Favorite Japanese Songs of 2019

A rundown of some of the year’s highlights from Aimyon, Sakanaction, Tricot and more

Showcasing the diversity of Japanese music was the most important point upon putting together my ridiculously huge Spotify playlist of Japanese music in 2019. I wanted sentimental drama-show theme songs to share the same space with internet EDM, backpack rap, cutesy idol-pop, emo-adjacent math rock, city-pop revival and everything else that the country’s music scene had to offer. I wanted to share a wide mix of sounds without worrying whether or not it was too eclectic, too niche or too un-fashionable to pitch it to someone else. I just wanted to show that there are a lot more out there.

Even with 600 songs, I see some blind spots, notably metal, techno and experimental beat music. Part of that has to do with my sources: I mostly pick up on Japanese music through YouTube and Ototoy, a Japanese online music market, and barely through SoundCloud and Bandcamp. Some don’t do well on YouTube and don’t distribute digitally outside of those latter outlets. Even if they post on YouTube, maybe they don’t stream at all; some are relegated to, like, a exclusive release through Tower Records’ brick-and-mortar shops. But I hope you find at least something new from the playlist.

So yeah, here is the big Spotify playlist of Japanese music from 2019. If you would like, here is my YouTube playlist where I archived all that I’ve found throughout the years. I’ve kept a separate one for idol music, too. (Idol music won’t appear here because I made its own separate year-end list!) Here’s a selection of songs that I wanted to highlight, and since there were so many more to choose from, I also added further recommendations on bottom of each pick. Enjoy!

Aimyon: “Haru No Hi”

Aimyon’s music often sounds unfixed in time. Her acoustic guitar riffs fits just right in the now as much as the ’90s, like the music of her personal hero Masamune Kusano of Spitz, or even the late ’60s when Japanese acts found their voice via American folk-rock records. Her reputation as a songwriter rose exponentially since last year’s hit “Marigold,” a rich exercise in nostalgia, flashbacks and the power of memory. The treasured past of its narrator sounded vividly like the present, tangible like the listener’s very own, with Aimyon mining the most precious details of a bygone make-believe romance.

“Haru No Hi” follows a similar strategy. The narrative is also based on a lovely, nostalgic memory, and Aimyon highlights the specifics to make it more real. In a way, the memory actually does belong to a specific someone: the setting of Kitasenju station is a detail lifted from Crayon Shinchan, the anime franchise which “Haru No Hi” serves as the title track to its recent feature film. But that’s ultimately more of an Easter egg with the essentials of a lover promising another a life of happiness as applicable for anyone’s romantic fantasy.

Contextually as a media tie-in, “Haru No Hi is about the past, an origin story of a family. But as far as the song itself is concerned, it revels in a future yet unwritten. Aimyon writes about it so brightly, and she sings it with such commitment to make it come true. If the Hallmark-card polish of her poetry didn’t read with enough cheese — “if we split your strength and my weakness, I wonder what great things would happen,” she sings in the chorus — her blind optimism may make “Haru No Hi” feel a bit too soft around the edges to fit in the same space of current pop that deals more with the cruel present through deadpan sarcasm and bleak irony. But Aimyon’s positive outlook of the future, and the hope that we can still dream and create something joyful, is also a perspective I very much loved to have in company. It may have felt alone in its own place, singing a kind of love that felt truer to want a decade ago (marriage, in this economy?), but it also let me know that desire is still there somewhere deep down, maybe not family but to just spend the next lifetime with someone else.

The twee synths in the bridge stutter like a broken record as though it refuses to bring the track to an end. It’s fitting it’s also the modern-sounding element in the song: it sounds like the present cutting into a flashback when we innocently daydreamed about a better future than the one we have now. Is that dream still possible? Well, there’s a reason why Aimyon wrote the chorus punctuated by ellipses and question marks. It’s all best left unanswered.

• See also: Harureo: “Tachimachi Arashi” / Kaela Kimura: “Continue”

Zombie-Chang: “Saredo Shiawase”

As committed “Saredo Shiawase” is to its infinity loop as other Zombie-Chang songs, the music plays with an especially impatient urge to finally break out of its set tracks to instead become something different. The antsy mood is a response to Meirin Yung’s own frustrations with her life trajectory: “I’m so tired of myself/who can’t seem to ever grow up/a side of me who stays in her daydreams/keeps getting in the way,” she opens the song, and the rest is a classic case of millennial burnout, bitter from being cheated out of life’s promises.

