This week’s features include: ポップしなないで (pop shinanaide; “Pop Never Dies”),
藍空と月 (aizora to tsuki), 白神真志朗 (shirakami mashiro), Foi, and あの (ano).
If you thought November was done with the Spotify J-Music Playlist Draft, surprise, surprise—a triple header was in store for you!
Now, if that opening didn’t make much sense because it’s your first time here, don’t worry—check out the primer below for a quick rundown of what this series is all about.
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 Week 24 of Draft and, now that we’re just two Draft weeks away before we have to make our final tally, it’s now much easier to see whether or not Spotify gets the W this Season. I gotta be honest… it’s not looking so hot.
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Maybe there’s still a chance?
Oh… A couple of songs going back in for another cract at the Draft huh…
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x SG by ポップしなないで (pop shinanaide; “Pop Never Dies”)
SG by Pop Shinanaide marks one of two re-entrants into the Draft this week, with its first appearance all the way back in Week 12 of Season 1. As I mentioned before, I don’t think Pop Shinanaide’s music is bad—in fact, now that I’ve had the chance to listen to more of their tracks, I’d say it’s generally enjoyable and easy to play through. That’s generally speaking, though. When it comes to SG, my enjoyment tends to wear thin before the track finishes. The more I think about it, the issue might be that the song just feels too long for what it is.
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♥ 君と二人で雪を投げた日/kimi to futari de yuki wo nageta hi by 藍空と月 (aizora to tsuki)
I don’t get to highlight it much on the Monthly Recommendation Roundup, but I do consider myself a fan of Aizora to Tsuki. They’re one of those bands that seem heavily inspired by yakou-sei artists—particularly Yorushika—which you can definitely hear in songs like Kimi to Futari de Yuki wo Nageta Hi. Initially, I thought I might run into the same issue with this track as I did with SG, where it felt like it was running a bit too long. However, the song redeems itself with a well-timed crescendo that transitions into a lovely breakdown toward the end.
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x ノスタルジア/nostalgia by 白神真志朗 (shirakami mashiro)
Shirakami Mashiro’s Nostalgia marks our second Draft re-entrant this week—which might just be the most re-entrants we’ve ever had in a single week, but I digress. This one goes all the way back to Week 4 of Season 1, and unfortunately, it’s going to be 0/2 for songs getting a second chance here. While I respect Shirakami’s effort to explore a more balladic style (perhaps as a way to showcase his versatility), I just think he shines brightest in his produced tracks. Nostalgia isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s not something I’d go out of my way to revisit.
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♥ 婆娑羅/basara (Prod. TOOBOE) by Foi
Foi returns to the Draft after a successful debut back in Week 17 of Season 1. She’s an artist I honestly wish I could feature more often on the Roundup, but her current activity leaves a bit to be desired—likely because she’s busy with CHIANZ (if I had to guess). That said, Basara is actually one of her earlier works, and I’ll admit upfront that I’m not the biggest fan of TOOBOE’s production on this track. It feels a bit too scattered for my taste. That said, Foi does manage to save this song with her singing if only by a smidgen.
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♥ 普変/fuhen by あの (ano)
Back in Week 21 of this season’s Draft, I mentioned how it feels like ano should have already been part of my music library had I discovered her work earlier, before her big anison break. After listening to Fuhen, I’m even more convinced of that and now feel compelled to explore the rest of Nyang Nyang Oeeee. That said, if Spotify decides to keep serving me tracks from it piecemeal in future Draft weeks, I don’t think I’d necessarily mind either.
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This Week’s Total Likes:
x ♥ x ♥ ♥
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The Draft playlist on Spotify has been updated with this week’s Draft picks 😊
No new changes or additions have been made to the Wait List.
It feels like the story of this season of the Draft has been the abundance of 3 ♥ weeks. We’ll see when we do the final tally just how many there actually were, but off the top of my head, it feels like quite a few. If that does turn out to be the case, things aren’t looking too great for Spotify this time around.
What are your guys’ thoughts on the Draft as we enter its final stages? Let me know in the comments if you think Spotify can still pull through.
Happy Listening!