IT’S TIME!

Yes folks, it is indeed yet again time for the one and only annual Recommendation Roundup Awards! It’s great to have you here, and I hope you enjoy the day’s festivities. Find your seats, get comfy; we shall be starting in just a couple of minutes.

To the uninitiated, the Roundup Awards is something I do at the end of the year in place of the regular Monthly Roundup where instead of the usual recommendations, I instead take the opportunity to celebrate these past twelve months of amazing Japanese music that I had the utmost pleasure of sharing with you guys here on the blog. This, I do in the form of giving out awards to both the songs as well as the bands and artists who perform them; those in my personal opinion stood out in one way or another among the rest this year. Of course, all of this is done in good fun, and by no means do I intend to disparage the ones that don’t get recognized here. After all, tonight’s winners were decided by me and me alone, so if you think someone else might be more deserving of a particular award, feel free to say as much in the comments! 🙂

There were a total of a 110 songs featured in the Roundups this year that were used as the basis for tonight’s awardees. As a quick caveat, *only* these songs were taken into account when we determined our award winners, so if you had a song or band/artist in mind that you feel might be “missing” from our nominees, this could be a reason why. We will be giving out a total of fifteen awards, spread evenly across three main categories; song awards, album awards, and artist awards.

Award winners will receive (in spirit) this shiny Golden Maya stamp for them to use and/or show off as they see fit. I figured since “Maya” here is the Roundup’s now-de facto poster girl, it’s only fitting that the award be in her likeness. In the years we’ve done the Roundup Awards the award itself never had a “tangible” form, so it’s pretty neat that it has one now. Lemme know what you guys think 😀

In line with that, before we formally begin, I would to give my thanks @JellyBeam_Ji. They have been the one largely responsible for most of the art you’ve seen me use here on the blog this past year, including of course the very one I’m using in this here awards post. I can personally guarantee that they’re awesome to work with so if you had any projects in mind, do consider availing of their work.

I would also like to take this time to thank each and every one of you have been following me and the Roundup for as long as you guys have. I am fortunate that I get to share in this journey of listening to and discovering Japanese Music with all of you, and I can only hope it has continued to be as fun (if not even more so) for you guys as it has been for me. Y’all are the absolute best 🙂

And with that, let us now dim the lights; the Roundup Awards is starting… now!

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＊＊＊BEST PV＊＊＊
kioku [November 2023]
by ao

The first award of the night goes to the song that I believe had the Best PV out of all the ones that featured on the Monthly Recommendation Roundups this year. There’s never really been a consistent criteria for this particular award; compare the previous year’s award winner Sailing day by chilldspot which one because of the symbolism it utilized in delivering its narrative, to the 2020 Roundup Award winner Aoyama Sachiko’s Vanilla which got the nod for its unique style of animation. This time around we’ll be giving it to a PV that I believe couldn’t have been shot any better in kioku by ao here. Everything about the cinematography of this PV; the location, the lighting, the camerawork; was just so beautifully done in my opinion, with the icing on the cake being that its paired with an equally beautiful singing performance.

Runner-Up – “Ai no Uta” by Fujikawa Chiai [April 2023]
Blew my mind when I found out this PV was all done in one take.

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＊＊＊BEST LYRIC＊＊＊
アイドル/idol [April 2023]
by YOASOBI

I don’t think I can have a year-end list of the year’s Japanese music without mentioning one of if not the biggest singular hit in recent history in YOASOBI’s Idol. However, it might come as a shock why this particular song is winning this year’s award for Best Lyric over anything else it could’ve won. That is because I am of the opinion that the strongest element of this song isn’t in its sound or the way it’s being sung, but it’s in what Idol illustrates for the listener. In putting it in as a few words as possible, the song is a ‘looking-glass self‘ view of the typical Japanese idol; a self-aware introspection of one of Japan’s most celebrated class of performers, delving into the darker side of its industry. Of course, it’s played up for dramatic effect to fit the narrative of the show its used on, but the truly haunting part of it all is that there is some truth to it.

Runner-Up – “Ctrl Z” by Sala feat. Foi [July 2023]
Look, if you can make friggin’ “ctrl + z” into a catchy hook, you’re getting an award

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＊＊＊BEST INSTRUMENTATION＊＊＊
Raise [August 2023]
by Chilli Beans.

