to “So Far Away” that’s more bitter than sweet. (Especially given the lyrics and a member of The Rose featuring.)
- Chanmina / I’m Not OK (live) (CW: flashing)
- Although this song starts in Chanmina’s hip hop lane, the chorus is pure pop punk anthem.
- Fennel / dive deep
- Slow build 90s post-punk from tricot bassist hirohiro.
- Hitsujibungaku / Fool (CW: motion sickness, eating)
- A song about bargaining, driven by inescapable guitar and floaty choral vocals.
- Snarls / Walk In The Woods
- This is one of the indie bands opening for Louis Tomlinson on his North American tour! Dream emo pop.
- Homecomings / Us (CW: motion sickness) ★
- Hopeful shoegaze woven with dreamy details and sprinkled with dissonance.
- Shuta Hasunuma Philharmonic Orchestra / Yuu 5ji feat. xiangyu ★
- The experimental leanings of electronica but with a proper brass section to draw some depth out.
- Olive Girl / Teatro
- Neo city pop, sure, but it’s much closer to the original jazz funk influences and the CLAMP-adjacent 90s city pop I listened to before the city pop revival.
- Lee Chae Yeon / Knock (CW: flashing, motion sickness)
- Very catchy late 2000s dance pop with updated production but god the camera motion on this music video was actually worse than Chanmina’s “Doctor” which is saying something.
- Sirup / Fine Line feat. Skaai (prod. uin) (CW: flashing, motion sickness)
- I am posting this as much for the music video as the catchy glitchy house beat.
Also a little bonus this month: a Spotify playlist of the songs performed at the Said the Whale × VSO concert, minus the brand-new Overture — here!