The song could end there, just moping around in her bed thinking how her twenties aren’t unfolding as she imagined. But it’s her saying fuck it and moving on in the best chorus ever written this year — “I don’t care anymore/I give up” — that differentiates “Saredo Shiawase” from other millennial burnout anthems. Instead of mere reportage of the current climate, Yung gives us an image of what’s possibly out there after we stop crying and throw out everything that we were told to believe. “Lastly, just dance with me/That way, there’s nothing to be afraid of,” she closes out the song. Giving up never sounded so fun.

*See also: CHAI: “Great Job” / Czecho No Republic: “Everything”

Homecomings: “Cakes”

Are we a thing or are we not? Two characters in “Cakes” spend the song’s quiet hours wondering about that very question yet they refrain from pursuing the matters any further. They do their best to keep it under wraps even though they sincerely want to express their feelings behind the charades: “I softly drop a needle during the night, and until the sad news starts to come on/ I was waiting for you,” goes a memorable line, delivered so nonchalantly despite the feelings behind it. If Homecomings’ cozy acoustic-guitar riffs are reflective of the current mood between them, it’s not hard to see why they wouldn’t want to possibly ruin such a precious situation. They find peace by keeping quiet, and Homecomings make their connection feel like the best kept secret.

*See also: SaToA: “Float” / Predawn: “Garden of Hydrangea”

Seiko Oomori (ft. Kazunobu Mineta): “Re: Re: Love”

A scene that I will remember from 2019 is Seiko Oomori and Kazunobu Mineta performing “Re: Re: Love” on live television. The two are completely absorbed in the song’s moment by the song’s climax, and they start dogpiling on each other. Mineta starts gnawing on Oomori’s head in one broadcast; Oomori dropkicks Mineta in another. It looks like absolute chaos from the outside, certainly a chemistry only the two can truly understand, and it’s this brand of inexplicable, inseparable love that they capture into music precisely in its messy yet beautiful form. “You knowing more about me than me/ is disgusting/ but I loved you from 100 years ago,” Oomori confesses during that climax over rock music with sounds fumbling over each other like the two musicians at the center. He’s a trainwreck that she can’t help but be drawn to.

*See also: Shinsei Kamattechan: “Delay” / Risa Takeda: “Shizumeru Tsuki”

Gozansanji To Taikutsu: “Kamisama”

“Kamisama” gains resonance with context as the last song to Gozensanji To Taikutsu’s last record before calling it quits this year — and what a finale. The band bleed out the romance behind the pursuit of music as a passion — “But it was something that would die out some day,” Anisonin sighs — and yet they shout their lyrics to remind their time wasn’t wasted. It’s not an explosive final statement but instead a slow simmer into nothingness. It doesn’t captures a dramatic rise and fall than it does a lifespan of a creative project at its most sober and realistic.

*See also: Mouse on the Keys: “Circle” / Paionia: “Hone”

Honoka Rin: “Busui Na Kiss”

The song is admittedly not that complicated: it’s a standard singer-songwriter affair with a catchy melody and a mopey guitar whine of a hook that wriggled its way into my head all year. But that catchy melody complicates some things. One, I don’t think I should be able to sing a line like “I just/ compared to before/ and forgive me/ started to/ hate you more” with such ease; those break-up words feel less like a bandage finally being ripped off than, well, singing a pop song. The friendliness also makes it hard to pin down the feeling Honoka Rin’s getting at. She doesn’t sound particularly tortured by boredom, guilt or regret, but she’s never completely relieved from them either. It leaves this vague woe-is-me melancholy that feels deceptively sweet to indulge in — maybe it’s this very feeling that keeps her coming back to her same old ways.

*See also: Karin.: “Seishun Datsuisho” / Miki Natsumi: “Sayonara Anata Wo Sukidatta Watashi”

Seiho: “I Feel Tired Everyday”

Seiho gives us the best song title of the year, and the song, too, captures the exhausting daze that permeated 2019. The deflated house groove live up to the titular phrase with the track caught in a trance as though it has gone beyond the point of fatigue where one’s too tired to shut their eyes. The synths give a dim glimmer like neon signs still lit during dawn. Seiho turns up the comedown rave with a speedy drum break during its last third for one last hurrah, but by then, it’s more like a last spurt of a marathon run: you’re just dying to cross the finish line and rest.

*See also: Powder: “New Tribe” / Qrion: “Hope You’re Okay”

Chelmico: “Balloon”

While Chelmico’s feelgood raps continue to win the attention of many (including, out of all people, tea giant Sokenbicha), the duo has historically excelled at making break-up songs. “Balloon” is their best yet, not only zeroing in on the nuances of romantic separation but also showing off their attention to craft. Rachel and Mamiko display a superb grasp on technique with the two switching between multiple cadences at will; the latter shifts from rapping to singing mid-verse, messing around even more with meter. That said, it’s the chorus that taps into the vividness of sensual memory that firmly sticks. While their skills as rappers put them on the map, their sharp, empathic songwriting is the thing that truly keeps winning new fans.

*See also: Kuro (ft. EVISBEATS): “Portland” / Tsubame (ft. AAAMYYY & Itto): “You”

FNCY: “Konya Wa Medicine”

“Konya Wa Medicine” introduced all the things you had to know about what to expect from FNCY — a supergroup of sorts made by Chinza Dopeness, Zen-La-Rock and G.RINA. The preference for a more retro sounds mined from ’80s pop, funk and hip-hop sounds the most obvious as well as a feelgood take on casual subject matter — other songs in the self-titled full-length include “DRVN” about, uh, driving and “FNCY Clothes” about, well, you guessed it.

What’s most in display in “Konya Wa Medicine” is how the three feeds off of each of the member’s energies. They already follow through a funny script in the first verse with Chinza Dopeness and Zen-La-Rock dragging G.RINA to go out for the night to enjoy the music. (Chinza Dopeness in particular gets even more playful in the music video.) After all the messing around, though, they arrive at the most earnest takeaway: “Last night a DJ saved my life,” sings G.RINA, the very person reluctant to get out of the house. FNCY has fun celebrating the simple things — the life-saving qualities of music — with equally serious care to its subject matter.

*See also: DJ Tatsuki (ft. Kvi Baba & Zorn): “Invisible Lights” / Dengaryu: “Changes”

Sakanaction: “Wasurerarenaino”

Ichiro Yamaguchi attempts to do in “Wasurerarenaino” what countless other artists have tried do since the beginning of recorded pop music: “I want to make it forever/ these days,” he sings at the top of the lungs in the chorus, immortalizing the memory and the feeling of a day that only comes once in a lifetime. When Sakanaction documents it through the band’s collage of nostalgic sounds — the glossy synth riff and the thick boogie bass line that echoes the MOR funk of ’80s city pop — it’s as though you can actually see time collapse into something timeless. The lyrics, too, lets the song’s concept of time become a little removed and exist in a line of its own. The cruelness of today gets cleansed as a thing of the past so we can move on into our future — a perfect perspective of a band who keeps one eye to the past as it looks ahead.

*See also: Hirai Dai: “The Gift” / Sugar’s Campaign: “City Pop”

“Reiji No Machi”

Pasocom Music Club (ft. Inoue Warabi)

Colorful synths paints the city into an electronic wonderland, full of towering structures and glowing lights. Inoue Warabi then gives those fixtures life, filling in the spaces of this panorama of a late-night metropolis with feelings of wonder as well as melancholy.

*See also: Batsu (ft. EVO+): “Utakata” / Aiobahn (ft. Rionos): “Koko Ni Iru”

“Killer Tune Kills Me”

Kirinji (ft. YonYon)

A song reminding you of someone you’d rather forget is bad enough, but it’s another curse in itself when that very song is actually an irresistible tune. It’s hard to blame Kirinji and YonYon for failing to stay away from a haunting track like “Killer Tune Kills Me” that’s based on such a sweet groove.

*See also: YonYon (ft. Hitomi Toi): “Overflow” / SUKISHA (ft. Kiki Vivi Lily): “Blue In Green”

“Tape Loop”

Sawa Angstrom

Each bit of progress shown in the electronic-pop trio’s three fascinating EPs points back to the chillout-pop captured in “Tape Loop,” off of DdTpt. Delicate sounds float along such an abundance of negative space, while the minimal atmosphere retains a sense of purity — a fine setting as a point of origin.

*See also: [.que]: “Stargazer” / tuLaLa (ft. Masaya Mifune): “Caution Icy”

“Horizon”

PAELLAS

MATTON murmurs a wish, half-expecting it to be heard: “Even if it’s a lie/ if we can keep it together/ for the dawn that’s soon to come.” The band’s 3 a.m. funk is too muted to tap into an emotion such as desperation, but its deflated groove is perhaps indicative of how well it’s going to go once the sun comes up.

