This week’s features include: あの (ano), 帰りの会 (kaerinokai),
秋山黄色 (akiyama kiro), 黒子首 (hockrockb), and キタ二タツヤ (kitani tatsuya)
Hello, and welcome back! Back of course for yet another week of the Spotify J-Music Playlist Draft, your bi-weekly rogue-like Japanese music deck-builder series 😄
If you don’t know how that even works, please give the following primer a quick read 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 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.
This is now Week 21 of Draft as we now continue to trudge into the final quarter of this year. To those keeping score, yes, it’s as close as it is on paper.
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What did we roll on the Spotify gacha this week?
A lot of big names here, hold up.
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♥ AIDA by あの (ano)
Looking back, I find it fascinating how ano has completely managed to escape my music radar since her major debut. I attribute this mostly to not having listened to You’ll Melt More! during her time as a member, nor to I’s, where she later became the frontwoman. In a way, I’m making up for lost time now, as I’m certain my past self would have loved AIDA when it first came out. The song has a distinctive Japanese girl rock vibe that I really enjoy, and ano’s vocals remind me a lot of the late Sayuri—a style I’ve grown especially fond of over the years.
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♥ 落日/rakujitsu by 帰りの会 (kaerinokai)
When I saw that Kaerinokai was back for another Draft week, I immediately checked our Wait List, where we still have another one of their songs, Eureka, waiting in the wings. After giving it another listen, I still find it a bit too drawn out for my taste. In contrast, Rakujitsu hits the mark perfectly. I think they were able to capture the emotion they were aiming for much more effectively, making it a stronger song overall. While I’ve mentioned before that I prefer when Kaerinokai picks up the tempo, I have to make an exception when they bring out the acoustic guitars.
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x ドロシー/dorothy by 秋山黄色 (akiyama kiro)
I came very close to choosing Akiyama Kiro’s Dorothy this week. It initially seemed to hit the right notes in both the sound and vocal departments, but the more I listened, the more I began to notice things that didn’t quite sit well with me. On the instrumentation side, there’s a tambourine (or something similar) that feels a bit jarring and distracts from the listening experience. Akiyama’s vocals also became a bit too shaky towards the end for my taste. It’s not a bad song by any means, but one that I feel could have used a bit more polish.
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♥ 青鬼ごっこ/ao oni gokko by 黒子首 (hockrockb)
Hockrockb makes their first-ever appearance on the Draft this week, which is quite a curious development. If you’ve followed my Roundup posts from about two years ago, you’d know that I’m quite fond of them—in fact, they were once my all-time favorite band. They still remain a favorite, no doubt, but I’ll admit that their recent releases haven’t quite hit the same as their earlier work, which might explain why they’ve appeared less frequently on the blog. I guess that’s also why Spotify decided to recommend them to me again here. That being said, PENCIL ROCKET is an album I still hold in high regard, as it captures vintage Hockrockb from start to finish, with Ao Oni Gokko being a standout track.
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♥ 白無垢/shiromuku by キタ二タツヤ (kitani tatsuya)
It may have taken longer than with most artists, but Tatsuya Kitani has really grown on me over the years. It’s been great watching his gradual rise into the mainstream, especially after his breakthrough in the anison market. Given how consistent he is in delivering quality songs, I expect smooth sailing for him from here on out. One thing I haven’t done yet, though, is revisit some of his older work, like Shiromuku, and sure enough, he was just as good then as he is now. I especially enjoy the bluesy approach he takes in this track, which is something I don’t hear from him often, but it pairs wonderfully with his naturally deep vocal register.
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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 Draft picks 😊
As of this week as well Eureka by Kaerinokai has now been removed from the Wait List.
Spotify continues to impress with another 4 ♥ week, making a last-minute push toward our Score To Beat of 101 songs. You love to see it. On the other hand, I’ve decided to remove Eureka from the Wait List after giving it another listen. The idea behind the Wait List was to give songs another shot, and it feels like Eureka already had its chance but didn’t quite hit the mark. So, back out into the open it goes. Who knows—maybe it’ll find its way back into the Draft next season. For now, though, we say goodbye to it and open up a spot in its place.
What are your thoughts on this week’s Draft? Let me know in the comments! And while you’re at it, feel free to mention if there’s a song I previously turned down that you’d like to see brought back and added to the Wait List. I’m always open to reconsidering some past picks!
Happy Listening!