Make Believe Melodies Favorite Japanese Albums 2020: #100 - #51

Bad year for existing, great year for Japanese music

Gesu No Kiwami Otome, Congrats On The First Triple-Digit Appearance On This List Ever

This was the year Make Believe Melodies ended…and then began anew, but also not really. Hop over to the Wordpress site and you’ll see the last time I updated the daily blog I’d been maintaining for a decade was to share my ten favorite albums of 2019. For most of 2020, I didn’t do anything on this front, and then merged the old newsletter with everyone’s go-to media trend / boogeyman Substack to form…this, which is basically what I used to do, but now weekly instead of scrambling to post something every day before sleeping. It’s different, but only a bit?

Part of the reason this newsletter exists? Well, because I think interest in coverage of Japanese music is at an all-time low, even from publications in Japan (though I might also have become more cynical in general about music media), and I really wanted to keep writing and sharing what’s happening in the industry here.

Especially because…2020 might have been the single best year for Japanese music I’ve experienced since running Make Believe Melodies. I literally wrote more or less the same thing for last year’s list, but the past 12 months have been even better than what came before (one key difference…in 2019, what could have ended up at #1 was pretty open, whereas in 2020 I feel there are maybe six albums that easily would have easily been the top spot if they’d come out in the prior year). A lot of that was just building on what was already in motion, with trends that have been bubbling up for half a decade spilling over at long last. The amount of great music coming out on every level — from top-level J-pop to fledgling netlabel to SoundCloud rap — could feel overwhelming.

Which is why for 2020, I’m giving into something I came close to doing last year (“but who would want this much?”) by expanding our favorites list to 100 albums (“who wouldn’t want this much????”). For the first half, it’s more of breeze through than a deep dive, with a handful of the more interesting albums earning blurbs. The rest get a shout out and a link to where you can listen / support…because, ultimately, what this yearly tradition is all about is simply shining a light on artists from a country rarely getting that kind of attention.

Which brings us back to what I say every year…follow along, listen and see if you find something you love that normally wouldn’t hit your radar.

(Two honorable mentions…I still have no idea how to deal with Sekai No Owari’s…errrr, End Of The World’s Chameleon, which finds the rock band attempting a most likely doomed international crossover but results in their strongest full-length in any language. Give it a listen, it is way better than you’d expect. Meanwhile, an artist absent from this list who should be on it is AWICH, who had a banner year and released some of Japan’s best rap. Yet, full disclosure, I worked on the English PR for her major label debut, so not including it here…but she’s killing it, go listen to all her 2020 output)

#100 Gesu No Kiwami Otome Streaming, CD, Record

Enon Kawatani, you bastard, you’ve done it again. The J-pop personification of 😬 reminds that he can write pretty great music, and do so in a way that’s far weirder than anything else playing out within the mainstream. Streaming, CD, Record continues Kawatani’s post-scandal introspection / crying session, with this set of songs in particular finding his most well-known project looking back on…itself, with numbers riffing on the hits that once had them on top of the country. That leads to a lot of semi self-pity that makes Kawatani so annoying, but this feels like a good springboard for the year in total because of how well Gesu No Kiwami Otome synthesize trends that will pop up throughout this list, ranging from a sudden embrace of rap to the lingering sonic ideas of netlabels. Or maybe the best reason is…a lot of Japanese music sounds just like Gesu in 2015, making them one of the more influential acts of the last decade, albeit one few artists would publicly cite. Here’s an acknowledgement of that impact.

