This week’s features include: WOMCADOLE, やまもとひかる (yamamoto hikaru),
PARADISES, Halo at 四畳半 (halo at yojohan), and 果歩 (“caho”)
Hello, and season’s greetings to everyone! Welcome to the Spotify J-Music Playlist Draft! With the winter holidays upon us once again, we’re nearing the end of this little series as it wraps up for the year. That said, if you’ve stumbled upon this entry without being familiar with what this series is all about, I encourage you to give the following primer a quick read before diving in—
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 25 of the Draft—the penultimate week before we wrap up for the year. After next week’s final picks, we’ll tally up the season’s selections to see if Spotify can surpass our current Score to Beat of 100.
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Run ’em up.
Ayy, caho’s back in the Draft, nice!
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♥ ドア/door by WOMCADOLE
In a recent Draft Week, I mentioned how WOMCADOLE felt like a band I’d enjoy after hearing one of their songs for the first time. After listening to Door, I’m even more convinced. It helps that this discovery comes at a perfect time, as I’m currently (at the time of writing) immersed in the music of WurtS and PEOPLE1—artists with whom WOMCADOLE fits seamlessly. Good song, and a good pickup here.
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♥ NOISE by やまもとひかる (yamamoto hikaru)
Interestingly, Yamamoto Hikaru’s NOISE marks a re-entry into the series after an unsuccessful Draft pick attempt back in Season 1. If you recall, the deciding factor at the time was that I wasn’t as impressed with her vocals as I’d hoped. However, after revisiting the song, I feel like I may have been too quick to dismiss it. Maybe I had subpar equipment back then (lol), but this time around, her singing sounds perfectly fine to me. Coupled with her sublime bass work—something I’ve always admired—I believe she’s more than deserving of a spot now.
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♥ PARADISES RETURN – FREE ver. by PARADISES
If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you probably know I’m more than an occasional alt-idol enjoyer, so it’s no surprise that music from that scene makes its way into the Draft from time to time. PARADISES RETURN – FREE ver., in particular, comes to us via PARADISES, a spin-off group of Gang Parade (essentially made up of half the original group). As you’d expect from such an established act, the production on this track is top-notch. I especially enjoy the instrumentation here, with the guitars working beautifully in tandem with the vocals.
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♥ 星巡りのうた/hoshimeguri no uta by Halo at 四畳半 (halo at yojohan)
Similar to WOMCADOLE, Halo at Yojohan was a band whose name I was familiar with through exposure to Japanese music, but I hadn’t actually listened to their songs until now. Much like my experience with WOMCADOLE on the Draft, Hoshimeguri no Uta comes at just the right time in my music journey, as I’m currently diving into similar styles. With this track as my entry point, I’m excited to explore their expansive discography more thoroughly moving forward.
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♥ ブルーアワー/blue hour by 果歩 (“caho”)
Last but certainly not least this week is none other than caho, an artist I first discovered through the Draft back in Season 1 as one of its standout performers. This series has been an incredible way to uncover bands and artists I might not have come across otherwise, and caho once again proves that with Blue Hour. The song is an absolute treat for the ears, especially if you’re like me and have a soft spot for a good acoustic guitar-driven singer-songwriter tune.
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This Week’s Total Likes:
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
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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.
In what feels like forever since the last one, the series finally gets another coveted 5 ♥ week. This late into the series however… it might just be too little too late—rather, to those of you who’ve already done the math, well…
What are your guys’ thoughts on this week’s Draft? Let me know in the comments!
Happy Listening, and Happy Holidays!