Posted by:alfredopasta

A 22-year-old guy who likes to discuss anime, watch baseball and is currently stuck in idol hell.

4 replies on “Infrequent J-Song Roundup #22 – Favorites of 2022

  1. No offense taken my good sir XD

    I already have a hard enough time condensing a month’s worth of songs into just ten featured tracks, so I can’t begin to imagine doing that for the entire year, so awesome work in that regard. Speaking from experience, I know how pain-staking of a task that is, Haha!

    Oooh, I haven’t thought of Hekuto Pascal in a while, rather I believe I found out about them back when I wasn’t yet keeping myself up to date with more recent Japanese bands/artists so they kinda ended up getting lost in the mix once I did start doing that. Something to note about “fish in the pool” here which I personally found interesting is that it’s also technically a Waltz, and is probably (or in my opinion at least plays a part in) what gives it that whimsical but also very classy feel. Definitely a neat find you got there.

    I get what you mean about “Kibun janai no”, though in my case I just end up putting BAD Mode in its entirety in the background (LOL). iirc, this song is also one of Utada Hikaru’s favorite songs off of the album too from what she said about it in the Liner Voice+ tracks on Spotify. One thing I took away from her discussion of the track is how the song itself was born off of Utada being literally down and not in the mood during the cold Winter holidays, but the only lyrics she had to work with for the longest time was that English rhyme.

    Something that I don’t ever get to talk much about it in my write-ups is that I actually really like cover artists, and I think that’s partly why I thought I’d really get into Bandori back when the Garupa mobage first launched. That being said, I didn’t expect for it to be as expansive off the bat (with five active concurrent bands at the jump) and as I was too deep in Aqours content at the time the franchise just passed me by. I’m slooowly trying to get into it thanks to Spotify, and I was glad to actually have had the opportunity to listen to a RAS album in particular because of the Exchange/Rate. I said as much in my review, but ERA just has banger track after banger track, and HELL? or HELL! is absolutely one of ’em.

    Admittedly I do catch myself subconsiously humming a tune from Rirune!Rirune!Rirune! every so often, and while the times I do it’s usually Natsu no Record ga Mawarimasu, Lovennu just as that catchy sing-song-y hook that really just sticks to you too. After a quick check-in on what the Rirunede members are now up to, it appears Kirihara Mizuki is at least going to be part of a new duo idol project set to debut soon from what I father so something to look forward to on that end.

    See, WatashiKoi works perfect as a closer! JK (XD) But yeah no I definitely underplayed how much I like this song in my review. That whole section from 3:16 to 3:40 has to be one of my favorites across all Idol Music, or at least the ones I’ve listened to. Speaking on the performance aspect too, I don’t believe I’ve mentioned how I also liked the sort of gap between the subdued sound and the otherwise lively textbook idol movements, which adds yet another neat layer of intricacy to the song too in my opinion.

    Always happy to see the Infrequent Roundup whenever it comes our way, and I look forward to what the coming year brings to Omunibasu (and the Exchange/Rate too by extension :P)

    Happy New Years my dude 😀

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    1. It’s honestly great when older songs/artists suddenly get a boost of exposure/popularity later on, as shown with Hekuto Pascal and the increased use of that song in social media posts. I’m sure you’ve experienced the same but I do get some song recommendations from whatever’s popular on TikTok/Instagram, and I’m glad “fish in the pool” got its popularity these past couple years (and maybe in your case, a resurfacing of their stuff).

      It’s interesting to now learn that about “Kibun Janai no”, given that it’s one of the least listened to tracks on BAD MODE, according to Spotify (might be THE least listened to track, if you take out the EN version of “Find Love” and the last “Face My Fears” remix). Maybe it kinda got lost among all the hits on that album, but yeah… I loved that song and it’s cool to hear Utada herself say it’s one of her favorites as well.

      I know you’ve got your hands full with Love Live but honestly, it’s never too late to get into Bandori!! I kinda had the feeling from prior conversations/posts that you might’ve leaned more towards bands like Poppin’ Party or Roselia, but I’m glad you enjoyed the RAS album. And yeah, on the topic of covers, it’s pretty incredible how well Bushiroad pulls it off throughout their franchises. D4DJ recently did a cover of “Plastic Love” that was a pretty fresh remix of the original; you might find it to be enjoyable (https://youtu.be/Hb_0AMfM3c0). But yeah, I’m sure you’ve felt the same but having covers in their games definitely is a selling point for a lot of people and something that can get the interest of those who’ve never heard of the series. So they certainly know what they’re doing and what’s working lol (on another note, this will most likely never happen, but it is interesting to imagine the Love Live characters doing cover songs haha)

      Oh sweet!! I’m glad the Rirunede ladies are still doing idol stuff. I also actually found out that Yuuka is in a multimedia franchise called Denonbu (another DJ/EDM based music project), and being someone who’s enjoyed some of the songs from it (example, https://youtu.be/BVg-5YjVRNA), that’s pretty rad she got a role in that. Komiya Arisa also plays a main character in that franchise so… cool connection 😛

      …good point 😛 Another thing that I thought was cool is that they didn’t really sing many parts as a collective unit, and instead gave each member their individual lines. It gave, at least to me, a better understanding/appreciation for each of their voices. Even in that specific part you’re referring to: I could clearly hear every individual voice despite the vocal intersections, and I feel like that’s just another showing of how well/smooth they organized that section.