The beans will not be stopped! If anything else, the wind behind the sails of the humble three-piece seems unceasing, if not growing stronger still. Chilli Beans. made history in last year’s Roundup awards, taking home awards in all three of our major categories (Song, Album, and Artist). Of course, this was all on the back of the band’s ‘new age’ Garage-like take on Japanese Pop/Rock which has since enticed the masses following a successful tie-up with one of Japan’s biggest anime franchises with their song Raise here. My favorite thing about this song, and why I think it deserves this year’s award for Best Instrumentation is how they chose to incorporate sounds to fit One Piece’s pirate theme; from the boat-rowing rhythm, the whistling that sounds like chirping birds, and of course, the sea shanty-like gang vocals.

Runner-Up – “Shigatsu no Kaibutsu” by tiny yawn [April 2023]
There’s never not been any Math Rock representation for this award after all

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＊＊＊BEST VOCALS＊＊＊
遠泳/enei [September 2023]
by afloat storage

Unlike in years prior where there have been very clear recipients of this award for Best Vocals, this year’s Roundups did not see any entries from any credentialed songstresses like Utada Hikaru nor were there any standout performances like Higuchu Ai’s Akuma no Ko. I actually thought Wolpis Carter had a lock on this very early on in the year as I didn’t think there would be anything that at the very least would surprise me more than Alice in Reitouko did. But then, out of nowhere, Inami Mayu once again takes my breath away with her singing in Enei here. I mean, speaking purely in terms of technique, it might not be the best. Like, some might criticize the nasal quality of her singing for example. But there’s a lot of heart and emotion in there. That much you can’t deny. If 01:01~ doesn’t stir anything inside you I don’t know what to tell you.

Runner-Up – “Alice in Reitouko” by Wolpis Carter [February 2023]
If you know you know

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＊＊＊MOST PLAYED SONG OF 2023＊＊＊
ライトイヤーズ/light years [March 2023]
by 明透 (asu)

I don’t think there’s a song that I feel largely the same way about now compared to when I listened to it the first time than ASU’s Light Years. What do I mean by that? Well, I do think that there’s a degradation of sorts that happens to songs over a period of time where the more you listen to them, some things about them don’t ‘wow’ you as much as they did before. That doesn’t mean it stops sounding good, but in extreme cases you can get ‘tired’ of a song no matter how much you like it just because you kept hearing it over and over. I don’t get that here. I love it just as much if not more when it first came out back in March, and I still listen to it as much, if not more to this day. If I had to say, I think it’s because it has a simple arrangement, with a simple beat that you can listen to for hours on end, coupled with this addictive quality to ASU’s voice.

Runner-Up – “Nemurenai” feat. Kusunoki Tomori by MIMiNARI [October 2023]
Still amazed that this is my most-listened to Tomoriru song

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＊＊＊FAVORITE ALBUM ART OF 2023＊＊＊
愛の唄/ai no uta
by Myuk

We are bringing back all the new awards we introduced to the Roundup Awards last year, starting with our award for my Favorite Album Art Of 2023. Unlike last year’s awardee however, the art for Myuk’s Ai no Uta gets the nod not because of any sort of meaning that it holds, more so that I just love the artwork itself. I’m very much a fan of the color combination here, and I do like the decision of going for something more watercolor-y with the sort of washed tint that it has. The illustration itself is well done, in my opinion, or at the very least it right up there with the kind of art style that I generally like (if you follow me on Twitter you might notice that half of my activity on there when I’m not re-posting Japanese music-related posts is me liking artwork that I see on my feed). Shout outs to artist Omutatsu who’s responsible for this piece.

Runner-Up – “gallery” by Mulasaki Ima
It’s so simple, but it works so so well

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＊＊＊FAVORITE SINGLE OF 2023＊＊＊

ライトイヤーズ/lightyears [March 2023]
by 明透 (asu)

I mean, it’s pretty funny that things turned out this way not just for the winner of this award, but also for the Runner-Up also mirroring my Most Played Song Of 2023 awardees but at by that same token… it makes sense right? (XD) Why wouldn’t these songs that I’ve played the most this year, which just so happen to have come out as singles, also be my Favorite Singles Of 2023? Though I say that, this is actually unprecedented for the Roundup awards and if anything I’m surprised that this is the first time that this is happening. In any case, Light Years scoops up another award here as I really do love most of everything about this track. If you weren’t a fan of ASU’s before, I have almost full confidence this song presents a more than decent case of convincing you otherwise. Don’t let the digital persona fool you. She’s legit.

