A lot has changed for Zombie-Chang over the last few years, but at the same time her approach to new-wave-brushed pop remains pretty true to what she’s been doing since Zombie-Change. “Saredo-Shiawase” is a new single that finds her embracing synthesizer whirs to create a buzzing number nodding to early ’80s artists who made wonky…
#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…
Zombie-Chang constructs an offbeat world in her music, but the foundation of that comes from the past. “Mona Lisa,” off of an album coming out this week (geez is this year zooming by….), reminds of the artists that she draws influence from, while allowing her room to splash her own personality into it. Really, just…
#30 She Talks Silence Sorry, I Am Not She Talks Silence started as a solo project plucking away in the shadows, before becoming a duo moving ever-so-slightly forward, before this year returning once again as just Minami Yamaguchi, somehow taking a bigger step forward but also becoming harder to hear. Sorry, I Am Not is…
The moment on Zombie-Chang’s “I Can’t Get To Sleep,” the lead-off song from her new album Gang, that really floors me comes maybe just over halfway through. Up to this point, she has bounced along nimbly over keyboard notes and a criss-crossing beat, her voice echoing off into the distance. Compared to last year’s Zombie-Change,…