Make Believe Melodies For Jan. 10, 2021

Year-end lists are best when rolled out weekly, right? RIGHT??

TEAM SHACHI — “JIBUNGOTO”

I watched way more end-of-year programming in the last two weeks than I ever have in the decade since I lived in Japan, including a steady drip of see-ya-2020 music shows. Part of this meant seeing what I could only assume was Billie Eilish’s contractually obligated Music Station appearance, a quickie sofa-bound recital of “Bad Guy” rushed in before an afternoon nap. It’s a ho-hum performance, but one eagerly anticipated by Japanese fans who just love Eilish, to the point she feels like the last great hope for Western music to achieve market success in a place where domestic offerings tower above the rest and K-pop has ejected A-pop from the charts.

“JIBUNGOTO” is the first J-pop song I’ve come across building up from a “Bad Guy” type beat, complete with ASMR-baiting whispers worked into the mix. TEAM SHACHI, though, can’t shake off their idol-ness and let this one mutate from uneasy to brassy by the first chorus, complete with slight EDM breakdown (something Eilish saved as outro). And I’m here for it! Besides being another example of idol music being a sort of pop petri dish, “JIBUNGOTO” shows that anxiety (this song is about the pandemic! References to social distancing, the “new normal” and…right in the title…the doomed Go To Travel campaign) can coexist with cathartic release (horns! Metal riffs! All-together singing!). It’s dizzying fun, and the first sign of Eilish’s sonic influence…and how it can transform into something fascinating all its own.

tamanaramen — “Fake ID”

To spoil the literal next number in my favorite albums list due out…uhhhhh sometime this week…tamanaramen boasted one of the strongest bodies of work over the course of 2020, offering a new variant on “whisper rap” that used hushed sound and understated vocal delivery to craft low-key escapes. New song “Fake ID” applies this approach to something a little more uptempo, revealing new range to what she’s capable of.

Ako — “bye”

Speaking of young creators who had great 2020’s ringing in the new year with some of their catchiest work to date — Ako, whose debut release last year found a cozy spot between the experimental zones the aforementioned tamanaramen hovers in and the type of next-big-thing buzz that floats around any female artist on the outskirts of J-pop. “bye” offers a nervy re-imagining of neo city pop, featuring familiar bass licks and general grooves built for easygoing city life, but spiked by vocal manipulations that take her closer to yahyel than Yogee New Waves.

aran — ARTFCT

Some very welcome busy electronic music to help your brain drift away during hectic times. Get it here.

SixTONES — “Uyamuya”

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, a Johnny’s group glomping onto your sound to score some cool points with the masses stands as a true testament to an artist’s success in J-pop Congrats to YOASOBI, who have seen their dashing piano-based pop and animated videos appropriated by SixTONES. Seeing as that rising pop group blew their budget on a YOSHIKI produced number, album cut (turned YouTube goodie) “Uyamuya” doesn’t follow the time-tested path of bringing in the original artist to lend 25% of their magic to a boy band, but rather just imitates the sound and visual style as best they can.

They aren’t alone, though other groups have had the decency to give producer Ayase a payday in the process. Right now might be the peak of YOASOBI’s public visibility, coming off the best performance on NHK’s Kohaku Uta Gassen year-end bonanza (they were the only group truly taking advantage of the fact they could perform from anywhere) and an actual physical release gathering up their 2020 output with some new numbers added on. I don’t know how long they can stay in the spotlight, but the aesthetic they — along with Yorushika and Zutomayo — have ushered in is just beginning to be tapped into, albeit not nearly as well as they could do.

Oricon Trail For The Week Of Dec. 28, 2020 To Jan. 01, 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.

NiziU — “Step and a step” (12,106 Copies Sold)

Holiday season means skeletal sales on Oricon…allowing NiziU to jump up six spots to reclaim number one with just over 12,000 singles moved.

News And Views

• Let’s just get to the most pressing issue…Sapporo city is home to the best airport in Japan, New Chitose Airport. It also boasts a smaller, worse airport they want to rebrand to help boost tourism, and they are considering naming it “Hatsune Miku Airport.” They absolutely should and it would be a MASSIVE failure of them to go with any of the far lamer names put forth instead of honoring the most influential Japanese artist of the 21st century. She’s already transformed into a flight attendant for a regional airline…Miku has earned this!

  

• Pop group CY8ER officially broke up over the weekend, though it was in the works for the last few months.
  

• HYNA back, why not. Genuinely curious if the “Olympic theme” enveloping her new single was originally planned for last year…or some sort of hail mary at relevancy for the oh-yeah-definitely-happening 2021 Games.
  

• Ronald at Arama interviewed former Johnny’s trainee Koki Maeda, including the blockbuster allegation that Johnny Kitagawa slept with male performers.
  

• Canadian investor group BentallGreenOak purchased Avex’s Aoyama office building for $693 million, according to this article. Avex has been undergoing COVID-spurred hardships, and selling their recently renovated headquarters was one way for them to recoup. BentallGreenOak, meanwhile, sees potential in Japanese real estate, so this biggie-sized building in downtown must have been an inviting acquisition.
  

• Philip Brasor with a dive into how COVID-19 has rattled live music, and pushed so much of it online.
  

• Big Hit Entertainment Japan has a group coming out soon.
  

• Would be guiding you astray if I did not share the most popular music clip of the new year in Japan…a two year old just charming away on an NHK music show. Look how little she is compared to the piano!

Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)

Twitter — @mbmelodies