      And yeah! Thanks for always stopping by, it’s fun to talk about some of the music I’ve featured throughout the year. Hope you have a great year as well 😀

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      1. Oh yeah no definitely. Likewise, I’m pretty sure bands/artists appreciate the random signal boost whenever a song of theirs goes viral out of nowhere so in that sense I’m happy for them too (though might be bittersweet for bands/artist who already stopped making music where it’s like ‘why are you all liking my stuff *now*, loljk), but yeah really goes to show too just how influential JP TikTok/IG has become in sort of shaping the mainstream of Japanese Music.

        I think a lot of that has to do with how (and this is something I only found out recently too) Spotify combines playcounts from when the song is released as a single, so the A-sides will always just be that high relative to album original tracks. All the same though, even among the album originals it’s still the least listened. That being said, and I do remember having this realization in my review of SIRUP EP2, but 2 million is still a lot relatively speaking (XD)

        I’m not as neck deep (…yet) into Superstar/Liella as I was/am with Aqours and Niji so in that sense I now have time to start getting into it yeah (LOL). Yup, when I briefly tried out Garupa I was leaning towards Afterglow because of Ran specifically (I like her and the band’s aesthetic) but sound-wise that would be more or less where I’d lean towards . Oh wut, I haven’t seen that Plastic Love cover, Haha! That’s kinda sick ngl. But yeah no I think D4DJ specifically is neatly situated in that regard since there’s deeeefinitely an audience for DJ remixes of popular songs/anison. You say that, but I think with the upcoming Love Live vtuber/ltuber project, we *might* actually get that as part of their regular content, just going by what Japanese vtubers are doing right now.

        Yo, that Denonbu song is kinda nice (and Arisha’s in it??) lol, but yeah, I really liked Mizuki’s vocals so I’m glad she’s still pursuing a music/idol career. They’re all pretty young still so if they stick around the game they could land themselves in a future LL! project, JK 😛

        Oooh, good catch on the line distribution yeah, definitely not something you hear a lot in Idol Music too. This is actually a bit of a pet peeve of mine as well with “bigger” idol groups (specifically LL!) where you can’t really appreciate the members’ vocals most of the time outside of their solo parts in a song or when they’re in subunits. You can even make the argument that that’s why early 5-member Liella sounded like a breath of fresh air for a lot of fans.

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      2. That’s true. I feel like with how popular Utada Hikaru is and a lot of songs on that album having really high numbers, I was just surprised that “Kibun Janai no” wasn’t exactly close to those other tracks. But like you said, 2 mil is still a lot haha

        TBH Bandori wasn’t exactly one of the main things that took a lot of my ‘fandom/free time’ last year (unlike Love Live or IDOLY PRIDE), so I feel like it’s an easy series to just look around for a bit and appreciate some of the things it has to offer. If anything, stuff involving the Bandori seiyuu (subbed videos, streams, twitter browsing, etc) is what I was most interested in, but some of the more 2D-centered content was fun to watch such as the fun/comedic short series in Garupa Pico. Same could be said about D4DJ, and I totally agree with what you said. I mean, one of the other groups, Merm4id did a really good cover of SILENT SIREN’s “Fujiyama Disco” (https://youtu.be/re4MxhFxpqk) that I put on repeat for a while, so it’s definitely a cool aspect of that project.

        I haven’t been following that Love Live VTuber thing too closely (might be because I don’t watch VTubers in the first place) but yeah, I could also see that happening. I was thinking more along the lines of the main four lineups doing song covers which, like at this point in their 12-13 year existence, if they haven’t done it yet, I can’t see Aqours or Niji or Liella doing it at all. But I guess if fans are REALLY interested in that kind of stuff, they could rely on the seiyuu content outside of the franchise lol

        Yeah, and Arisha wasn’t in that song I linked to but you can hear her in this one (https://youtu.be/o7OzYMNg9K0). A bit different from her usual vocals as Dia, plus you can hear her sing in English a good amount 😛 Glad to see she’s getting more work as a seiyuu/performer!

        I also noticed the same thing with the line distribution in SHACHI’s album; that’s probably another reason why I like so many of the songs on that album, especially with songs like “MAMA” and “JIBUNGOTO”. And it’s honestly fascinating that so many idol groups have large amounts of members in them, and how that can be a bit of a negative (not only with what you said with vocals, but it does feel a bit sad that some members in said idol groups can get overshadowed/forgotten simply because of the big cast of members). 9 is already a lot for a handful of LL fans, so I can’t imagine how some could handle 48 looool

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