*See also: Oh Shu: “Lucky” / The fin.: “Gravity”

“Afureru”

Tricot

Ennui shakes up Tricot, and the agitation plays as the fuel to the band’s fire. The rhythm section is restlessly at work to fight off stasis, filling every empty space with jagged riffs and busy drum fills, while Ikkyu sings a lullaby to calm the storm: “I want to betray for now/ I’m weak but I want to keep drowning.”

*See also: Passepied: “Gravity” / Polkadot Stingray: “Denkou Sekka”

“1999”

Group Action

Despite the sunny image put forth by the light jazz-rock, Group Action ponder about a much darker topic concerning hitting age 99 and facing the eternal slumber. “I just had a feeling that there might be something more beautiful out there” — there’s never enough time, is there?

*See also: The Wisely Brothers: “Kikyuu” / Satoko Shibata: “Namida”

“Bones”

Sushiboys

Kicking it from the top, the title track to Sushiboys’ new album frames the duo’s music with a different, almost life-to-death kind of urgency. “We’re all bones when we’re dead,” he sings on the chorus, and the anxiety of nothingness makes the inaka sounds like a trap as much as a playground.

*See also: PARKGOLF (ft. Farmhouse): “Spice” / Dodo: “Renq”

“A Perfect Triangle, A Rising Sun Human”

JYOCHO

Everything falls into place in the title track to JYOCHO’s latest EP with each moving part working in harmony with one another. The jagged guitars feed off the intensity of the bashing pianos, a flute solo gracefully waltzes atop the storm, and the vocals guide those forces skyward.

*See also: Toitoitoi: “A Spell” / Zekkei Kujira: “Geological”

“AprilBlue”

AprilBlue

A supergroup? A side gig while the members’ main bands take hiatus? Whatever the case, the shoegaze act’s debut single still hold a lot of promise (hopefully) for their future. The chorus checks all the boxes: Haruki Funasako unleashes a tidal wave of emotions colored so vibrantly by the bleeding guitar lines.

*See also: For Tracy Hyde: “Girls’ Searchlight” / SPOOL: “Be My Valentine”

“Netsu”

Mekakushe

“Netsu” locates the sweet middle between the melancholy and the twee. The songwriter’s central plead to snuggle closer is based on a rather cheesy fact of body temperature, but a touch of devastation — that her wish ultimately won’t be granted — shades this delicate bedroom pop a bit darker.

*See also: Shuri Uchida: “Rhythm Ni Awasete Odoru” / Lical: “Four Side Effect”

“Zawa Make It”

Seira Kariya

Seira Kariya sings about a connection as effervescent as her triumphant dance-pop production. Anchored by a beatific start-stop synth drop in the chorus, the production also makes the case that future-bass has finally been embedded into the J-pop lexicon as a new normal.

*See also: Perfume: “Nananananairo” / Supercell (ft. Ann & Gaku): “#Love”

“SHO”

DJ Newtown

Tofubeats’ new album for his resurrected DJ Newtown moniker samples his own songs into dazzling breakcore tracks. “SHO” flips “SHOPPINGMALL,” and the extroverted cut-up house bounces with glee as though it’s trying to shake loose the original song’s ambivalence towards life.

*See also: Hakushi Hasegawa: “Desert” / In the Blue Shirt: “Good Feeling”

“MU”

Rinne Yoshida

The model-turned-singer teams up with Kenmochi Hidefumi once again, this time turning to his surreal dance-pop to shed teen quirks for good. She takes on a more reserved approach, putting on an unaffected brand of cool, and Hidefumi guides her into her new phase via the rave-piano drop.

*See also: Hidefumi Kenmochi: “Fight Club” / Xiangyu: “Kinkonkin”

“Bloom in the City”

She Is Summer

Slick, retro funk music of She Is Summer immediately sets a scenery tied to urban life. Fitting, then, for “Bloom in the City” to strive to be a soothing remedy for the more lonely moments of city-living. “It’s gonna be alright,” she offers as a pick-me-up, just enough to get through another tough day.

*See also: Monari Wakita: “A La Espadrille” / Connie (ft. Tomomi Oda): “Glitter”

“Hatsukoi”

Lucky Kilimanjaro

A meek 2-step-ish percussion shuffles along while the bashful synth-bass line eventually blooms into a firework. Despite the soft fuzziness, Yukimaru Kumamoto sings a bittersweet song about a first love that didn’t work out but continues to inform every encounter thereafter.

