Not to play the “midyear report” card too soon, but Suiyoubi No Campanella’s Superman remains near the top of my personal list. It’s an album where one person’s character — in this case, KOM_I — shines through and illuminates the project wholly, a nice flip of how this usually goes in J-Pop (the producer making…
And now the final list begins…here is part one of our “best albums” list, featuring our favorite Japanese releases of the year. #30 Wata Megumi Blindman Wata Megumi’s nervy pop has always felt just off, regardless of whether she was taking aim at society as a whole or otherwise. Blindman aims for something more ambitious,…
Busy week over here at Make Believe Melodies’ headquarters…and also a bit mismanaged when it came to blog planning. Originally, I wanted to run year-end coverage this week, but hey turns out that takes a lot of time, which I didn’t have. Yay excuses! So that will happen next week…favorite songs on Monday, honorable mentions…
If I were to be totally honest, I think Suiyoubi No Campanella and their hectic mish-mash of genres started feeling a little overexposed this summer. Not necessarily their fault — being in the spotlight at all times is practically a demand for ascendant J-pop acts — but following the (very good) UMA I would have…
Suiyoubi No Campanella’s ascent in 2016 shows no signs of slowing down, an outfit once hovering around the Shinjuku Loft scene now popping up on SMAP X SMAP (uhh, R.I.P?) and scoring tie-up campaigns with Toyota. The latter — repping for the Prius — has generated her latest song, “Matsuo Basho,” and like many acts…