Runner-Up – “Nemurenai” by Kusunoki Tomori by MIMiNARI [October 2023]
The spirit of Soutaiseiriron’s TOWN AGE lives on

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＊＊＊FAVORITE EP/MINI-ALBUM OF 2023＊＊＊
破壊的価値創造/hakai-teki kachi souzou
by 文藝天国 (bungei tengoku; “Blooming Bungei”)

If you told me back in 2020 that Bungei Tengoku would be putting out EPs for three straight years in a row following their brief hiatus, I wouldn’t have believed you. I would’ve told you ‘that would be nice, and I would love for that to happen, but that’s just not the case’. All the tell tale signs were there: the group wanting to focus more on their studies, their then-vocalist moving on to pursue other things; the writing was on the wall. Yet, just a year after their announcement of postponing their activities, they came back better than ever. They keep getting better. Constantly improving: from their sound, the marketing of their image, having more of a mainstream media presence. They’re doing all the right things and it’s a such a joy to see. Hakai-teki Kachi Souzou is merely the continuation of that and I’m excited to see the rest of their journey unfold.

Runner-Up – “Esper” by Aoyama Sachiko
Aoyama Sachiko always delivers, and this EP is certainly no exception

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＊＊＊FAVORITE ALBUM OF 2023＊＊＊
ポートレート/portrait
by chilldspot

If you haven’t yet read Al’s review of Portrait as part of the J-Music Exchange/Rate’s Favorite Album Of The Year special I highly suggest you check it out. Now, as is customary for our review series Al and I write a little something about the album we’re putting up for review, and for this album I talked about how I felt like chilldspot had found their groove this year. Literally everything they were putting out was just solid, clean, and well-executed. Portrait is the materialization of that and I do think you’re gonna be in for a tough task finding a song on this album that’s not like anything I described their songs as being. You don’t need to be a prior fan of theirs to enjoy this. I think this album does a pretty good job getting your attention regardless of that. I’d even go so far as to say Portrait will 100% make you a fan of chilldspot. Guaranteed.

Runner-Up – “ASU” by ASU
Been waiting for ages for ASU to drop an album, and this did not disappoint

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＊＊＊FAVORITE BLIND PICKUP OF 2023＊＊＊
You Were Wrong
by reina

2023 marks the year that Japanese R&B has officially overtaken Japanese Alternative Rock as my most listened to genre, at least for this year according to my #SpotifyWrapped results. This is, of course, thanks in part to Spotify itself. I’ve talked a lot about how I’ve frequented Spotify’s auto-generated Chill Mix playlist quite a bit this past year. As a direct consequence of that I get recommended bands and artists who would fit the general style of the songs on that playlist, along with their respective albums. Enter reina’s You Were Wrong. I had to do a double take when I first put this album on because the second I heard her start to flow in full English I thought I wasn’t listening to a Japanese artist anymore. But she 100% is, and tell me that’s not impressive (let Al tell you how good it is here!)

Runner-Up – “Orbital” by Atomic Skipper
If you grew up in the 90’s/early 2000’s, you’ll get why

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＊＊＊BEST PROSPECT OF 2023＊＊＊
紫 今 (mulasaki ima)

If I’m being completely honest, I didn’t think of Mulasaki Ima as being an artist that can fit a mainstream mold the first time I encountered her work. If you go check out the handful of times I’ve gotten to talk about her chronologically, you’ll see that I first described her music as being an “easy listen”, the same way you’d describe an Indie Artist or a Folk Singer (or, if you know your Roundup archetypes, the AcoGui SSW-type). Come October I went over how surprised I was at how well Mulasaki can sing a more Pop Ballad type of track with the release of her song soap flower. That already got me curious as to how high her ceiling is as an artist, but not only did she drop *another* promising Pop single in Not Queen here, she’s already set to make her anison debut in January of next year. Keep in mind, she *just* made her artist debut back in March.