*See also: SIRUP: “Pool” / YOHLU: “Sonic”

“Hakujitsu”

King Gnu

Tsuneta Daiki cries out in agony over an irreversible mistake. The band patch his bleeding heart with a slick, hip-hop-inspired groove; Iguchi Satoru backs him up as the more reasoned voice. And yet despite the collective effort, Daiki’s insistent desire to erase the past and start anew sharply cuts through the mix.

*See also: WONK: “Orange Mug” / Ovall: “Come Together”

“Namerakana Hibi”

Mitsume

The woolly comfort found in Mitsume’s jangle rock can be deceiving. While it has a warm air of nostalgia, “Namerakana Hibi” is rather bittersweet with the band yearning to return again to those mellower days shared with that special someone. It’s more of a reminder of what once was.

*See also: South Penguin: “Idol” / TENDRE: “Self”

“Haru Ni Yuraredo Kimi Omou”

Kobasolo (ft. Kopi)

Feeling supersedes meaning. The brain’s too busy catching up with the speed and intensity in which Kobasolo and Kopi throw, respectively, zigzagging guitars and entrancing word salads before letting it all digest. But the busyness precisely nails a heart that’s head over heels.

*See also: Yorushika: “Kokoro Ni Ana Ga Aita” / ZUTOMAYO: “Nouriueno Cracker”

“Utopia”

HALLCA

“Utopia” plays with HALLCA’s signature retro-funk foundation introduced in last year’s Apertif EP slightly with a faster, more Southern bass-embedded drum rhythm. A good-enough stylistic departure that suggests her already-well-established sound still has a lot more room for exploration.

*See also: Punipunidenki (ft. Mikeneko Homeless): “Last Summer” / Miho Asahi: “Swimmy Swimmy”

“Seaside”

Layla

The band grieve an unrequited love, and the scrawling rock amplifies the internal wrestling of emotions into one intense act of catharsis. Desperation turns up the heat but also a feeling of absolute defeat: “I didn’t expect much to begin with/ I only amount to this much anyway, right?”

*See also: Culenasm: “Petal” / Popoq: “Solaris”

“Kimi No Yoni Ikiretara”

Uchuu Nekoko

The dream-pop base sets up a fitting scene of Kano daydreaming of another’s life by the sea. A classic amplifier of longing in pop, the reverb-drenched guitar riff blows up the adoration (or is it envy?) behind her quiet sighs: “If I could only live like you… / If I could only spend time like you…”

*See also: Mele: “117” / Afloat Storage: “Bye”

“Red”

Spangle Call Lilli Line

The rock act keep the music feather-light almost out of necessity to balance out the headiness of the lyrics. The latter remains detached like a puzzle, pieced together loosely via the sweet melody, but bits speak a want to take a step back for a piece of mind — the music gladly offers help.

*See also: The Incos: “She’s Gone” / Cinema Staff: “Shayo”

“Metropolitan”

Nakigoto

The slick shine of the indie-rock duo’s guitar tone draws you into a dizzying world that only gets more difficult to navigate when guided by vocalist Emily Minakami, who sweetly spills a series of oblique clues about the bleakness of city life: “I can’t see any stars tonight/ oh, no… I’m not crying.”

*See also: The Peggies: “Hachimitsu” / Akai Koen: “Highway Cabriolet”

“Over My Dead Body”

AAAMYYY

The music video depicts a lost wanderer in a vast forest — an accurate portrait of this soul-crushed pop sung over a deflated synth drone. AAAMYYY tries to accept the fate of her and another going off on a separate path, though she struggles to perform calm, ready to abandon it all to find peace.

*See also: Utae: “Beautiful Hell” / CRCK/LCKS: “Searchlight”

“Toge”

Sayaka Yamamoto

The former NMB48 center calling her full-on punk makeover “Toge,” or “Thorns,” may make it a bit too on the nose — not to mention the “what is normal anyway?” sentiment at the heart of the chorus — but nevertheless, this rough-around-the-edges look is one she pulls off with ease.

*See also: Chiaki Sato: “Star” / Uso To Chameleon: “L’oeil No Rasen”

“Saisei Button”

Tokyo Shoki Shodo

Singer Shiina’s voice cuts through thick feedback, the ringing noise flattens band’s punk rock into one wash of sound, and what begins as a breathy sigh intensifies as the song gets more personal: “Your room, still with the smell of your ex-girlfriend/ That shit photo you took with her.”

