Here’s something I wrote back when this endeavor was on TinyLetter, so…summer 2018.
Welp, watch me go full Wetzel’s Pretzels now.
Sexy Zone — “RIGHT NEXT TO YOU”
But seriously what is this??!?!? How did a group whose singles have made Kis-My-Ft2 sound like The KLF in comparison, and whose previous noteworthy releases include a song about how cool Dubai is (seriously), go and make such a smooth bit of future garage…in English? WITH GUN COCKING SOUND EFFECT?
This is pure pop peanut butter for me, as this netlabel-adjacent sound just always hits the spot, especially when major label acts swoop in to grab a spoonful. Asian pop in particular has excelled at this over the last decade — K-pop is loaded with CLASSICS and BANGERS riffing on this approach to dance, and it has even trickled over to Mainland Chinese pop, best captured by ONER. J-pop has dabbled in it too, but this is probably the biggest mutation, delivered by a Johnny’s group celebrating 10 years in the biz.
What makes “RIGHT NEXT TO YOU” such a head turner is how un-Johnnys-like a song it is. Artists in that talent agency’s stable always gravitate to trends, but rarely embrace them. They bring in the folks making the sound cool — SMAP has worked with Yasutaka Nakata and Yasuharu Konishi of Pizzicato Five among others, while Arashi linked up with Tatsuro Yamashita and Mariya Taekuchi right when city pop began gaining new appreciation — but never get those artists’ best work. It always ends up the cheesiest version of something anyone can enjoy better with a little patience and YouTube.
Sexy Zone aren’t strangers to this approach — last year’s POP X STEP!? featured production from tofubeats and songwriting from chelmico among other artists I’d shout about from my roof, but none of them were delivering anything you need to really seek out. “RIGHT NEXT TO YOU,” though, isn’t glomming onto specific trends — outside of developments that have been going on for the last decade. Instead they just…got a great song, one that never slows down for any of the bullshit that usually sinks interesting J-pop twists from established acts (usually boring choruses). “RIGHT NEXT TO YOU” just glides ahead, letting all the interesting details (samples, vocal twists, especially that “I’m” in the hook) play out swiftly without disrupting the momentum. It’s interesting to read this Arama interview with Steven Lee, the writer/producer behind this number (and, like nearly 20 years worth of J-pop and K-pop numbers) and see him talk about the importance of karaoke in writing J-pop…and I get the sense he threw that out with “RIGHT NEXT TO YOU,” bucking industry standards in favor of a studio treat.
Not to be lost in all this…Sexy Zone are trying to make an international play? And…they might actually be better equipped for it than I ever would have expected? Don’t place any bets on it, but this one goes tough.
For Tracy Hyde — Ethernity
My mea culpa…I’ve been out of the loop recently, because I’ve been trying to file stories, one of which is a profile of Tokyo indie-pop outfit For Tracy Hyde, which just dropped their fourth album this week. I’ll wait until that feature pops up in The Japan Times next week to go deeper into Ethernity but…probably my second favorite For Tracy Hyde, behind 2017’s he(a)rt, balancing the twee jangle of their early years with diversions into country, grunge, politics, Twin Peaks and so much more. Also includes the first track on any album in like a year and a half to make me do a literal double take…involving a former U.S. President.
Stamp Featuring Chelmico — “HIDE YOU”
I’m less wowed by this song — a solid-enough pop number highlighting just how versatile Chelmico are — and more intrigued by Avex pushing Thai singer/songwriter Stamp into the Japanese market. It’s an interesting little development in the reverse-import trend of global city pop love, with a Japanese label pushing an act heavily shaped by the sounds of the country’s Bubble Years…to the nation itself. A fun number, but a development to keep an eye on.
NiziU — “Poppin’ Shakin’”
There were a lot of tweets in December about how people in Japan were getting sick of NiziU because they were being shoved down people’s throats via TV…and I think that kind of turned out to be true. NiziU now lack the same glow surrounding them that haloed them after “Make you happy,” though I’m sure they could reverse it with a little tinkering. The irony to all this being…their actual music keeps getting better, with new number “Poppin’ Shakin’” being their sweetest number to date. Just take a month off from the commercials, you guys will be OK!
coxcs — Green Lake Park
To close the loop…some future garage from the strongest pure netlabel going in Japan. Producer coxcs. Get it here, or listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of Feb. 8, 2020 To Feb. 14, 2021
Back in the day, the Oricon Music Charts were the go-to path to music stardom in Japan. Acts of all sorts traversed these lands, trying to sell as many CDs as possible in order to land a good ranking on a chart choosing to only count physical sales, even as the Internet came to be and the number of versions offered for sale got ridiculous. Today, with the country finally in on the digital, these roads are more barren and only looked at by the most fanatic of supporters needing something to celebrate. Yet every week, a new song sells enough plastic to take the top spot. So let’s take a drip down…the Oricon Trail.
Kanjani Eight — “Kimitomitaisekai” (217, 404 Copies Sold)
If you want to understand why I could spill so many gushing words about Sexy Zone above, listen to the above Kanjani Eight song or any of the 44 singles that came before it.
News And Views
Music Magazine put out a “Best Albums Of The 2010s List” in their newest issue, out today, and…I probably should do a separate email about it, because there is a lot to unpack about it! But here’s the top ten for curious minds:
1. Yuta Orisaka Heisei
2. Cornelius Mellow Waves
3. Kirinji cherish
4. Sunny Day Service DANCE TO YOU
5. cero Obscure Ride
6. Shintaro Sakamoto Let’s Dance Raw
7. Minyo Crusaders Echoes Of Japan
8. Hakushi Hasegawa Ea Ni Ni
9. Kaho Nakamura AINOU
10. Haruomi Hosono HoSoNoVaThis is a good snapshot of what is both great and cringey about Music Magazine — they are willing to go out on a limb to celebrate young creators, but ultimately default to familiar names (my general sense of the list…they are establishing that Hosono was the most influential Japanese artist of the past decade, which is probably true…but you don’t have to put his own bossa nova album on to underline it!). The snubs are far more interesting, and for me the biggest is a total blind eye to Kyary Pamyu Pamyu which…on the 10-year-anniversary of “PonPonPon?”C’mon. Well, maybe I’ll do a whole newsletter about it???
This story of a Lawson employee winning a company contest to earn the right to debut as an artist with a Yasutaka Nakata-produced song finally uhhhh debuting gave me intense nostalgia.
Music Business Worldwide interviewed Kaz Kobayashi, President and CEO of Warner Music Japan, this week, and he talked a lot about physical sales and a shift to digital. Might explain why Sony Music Japan has totally lapped Warner in the past year, because they’ve been out actually engaging with how people listen to music rather than huff and haw about it.
One member of Dempagumi.inc graduated…so they doubled in size.
BTS is working with the most boring band in Japan going, back number, for some movie number.
Wrote an intro to millennium parade…whose debut album from last week is still swishing around my head…for OTAQUEST.
GACKT!!!!!!!!
Only somewhat connected to music…but still, some sinew here!…I wrote about why Japan went gaga for Clubhouse recently. It involves nostalgia for Mixi and an older set welcoming a less chaos form of social media.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies