This week’s features include: tonari no Hanako, 美的計画 (biteki keikaku), Haruna,
milkyway, and 林青空 (hayashi aozora)

What is up you fine folks, and welcome back once again, to the Spotify J-Music Playlist Draft! We are now in Week 6 of this series which, to the uninformed, I started on this blog just this year ー

The Draft, inspired by player drafts in traditional sports and draft formats from popular trading card games like Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh, is a bi-weekly series where we try to answer the question;

How good is Spotify at recommending songs to me ?

In this series I will test Spotify’s ability to recommend to me songs that I would like based on songs that I already do like in the form of the Recommendation Roundup Playlist on Spotify. Specifically this involves making use of Spotify’s built-in suggestion feature on user-created playlists to gather a total of 5 (five) songs for me to check out and listen to. Songs that I like will get “drafted” and go on a separate Draft playlist, where the goal is to see just how big said playlist will get by the end of the year.

If it makes it past a hundred, Spotify gets the W over me, and if not, we get to declare the Recommendation Roundup playlist as the vastly superior playlist (XD)

Spotify has beeing hitting a bit of turbulence these past couple of weeks. Let’s see if this seeming trend persits.

ーー

Here’s what we got:

I mean, right away… I’m looking at Biteki Keikaku on there and I’m like, great, it’s finally time to listen to this artist (?) that’s been hounding my recommendations for like a year now (XD).

ーー

♥ 空が途方に暮れる色/sora ga tohou ni kureru iro by tonari no Hanako

Back in October I wrote a review for tonari no Hanako’s debut EP Kittara, Sora for the J-Musi Exchange/Rate, and by the end of it I thought I had a decent handle of the kind of sound that the band has. To my surprise however, they end up sounding completely different at least for Sora ga Tohou ni Kureru here in particular. Reminds me a lot of Sakurai Kenta’s work for Maison book girl. Cool.

ーー

♥ ハートは温泉美人の私のものよ/heart wa onsenbijin no watashi no mono yo
by 美的計画 (biteki keikaku) feat. 謎女 (nazome)

BitekiKeikaku’s BITEKI used to constantly be recommended to me by Spotify and I was kinda just ignoring for the most part… at least until I started seeing songs on it in a Kawatani Enon playlist…. seriously wtf (XD) I mean, you can definitely hear it in Heart wa OnsenBiji no Mono yo that this is his handiwork but damn, I didn’t know he got in on the singer/composer too. When did this happen??

ーー

♥ あなたなしの世界/anata nashi no sekai by Haruna

When we last saw Haruna here on the Draft it was back in Week 2 when we gave her a “miss” for her song Konoha no Waltz. She’s here to run it back with yet another Waltz-inspired track in Anata Nashi Sekai and I think she nails it this time around. It’s nice and snappy. and not as drone-y as the former, which I’d much rather prefer. Glad to see her get her revenge.

ーー

♥ 汚れた手/yogoreta te by milkyway

Speaking of Draft returnees, milkyway is back after their successful playlist entry with Kizuato no Kansoku. This time around we’re given one of the band’s older songs, Yogoreta Te. I love how the song builds as it plays where it starts out with this innocent guitar strumming and by the end it’s crashing drums and wailing guitars. That’s how you maximize a 5-minute track.

ーー

♥ 出航日和/shukkou biyori by 林青空 (hayashi aozora)

I’m actually amazed that I never once came across Hayashi Aozora’s work prior to Draft. Like, by the time we wrap the season up she’s for sure one of the names that I’ll be taking away from it. Shukkou Biyori is the kind of good fun that I’ve since come to expect from her, with her acoustic guitar sound, and her singing style which just carries really well. Looking forward to hearing more from her.

ーー

This Week’s Total Likes:

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

ーー

The Draft playlist has now since been updated with this week’s picks 😉

Spotify makes a massive comeback for Week 6 here, hitting us with yet another clean sweep of five, but unlike the last time it happened where it was mainly Roundup staples making their way here, these songs are all from bands and artists that I don’t listen to that often if at all. A couple of “Draft originals” if you will 😛

I do find it amusing that so far the Draft’s selection of bands and artists have for the most part been very different from the ones I feature in the Roundup, but what do you guys think? Which of the two series’ roster is more to your liking? Let me know down in the comments! Likewise, lemme know too what you thought of this week’s Draft!

March Roundup in two weeks time, see y’all then 😀