*See also: Hakubi: “Kobo” / Tetora: “Sunao”

“Snowboarding”

Tohji

Tohji embraces the most deep-fried impulses of today’s internet rap. The blown-out beat is shamelessly crude. The hook is vapid yet hypnotizing with its numbing melody. And he doesn’t linger, cutting the track before it hits the two-minute mark. You either get the energy or you don’t.

*See also: Taeyoung Boy: “Howl” / Yurufuwa Gang & Ryan Hemsworth: “Fresh All Day”

“Mission Accepted”

Carpainter

A standout featured in both of the producer’s two albums (!) this year, Carpainter updates classic drum ’n’ bass with today’s maximalist touch — a sense that a song can switch up any minute. And indeed, he sets up a twist, opening the gates for a rave breakdown after an assault of high-speed drums.

*See also: Native Rapper: “Like a Swimming Pool” / Intersection: “Falling (Carpainter Remix)”

“Caffeine-holic”

Kiki Vivi Lily

For Kiki Vivi Lily’s ability to spin an intimate love song from just about anything, take a listen to the delicate bedroom pop of “Caffeine-holic” where she softly sighs her conundrum: her daily routine of morning coffee is as tough to shake as the thoughts of her former lover who inspired her to adopt that very routine.

*See also: Lulu & Mikeneko Homeless: “Anything You Want” / Emi Okamoto: “Matsu Hito”

“Maboroshi”

4s4ki (ft. Itsuka)

4s4ki can lean damn close into the ugliness of depression in her murmured raps, but this shows a rare glimmer of hope. Her warmth is in service for someone else — “at the bottom of the skyscraper: nice catch” goes the maudlin chorus — as a screaming, glitching electronics takes them away.

*See also: Queen Bee: “Fire” / Reol: “Utena”

“Himitsu No Futari”

Mom

Mom sings as the grumpy brute who hides a soft heart, and the jangling pop encourages him to open up his sincere side. The chorus reveals his hostility to be for both of their best interests — “soon when the time comes/ I’m going to lose my mind and might attack you” — with him best left at a comfortable distance.

*See also: Kubotakai: “Bed Time Candy 2-Gou” / The Whoops: “Haru Ni Tsuite”

“Freeze Dry Please”

Mashinomi

The synths trailing the dreamy atmosphere suggest a glowing love story, but Mashinomi’s helium-light pop slowly begins to deflate and descend back down to a dimmer reality. Her twee, wordy verses add a personal touch, like a letter with a handwriting you can’t mistake for anyone else’s.

*See also: Kaori Mochida: “Kimi To Boku No Shoshitsuten” / Anna Takeuchi: “B.M.B.”

“Take It Slow”

Erika Nishi

While Erika Nishi struck a golden signature sound with her blend of R&B and retro-funk, a slight shake-up of the formula made her Love Me album even more exciting. “Take It Slow” grabs a more muted take of Atlanta bass to accompany her simmered-down 2 a.m. escapades.

*See also: iri: “Wonderland” / MALIYA: “I’m Ready”

“Suisei”

Hoon

The tip-toeing harp plucks already communicate bleakness, and then comes the opening lyrics: “It hurts, it hurts, it hurts: my head, my back, my soul.” The four-piece sound crushed beyond repair. While the cause of their pain remains unknown, they place blame out of spite in hopes it brings some peace.

*See also: Dove: “Tome” / Machina: “Floating Still”

“Honne”

Mega Shinnosuke

The expanded run time and the buzzing shoegaze riff make this title track a bit of an outlier compared to the slacker-vibe pop-rock that Mega Shinnosuke cranks out on the regular. But he knows how to work cinematic pop, too, taking his time to blow up a romance into something larger than life.

*See also: Enuma Fumiya: “Tsumiki Kuzushi” / She Her Her Hers: “Spiral”

“I Think I’m Falling”

KOHH

Like much of young-love rap, the Auto-Tune draws out a love-drunk feeling especially in the chorus. But unlike the other kids who wear their heart on their sleeves, KOHH remains nonchalant, dropping hints in between the pockets of his trap-rap cadence than shouting his feelings outright.