Runner-Up – esoragoto
I get it, I’m a sucker for these types of bands, you don’t have to tell me twice

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＊＊＊MOST IMPROVED BAND/ARTIST OF 2023＊＊＊
chilldspot

Look, I can’t go around saying all that I’ve said about how chilldspot found their groove this year and all that, and then proceed to not give them this award Most Improved Band/Artist Of 2023 (lol). I do stand by what I said though, and the band does deserve all the praises in the world and then some for the good work that they put in this year. Like I said previously, if you go back and listen to their 2021 album ingredients and compared it to Portrait from this year, you’ll notice that it’s not like they changed a whole lot in terms of their overall sound signature. At the same time however, you’ll definitely note too that the delivery is just a little bit better than it was before. It’s a bit more… present, and alive, and truly sounds like the band is enjoying the moment. Granted, that’s subjective on my part, but I truly believe that to be the case here.

Runner-Up – Bungei Tengoku (“Blooming Bungei”)
If Bungei drops an album next year, they’re getting this award, mark my words

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＊＊＊MOST PROLIFIC BAND/ARTIST OF 2023＊＊＊
Chilli Beans.

See, this is why the award always throws me a curve ball every year. Like, I thought for sure chilldspot had the most appearances on the Roundups this past year, and in my initial draft I already wrote down this whole spiel about how chilldspot will be making their own history much like Chilli Beans. did last year by being the first band/artist to win two awards in a single category. But, as I was checking to see who the Runner-Up would be (since I had already convinced myself that chilldspot had already won it), I couldn’t help but notice that Chilli Beans. kept popping up the more I scrolled which made me do a a proper recount of their appearances and… wouldn’t you know it, Chilli Beans. actually showed up *five* separate times on the Roundup this year, thus making them our Most Prolific Band Of 2023. Well done.

Runner-Up – chilldspot
If Killer Word came out in time for the November Roundup they would’ve tied

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＊＊＊FAVORITE DISCOVERY OF 2023＊＊＊
チョーキューメイ (ChoQMay)

Now it’s time for my personal favorite award to give out. I say this almost every year but I do think this award for Favorite Discovery encapsulates the very essence of the Roundup and why I do what I do; and that’s being in this constant search for more bands/artists to love and be a fan of. I don’t think there was a band more convincing of that this year in that regard other than ChoQMay (and I do realize that I’m saying that while also putting up a song of theirs that’s literally called “I want to be your lover”, funny how that work-). In all seriousness though, I did enjoy this band a lot this year, having gone back through their entire discography brought about by me randomly deciding to check a celebratory concert live stream that they did to commemorate 50k subs on their YouTube channel. Suffice for it to say, they made me a fan there.

Runner-Up – Foi
For what it’s worth, I feel like listening to her music is just long overdue on my part

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＊＊＊BAND/ARTIST TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2024＊＊＊
a子 (A-ko)

In a previous Roundup I talked about how surprised I was that A-ko had yet to make her anison debut when she seems like she and her music would be a good candidate for it. Now, on a related tangent, I initially meant to give this award for Band/Artist To Look Out For In 2024 to Kroi, as I had a gut feeling they too looked like they were due their own anison debut sooner rather than later… except they already did end up having one late this year. While that could just be the start of them breaking through, it’s still a huge break regardless, wherein this award is reserved for those who have yet to get a chance at one. So I figured; y’know what, screw it, I’m calling it now: A-ko’s gonna sing the next hit ending theme song for Oshi no Ko Season 2 (…or a hit theme for some other anime coming next year, but it’s still a hit, trust)

Runner-Up – TOGENASHI TOGEARI
We got almost a full year of this project being teased, time to see what it’s about

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＊＊＊LIFETIME ROUNDUP APPRECIATION AWARD＊＊＊
Myuk

The first time we gave out this award was only during last year’s Roundup Awards where I treated it as my way of giving a special shout out to BURNABLE/UNBURNABLE because of what their team was able to do for me. This time around I would personally like to show my appreciation to Myuk whose autograph I was fortunate enough to be able to receive this year. While I did also manage to get an signed postcard from one Kusunoki Tomori, Myuk (formerly Kumagawa Miyu) has quite a bit of history with us here on the blog being one of the first young and up-and-coming artists whose career I started to follow relatively early (eternally grateful to Carriage for that). She has since come into her own, and is now set to drop her first full album in just a couple of weeks so yeah, lots of love, and I will treasure this autograph forever. 

