This week’s features include: 菅原圭 (sugawara kei), whaledontsleep,
ひかりのなかに (hikarinonakani), MINT mate box, ヨルシカ (yorushika), and
日食なつこ (nisshoku natsuko)

Another week, another Draft 😀 The Spotify J-Music Playlist Draft to be exact! If you’ve been following this series and already know what it it’s about, you’re probably long past this part and are already checking out the week’s songs. However, if if this is actually your first time checking this series out, here’s a short little primer on what to expect:

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 ongoing Recommendation Roundup Playlist on Spotify.

Making use of Spotify’s built-in suggestion feature on user-created playlists, we will have it gather a total of 5 (five) songs for me to check out and listen to. In addition to my own playlist however, for this season we will ALSO be including the 100 Draft picks from the previous season into the mix, thus (in theory) refining Spotify’s recommendations even further while also ensuring that we don’t get any repeats (songs that weren’t picked from last season though will get another shot if they get recommended to me again). Songs that I like will get drafted on a *new* Draft playlist, where the goal is to see just how big it gets by the end of the year.

What else new in Season 2 of Draft, you might ask? Well, we will actually be introducing a couple more things that weren’t present in the previous season. The first, is what we will be calling the Score To Beat. Last time Spotify only needed to reach a 100 songs for it to get the W at the end of the year. We will treat that 100 as the *current* score to beat for the series, so for this season Spotify now needs to get 101 or higher before the end of the year in order for it to win.

To keep things fair however, seeing as Spotify juuuust barely reached its goal last year, we’ll be incorporating the Wait List; a separate playlist of songs (max 3) that I think I might reconsider drafting should it come down to it.

We have now reached the double digits here as it’s now Week 10 of Drafts, with Spotify overperforming a bit with its picks. Let’s see if it manages to keep that same energy moving forward.

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Here’s the spread for this week:

No Japanese words in any of these song titles… What a coincidence (XD)

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♥ ブランケット/blanket by 菅原圭 (sugawara kei), whaledontsleep

whaledontsleep makes another appearance here on the Draft, making this now their fourth just this season alone, this time around accompanied by Sugawara Kei who is not a stranger to these parts themselves, having made appearances both here as well as in the Monthly Recommendation Roundup. Now, I wasn’t too too sold on this track at first to be honest. Like, whaledontsleep somehow or otherwise managed to recreate Miyuna’s Canner Beer which, I mean, is completely fine don’t get me wrong, just that I’ll always end up wanting to listen to the latter instead every time I hear this. Sugawara Kei’s singing does come to the rescue here though, giving the song a much needed additional layer, thus continuing the whaledontsleep streak alive.

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♥ MOVE ON! by ひかりのなかに (hikarinonakani)

I’ve had to recheck previous Roundups numerous times for this, as I could’ve sworn that I featured MOVE ON! in one before, but turns out that I didn’t and all that there is really is me lamenting the fact that I hadn’t done so when I first came across Hikari no naka ni however many years ago. I distinctly remember being so gutted seeing vocalist Yamashita Kaho’s decision to go on an indefinite hiatus citing her primary reason as depression. It warms my heart to relay to you guys that she and the band have since resumed activities, and now all of a sudden the song now holds a different and more important meaning. Happy to see the band back, and happy as well to finally give this song its fair dues.

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♥ リサイクル/recycle by MINT mate box

Interestingly enough, this actually isn’t the first time that I’ve come across Recycle by MINT mate box here. I was first made aware of both it and the band through a Japanese music roundup post by my buddy Al many moons ago. I remember noting at the time that the song reminded me a lot of FREDERIC’s oddloop of all things (especially the chorus) and that still hasn’t changed as I still get that same vibe here. Not a knock on the song whatsoever as it is good energetic fun as you’d expect given the comparison. I share the same sentiment’s as Al here in saying that it’s a shame we lost this band very early.

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♥ カトレア/cattleya by ヨルシカ (yorushika)

A quick and easy way to spot a hipster in a sea of Yorushika fans, is by asking them what their favorite Yorushika song is, ’cause if they answer with Cattleya, chances are they 100% are one (I mean, I should kno-). In all seriousness though, the song is a bit of an outlier in the duo’s discography, especially now looking back. While it still has a lot of n-buna-isms in its overall composition, it’s definitely more Rock-oriented in its approach; arguably the most a Yorushika song has ever been. Listening to this at times makes me wonder just how different Yorushika’s career trajectory would have turned out if they stuck to this kind of sound.

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x ダンツァーレ/danzale by 日食なつこ (nisshoku natsuko)

Before I proceed, I want to say first that I don’t think this song is bad in any way shape or form, nor do I want this to be a reflection of what I think about Nisshoku Natsuko as an artist. It’s just that… I’m not really a fan of this kind of sound. I mean, yeah, the more I listen to it the more her singing does start to kind of win me over, but in general I don’t tend to go for a lot of cheerful/playful almost Folk-y piano music and I found this to be a little too much of that for my liking. Just not my cup of tea, but I have no trouble seeing how it can be for those who enjoy this style.

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This Week’s Total Likes:

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ x

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The Draft playlist on Spotify has been updated with this week’s picks 🙂 No new changes were made to the Wait List.

These 4 ♥ weeks have become a familiar sight here on the Draft, much more than it had been last season I feel. Of course, by that same token, we haven’t had a lot of 5 ♥ weeks thus far either so Spotify hasn’t totally figured me out just yet. But boy does it feel closer and closer by the week.

What are your guys’ thoughts on this week’s Draft? Lemme know down in the comments! Likewise, let me know if Nisshoku Natsuko’s music is your kind of vibe.

Happy Listening!