*See also: 3House (ft. Yo-Sea): “Familia” / Gummyboy (ft. Stei & Le Makeup): “Bloom”

“Maboroshi”

Smany

Languid guitars and somber pianos make for chillout-pop with the elusiveness that Smany sings about. The harsh guitar drone, however, may be the key sound to “Maboroshi” as she snaps back to a gloomy reality: “everything was a lie/ no one was there/ even your words were an illusion.”

*See also: Minakekke: “Golden Blue” / Tujiko Noriko: “At the Sea”

“Ai No Mamawo”

Ayako Kaneko

While the pep behind the singer-songwriter’s words suggest confidence, she spends much of the song beating around the bush to share her true feelings. “I’m too embarrassed,” she admits in the chorus, suddenly getting sheepish about thinking aloud: “I’ll try my best/ to reply in a way it makes sense, OK?”

*See also: Yuinishio: “Kiro” / Shiro To Eda: “Ito”

“Reboot”

Miwa

The strums cued the climax of an episode of Nagi No Oitoma — the TV show I enjoyed the most this year. Like the show, the power-pop number deals with people lacking the courage to confess their true feelings, but she makes breaking down those walls sound punk and action-packed.

*See also: Milet: “Us” / Edoga-Sullivan: “Wonderful Wonder”

“Zettaiteki Sanpunkan”

Soko Ni Naru

For a song about struggling to move forward, the trio stay restlessly in motion. While the intensity of their math-rock remain impressive, the trick doors set up around the second verse reveal some methods to their madness. The element of surprise hangs like an answer their own lyrics.

*See also: Plot Scraps: “Pray” / Ling Tosite Sigure: “Neighbormind”

“Koori Ni Tojikomete”

Superfly

The charming cheese of this love song for anime film Promare wins out its edgy counterpart. The fluff is already there in the title — “Enclose It with Ice,” should be more of a wink to the ice-wielding firefighters of Burning Rescue —and the rest of the lyrics sits just right like a Superfly signature.

*See also: Asaka: “Kill Me One More Time?” / KOTO: “Dream Night”

“Shin Seinen Maegaki”

Ningen Isu

Singing all about rebirth and a new age — “love, romance, dreams, music, people, the city, you and me: we will be born anew,” they hammer home in unison — a poignant, retrospective quality speaks though this title track to the metal trio’s 30th anniversary album.

*See also: Age Factory: “Close Eye” / The Twenties: “+PUS”

“Hana Wa Maboroshi”

YuNi

Virtual singers are still figuring it out, slowly expanding their musical palette. La La Larks pitch in their maudlin rock into the list of options, and the style suits YuNi as a part of her art-pop side. The compatibility may be predictable, but that reliability makes me more curious what else can be paired.

*See also: Kotone: “Kagome” / Co Shu Nie: “Lamp”

“Datsu, Hikage No Onna”

Otoboke Beaver

The band’s feelings are clear from the jump: “I hate you,” they spew over and over again with each instance more spiteful and personal than the last. They shape that anger into a pop force like a playground taunt so fun and tuneful that death wishes can pass by like they were lyrics to a jingle.

*See also: Tetsuko: “I Love You” / The Let’s Go’s: “Kaijyu Let’s Go’s”

“The Terminal”

Maeshima Soshi

The most versatile producer of the year with his name popping with the late-night raps of Izumi Makura to R&B dance unit Jewel to name a few. Out of his solo material, “The Terminal” marries the spectacle and intimacy showcased from Maeshima Soshi’s music in 2019.

*See also: Chip Tanaka & De De Mouse: “Peas Chips” / Snail’s House: “Pinky Promise”

“Zekka”

CVN (ft. Tamanaramen)

CVN strips away much of the zany footwork behind his glitched bass for a vaporous, gothic hip-hop beat — a track that meets his collaborator’s world more than halfway. Tamanaramen, meanwhile, escapes her heady environ for a time but still finds a home in the warm echo.

*See also: Tamanaramen: “Swim” / Noah: “Meltin’ Blue”

“Spirits of the Sea”

Kenshi Yonezu

Kenshi Yonezu’s contribution for Children of the Sea lives up to its haunting name. His processed voice, beautifully layered with Auto-Tune, gives the song an phantasmagoric feel. The ethereal texure suits the ode to a precious summer memory, fittingly elusive and bound more in a place of fantasy.

*See also: Daichi Miura: “Katasumi” / Foorin Team E: “Paprika”

Listen to these songs and so many more Japanese songs in the Spotify playlist!