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The wait is finally over! Here before you is the final drafted playlist for Season 1 of the Spotify J-Music Playlist Draft. I am pleased to announce that as of our final tally….. Spotify was indeed *able* to reach its goal of 100 songs (!!!), thus getting the W over me this year and proving that streaming service is very much capable of recommending music (to me) that I would like. Let’s give it a hand!

Here’s a breakdown of all my ‘Likes’ (/rip this feature) this year:

Specifically, Spotify got to 100 over a total of 130 total songs to be drafted which might have been just a bit generous on my part in hindsight, but at the same time it did still barely clutch it out so it did a good job all the same. 

If I had to name a stand out band or artist from this year’s Draft (of which there were a good handful), I would have to go with, funnily enough, the first artist to get drafted; Miyuna! Like I mentioned in the first ever Draft week where she got featured, she isn’t necessarily a new name around these parts (having already been an artist that I’ve talked about in the past), but the Draft definitely re-ignited my interest in her music of which I’ve had the utmost pleasure of getting to enjoy this year. 

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To cap off the day’s festivities, 2023 Rounded Up is a playlist that compiles all of my “Must Listen” tracks from all of this year’s Monthly Recommendation Roundups. As a quick reminder, towards the end of my Roundups I pick out two songs that I think you should absolutely try and check out if you couldn’t listen to everything; one from the returning bands/artists half, and one from the new features. And much like the previous year’s Rounded Up playlist, it serves as a neat little summary of the awards show we just had; like, you’ll notice Chilli Beans. makes the most appearances on it for one (lol) and almost all of the bands and artists we gave special recognition to are on there as well. Something to accompany you guys on your way outta here 😉

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a wrap!

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I know I already did so earlier on but I would again like to thank each and every one of you who made it out here, especially if you’re *still* here in the postscript reading this. I hope it was well worth the time 🙂

I would now like to turn the floor over to you guys: what are your thoughts on this year’s award winners? Let us know down in the comments! Likewise, if *you* were to give out any of our awards to bands and/or artists that you believe are also deserving of it, which ones would they be and to whom would you give them to? Feel free to write it all down there as well! 😀

Just a couple of things before I let you guys go; the Monthly Recommendation Roundup *will* be back for its sixth year come 2024. If you’ve stayed tune since its inception, know that you are absolutely wonderful, and that I will once again be in your care <3

Your place for Japanese music album reviews is here to stay, as the J-Music Exchange/Rate will *also* be back next year. Al and I capped off another year of reviews with our customary end-of-year special as we talk about each other’s Favorite Album Of 2023. You guys just saw me crown chilldspot’s Portrait as *my* favorite (which came to no surprise to Al); go ahead and see what he thought of it over at Omunibasu. Likewise, I got the chance to talk about Al’s favorite album of 2023 in Wez Atlas’ This Too Shall Pass this month which you can check out here if you haven’t yet done so.

I’ve subtly been alluding to it for a while now (particularly by calling this year’s run of it as it’s own “season”) but yes, the J-Music Spotify Playlist Draft will be coming back in 2024 as well. We will be introducing new mechanics to our fun little competition with Spotify here now that it has successfully wrapped up it’s first run which I’m excited to show you guys so stay tuned for that too 😉

Last, but certainly not the least, I had the pleasure of contributing to the This Side Of Japan Substack newsletter this year courtesy of Editor Ryo Miyauchi who invited me not once but twice to be featured in their publication. I got to write about one of my all time favorite bands in Negoto for Issue # 71 of TSOJ, and I also got to share my Top 10 Japanese songs of 2023 as part of their Best Of 2023: Friends List. It was a really neat opportunity to get to talk about Japanese music in a platform other than my own and is without a doubt one of the highlights of the blog this year. Massive thanks to Ryo 😀

Speaking of Substack, I might have something cooking in the back myself regarding it. I do actually have a Substack of my own that I started up earlier this year, just that I didn’t have much of an idea what to really do with it other than having it redirect to the blog here. In line with that, my new year’s resolution is to be better at utilizing my Substack (lol) so yeah, very good chance of you seeing more activity from me over there in the coming weeks 😛 On a related note My dude Al has already made Substack his home if you weren’t already aware. If you’re still hankering for more Japanese music after getting done here, do check out Al’s Favorites of 2023.

*phew* I think that’s everything 🙂

I wish everyone a Happy New Year, and I hope to see y’all again next year 😀

For the final time this year; Happy Listening! Catch you in 2024 😛