This week’s features include: 鶴 (tsuru), Organic Call, FINLANDS,
ももすももす (momosu momosu), and Karin.

Just dropping in for yet another new week of the Spotify J-Music Playlist Draft! 😀 As a quick little primer for those just now tuning in before we get the show started 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 didn’t actually realize we were gonna have three Draft weeks this month instead of the usual two until I started working on the one for this week so hey, even more things to look forward to this month 😉

ーー

Alright… who we got

Okay, ＊unlike＊the last couple of weeks at least, I don’t know what to expect here (lol)

ーー

♥ ロストガール/lost girl by Tsuru

We’ve actually featured Tsuru a couple of times already in the Roundup, with the latest one being her most recent rebranding of her solo project. Unfortunately, the former Nagagutsu wo Haita Neko vocalist can’t seem to catch a break however as she has since gone radio silent. It’s a bit of a shame in that you can definitely hear the potential in her singing with how strong and resounding it is Lost Girl here.

 ーー

x 朝焼けに染まった街へ/asayake ni somatta machi e by Organic Call

Organic Call gets another crack at being a Draft pick after an early appearance all the way back in Week 4. I was particularly hyper critical of the vocals last time and… a lot of the things I mentioned back then continue to ring true here so I’m gonna have to pass these guys up yet again. I mean, I dunno, I don’t think they’re bad but I think maybe their music just isn’t for me.

ーー

♥ UTOPIA by FINLANDS

This one’s much more of my speed though. FINLANDS would be, like, one of the first twenty or so bands that I came to know about back when I was first getting into the hobby. The former duo is now only just survived by Shiori Fuyuko with UTOPIA being one of the last tracks she worked on as a unit with Koshimizu Kaho. Love the guitars, and the singing grows on you real quick too.

ーー

♥ うさぎの耳/usagi no mimi by ももすももす (momosu momosu)

If you’ve been around the block for as long as I have, the band Melancholic Sharaku might ring a bell, as it did with me when I thought to look up Momosu Momosu’s artist profile for the first time. Rather, I haven’t even thought of that band for a long while now too so it was neat getting reminded of them here on the Draft, and it was equally neat finding out Momosu has recently started doing solo work.

ーー

x 瞳に映る/hitomi ni utsuru by Karin.

Karin. is an artist that’s always been kinda hovering in my recommendations and it’s not hard to see why. Primarily a pianist, the instrumentation showcased by the young singer-songwriter is very fun-sounding and vibrant here in Hitomi ni Utsuru. That being said however, I might need a little more convincing in the vocals department before I’m truly able to say she’s someone I’d listen to regularly.

ーー

This Week’s Total Likes:

♥ x ♥ ♥ x

ーー

This week’s picks has since been added to the Spotify J-Music Playlist Draft… playlist 😛

Bit of an odd one this week, with most of the shine going to bands and artists who have been in the game for a fair amount of time already. I mentioned it before but one of the cool things about the Draft that I’ve since noticed, at least for me personally, is that it picks out recommendations for me regardless of when it came out. As someone who gets flooded with new releases almost every single day, I do appreciate getting to hear songs that I’ve potentially missed out on over the years.

Important to note is that we’re now at 75 picks out of the 100 that Spotify needs before we close out the season! Seemingly not a lot of time left but also seems like it just has enough to get it done. It’s gonna be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Happy Listening!