#99 Dos Monos Dos Siki

#98 Lovely Summer Chan The Third Summer Of Love

#97 Native Rapper Magnet

#96 Cutemen 2121

#95 Various Artists Save The Metro Compilations

#94 Ill Japonia Ill

#93 Group2 Group 2 ii

#92 Tomggg Unbalance

#91 maco marets Waterslide III

#90 Shingo Katori 20200101

Far and away the most baffling album of the year…and one released on 2020’s very first day (as the title makes clear), dooming it to be largely forgotten as everything spun out of control and new music narratives took over. Yet I won’t let this one be forgotten! Wherein a former member of SMAP uses his freedom to dabble in the emerging sounds of Tokyo — this one isn’t a secret gem because Katori was lowkey a musical savant obstructed by Johnny’s for decades, but rather because dude has taste (or at least surrounds himself with people who know what to try). “Shingo Katori featuring WONK,” “Shingo Katori featuring yahyel,” “Shingo Katori featuring SALU” are just some of the fever-dream-like collaborations here, and it works because Katori is bending to their sound, broadening what J-pop could be in the process.

#89 Chisako & Junta So Goodbye

#88 Haruru Inu Love Dog Tenshi Lonely EP

#87 Pee. J Anderson Hermitage

#86 gummyboy The World Of Tiffany

#85 Avec Avec Rendezvous

#84 Various Artists ???

#83 Keita Sano pianseq

#82 Lucky Kilimanjaro Imagination

#81 Cherryboy Function suggested function EP #5

#80 Toriena Pure Fire

#79 Handaya Rave HANDAYA-VR20

#78 Ako Senzaiteki MISTY

#77 Gimgigam Strange Night Tour

#76 UNDERHAIRZ Chinpopo

#75 Valknee Diary

#74 Pasocom Music Club Ambience

#73 Shex Parage

#72 CY8ER Tokyo

#71 Various Artists Atomic Bomb Compilation Vol. 8

#70 Migma Shelter Alice

#69 Turntable Films Herbier

#68 In The Blue Shirt in my own way EP

#67 JP The Wavy Life Is Wavy

#66 vibesonlytrax STAY HOME AND MAKE JUKE

#65 pinoko Reverse + Room EP

#64 NENE Yumetaro

Yurufuwa Gang continued their descent into the void with this year’s GOA, a set that saw them float away from the already hazy rap they were doing in favor of trance-outs constructed from shamisen plucks and exotic bird clucks, all approaching 10 minutes and having the same energy as a tourist zonked out on mushrooms. It’s worth listening to, but more of a novelty from a group unafraid of taking such trips. Far sturdier — by Yurufuwa standards, at least — was member NENE’s Yumetaro EP, which split the difference between vaporous raps (“Jiai”) and understated vocal flexes (“Make It” featuring AWICH). You even get what amounts to a Mars Ice House II throwback on “6969,” which is Yurufuwa inching up to the edge but not slipping over.

#63 FNCY Tokyo Luv EP

#62 Meitei Kofu

#61 Marukido Children’s Story + Mitsu

#60 Pearl Center Humor

#59 Fuji Chao AV

#58 YUC’e Romantic Jam

#57 Various Artists Monsoon

#56 Chip Tanaka Domingo

#55 Punipunidenki Denshi Disco Mitsurin

#54 Kazumichi Komatsu Emboss Star

#53 Maeshima Soshi Wave

#52 SARI a u se

#51 Hakushi Hasegawa Yume No Hone Ga Osoikakaru!

If last year’s Ea Ni Ni showcased Hakushi Hasegawa’s intricate internet-damaged jazz pop at its most dizzying, Yume No Hone Ga Osoikakaru! is Hasegawa dimming the lights, pouring themselves a nice scotch and playing lounge performer for about half-an-hour. This is a covers set finding a creator often best courting chaos slowing down and getting vulnerable, whether by stripping down already sparse funk tracks or finding new, intimate angles on Sakanaction’s arena-ready rock. Save for a fidgety take on a Soutaiseiriron classic, Yume is reserved and sweet, placing Hasegawa’s raw skills under the microscope and bordering on the saccharine (the last song is a cover of the Aladdin centerpiece “A Whole New World,” like if Village Vanguard started selling Disney Goes Netlabel compilations). It’s as interesting as a detour can get, while adding new shades to one of the country’s most exciting young artists.