Part of juke producer Oyubi’s charm lies in how prolific young creator can be. Their 2018 output registered as #17 on our favorite albums list, and it helped that Oyubi put out so much to show all the various sides to their approach to the Chicago-born style. No wasting time in 2019 — the Aspirations…
A drop isn’t just a drop in Miii’s hands. The Tokyo producer revels in big neck-twisting blasts of bass and samples, making them the central sonic foundation of their music for most of this decade. The Hanging Forest is one single track of the same name, and highlights this love of fest-friendly chaos. Space and…
Happy New Year’s from Make Believe Melodies! To celebrate, here is a song that is more of a Christmas cut than anything else. But anything from Mom — responsible for two releases that landed at number three in our top ten album list — peeks our interest, and “Superstar” offers one of the more spacious…
#10 Suiyoubi No Campanella (Wednesday Campanella) Galapagos I shouldn’t be surprised by anything KOM_I of Suiyoubi No Campanella does, yet back in the early days of summer I watched slack-jawed as she left the stage at a quaint venue near Mt. Fuji and wandered into a field that had been set on fire sometime during…
#20 Hikaru Utada Hatsukoi At their best, pop stars turn the personal into the populist — they make songs for everyone, not for themselves, even if the inspiration comes from inside. Hikaru Utada’s 2016 comeback album Fantome stands as one of the 2010s most fascinating album, wrestling with loss and maturity in a way few…