This week’s features include: 赤い公園 (akaiko-en), MINOR THIRD,
kodani園芸 feat. ましのみ (mashinomi), 湯木慧 (yuki akira), and 宇宙まお (uchu mao)

It feels like I just started the Spotify J-Music Playlist Draft, and yet we’re already now in it’s eighth week! Granted it’s still *relatively* new compared to how long I’ve been doing the Roundup for, so if you don’t actually know what this series of mine entails 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 my own 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)

I just realized I haven’t been providing a link for the Roundup playlist to serve as a reference for you guys, especially those new to the blog and are being acquainted with it through these here Draft posts. It’ll be up there from now on so apologies for that 😛

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With that out of the way, here’s what’s in store for this week:

There’s clearly one song that stands out here that I honestly had to check multiple times whether or not I featured it as part of the Roundup at any point.

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♥ Highway Cabriolet by 赤い公園 (akaiko-en)

I know what you’re thinking… And no, I don’t know what this song is doing out here in the Drafts when it really should be more of a Roundup feature. At the very least, if you happened to come across my review of AKAIKO-EN’s THE PARK as part of the J-Music Exchange/Rate, then you’d know how much of a fan I am of the band’s work. Highway Cabriolet is an easy include here.

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♥ マテリアルカード/material card by MINOR THIRD

MINOR THIRD gets another crack at having a song of theirs be a Draft pick after their first chance at doing so in Week 1 left much to be desired. The band tones down the zaniness and the energy for Material Card here in comparison with their last showing and for what its worth, that’s really all it took (at least for me personally) to change my opinion of them. Really like the chorus especially.

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♥ 夜を跨げ/yoru wo matage by kodani園芸 (kodani engei), ましのみ (mashinomi)

Yoru wo Matage appears to be a collaborative work between producer Kodani Engei and singer-songwriter Mashinomi and for what its actually pretty catchy once it gets going. If anything though (and I guess for possible future implications for the Draft moving forward) I do think Mashinomi’s fun-sounding vocals in particular carry this track more than Kodani Engei does with his composition.

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x 二酸化炭素/nisankatanso by 湯木慧 (yuki akira)

These next two Draft prospects appear to be Spotify’s attempt at trying to cater to my taste for acoustic guitar stylists given how much I listen to the likes of Takeuchi Anna and Myuk on a regular basis. That being said, Yuki Akira is cut from a different cloth from those two, and while Nisankatanso is this beautiful heart-rending ballad, it’s unfortunately not really something I queue up for myself.

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x 正体/shoutai by 宇宙まお (uchu mao)

Likewise, I’m pretty Mao Uchu appeals more towards those looking for something with a more old school sort of feel. At the very least that’s my read on her style after listening to Shoutai here. Of note, she did make her solo artist debut back in 2012 so that could be the reason why I think she sounds the way she does. Massive respect for a career spanning a decade, but it’s not for me.

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This Week’s Total Likes:

♥ ♥ ♥ x x

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This week’s Draft picks have now been added to the Draft playlist 😀

The Draft playlist is starting to look kinda mean now ngl (lol). Let me know if you guys think so too down in the comments below! Likewise, what are your guys’ thoughts on this week’s Draft picks? Would you have kept (or not kept) a song or two here yourself? I’d love to hear your guys’ thoughts 🙂

Because of how the week’s lined up for April, we’re actually getting a third one in before the month ends so for sure look forward to that.

Happy Listening!