This week’s features include: 須田景凪 (suda keina), むﾄ (muto), sympathy,
Helios+trope, ねごと (negoto), and 秋山黄色 (akiyama kiro)  

Hey there, and welcome back to another week of the Spotify J-Music Playlist Draft! The one and only rogue-like playlist-building series for Japanese music on the internet (or at least, as far as I know; feel free to prove me wrong, lol). As always, I’m your host, Leap, ready to take on this week’s batch of recommendations. If you’ve been following along, you already know the drill. But if this is your first time stumbling upon this series and none of that made any sense whatsoever, please give the primer below a quick read:

The Draft, inspired by player drafts in traditional sports and the draft formats of popular trading card games like Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh, is a bi-weekly series where I tackle a simple question—

How good is Spotify at recommending songs to me ?

In this series, I put Spotify to the test by seeing how well it can recommend songs I’d enjoy based on the ones I already do. I do this by leveraging Spotify’s built-in suggestion feature for user-created playlists, using my ongoing Recommendation Roundup Playlist as the starting point, coupled with the final Draft playlists from the previous seasons.

This curated pool of over 800+ songs will serve as the basis for Spotify’s recommendations, fine-tuning its algorithm to better predict the songs it thinks I’ll enjoy.

I’ll let Spotify generate 5 (five) recommendations for me to check out every two weeks. Songs that make it onto a Draft playlist and will count as successful picks. Tracks that didn’t make the cut last season get a second chance if Spotify suggests them again. The ultimate goal? To see just how big this playlist can grow by the end of the year.

In Season 2, I added two mechanics to spice things up. The first was the Score to Beat, which sets the season’s target. Last season’s score was 101, so this year, Spotify needs to hit at least 102 successful picks to “win”.

The second change we implemented was the Wait List, a smaller, separate playlist (with a cap of three songs) which allows me to save tracks for later reevaluation.

Now, for this season, I’m shaking things up again by introducing a new mechanic: the Exempt List.

Think of this as a “hall of fame” of sorts: any bands or artists placed on the Exempt List will have their songs automatically ruled out for drafting this season (and possibly in future seasons as well). The idea for this came up while prepping for this year’s Draft. I noticed a pattern—Spotify kept recommending a lot of songs from the same handful of artists. While they’re all great, I felt like the series might start to feel repetitive if the same five or six names kept popping up every other week. The Exempt List, then, is my way of (ideally) ensuring we keep Spotify’s recommendations fresh and different each week.

Check out the Week 1 post for Season 3 to know the rationale behind the following artists being exempted from the Draft: Yorushika, ZUTOMAYO, YOASOBI, みゆな (miyuna), Hakubi, POP ART TOWN, whaledontsleep

Bands and artists can be removed from the Exempt List over time, though naturally, more names can—and likely will—be added as the season progresses, depending on how things shape up. Something to keep in mind.

We’re now in Week 3 of this third season of the Playlist Draft, and so far, the series has been off to a fantastic start. Let’s see if it can keep the momentum going this week!

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Run ’em up!

One of these is definitely not like the others.

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♥ いびつな心/ibitsu na kokoro feat. むﾄ (muto) by 須田景凪 (suda keina)

Kicking things off this week is Ibitsu na Kokoro by Suda Keina, featuring vocalist Muto. I’d slot this under what I like to call Youth Pop—a term I’ve used in the Monthly Recommendation Roundups to describe songs that lean into the kind of melodies and soundscapes you’d expect from artists like Yorushika or YOASOBI. Now, given that I put those two on the Exempt List, you might assume I’m not too keen on this style. But really, the exemption was more about keeping the Draft pool from getting overly saturated with these kinds of tracks. In reality, I actually enjoy them more often than not—this song included. Muto’s vocals, in particular, seal the deal for me.

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♥ 海辺のカフェ/umibe no cafe by sympathy

Making a relatively quick return to the Playlist Draft is Umibe no Cafe by sympathy—yet another track from their Uminari to Zekkei (2017) mini-album, now joining SNS from Week 1. Notably, Dropkick Mid-town (also from Uminari to Zekkei) was featured back in Week 4 of Season 2, which suddenly puts the band in potential contention for the Exempt List if we keep pulling from this release. And honestly, it’s hard to argue against it as so far, every song from the album has been a hit, with this song being no exception. I’ve really been enjoying sympathy’s light rock sound every time they make it here on the Draft, which, now that I’ve had more time with it, reminds me a lot of early SHISHAMO. Vocalist Shibata Yu’s singing also stood out to me, especially the way she rolls her Rs—it’s such a small touch, but it makes for a really pleasant listening experience.

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♥ 脳裏んスーサイド/nourin suicide by Helios+trope

I’ll admit, my introduction to Helios+trope has been purely through Spotify, and I wasn’t aware of their activities when they were at their most active—right in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic. That bit of context ended up being important, though, because it helped me understand their unique setup as a band with no fixed vocalist. I only found out about this after planning to give them props for the singing here, only to realize that Helios+trope is primarily made up of a guitarist, bassist, drummer, and… a cameraman. Maybe the timing of their debut played a part in them not gaining more traction, but for what it’s worth, I think what they pulled off here is really impressive. Nourin Suicide is a crisp, well-executed track that fits right into that Youth Pop mold we just talked about.

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♥ アシンメトリー/asymmetry by ねごと (negoto)

…Yeah, I’m not gonna spend too much time talking about this one. Negoto is one of my all-time favorite bands, and honestly, if they keep showing up in the Draft, we might have to put them on the Exempt List—because let’s be real, I’m never not picking their songs. Asymmetry, in particular, holds a special place in my heart. I still remember how completely hooked I was when it first dropped. Absolutely has no business being here whatsoever. How dare Spotify even recommend this track to me. The audacity (lol).

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x ドロシー/dorothy by 秋山黄色 (akiyama kiro)

Closing out this week is a re-entry from Akiyama Kiro, with Dorothy making its return after originally debuting in Week 21 of Season 2. My main gripe with the song back then was that it felt a little too unpolished, and after giving it another listen, that opinion hasn’t really changed. In fact, after Akiyama’s strong Week 1 entry this season, I’m even more convinced that he just works better with faster-paced tracks rather than these more balladic ones. Props to him for branching out, of course, and maybe if the arrangement were cleaned up a bit more, I’d feel differently—but as it stands, it’s still a no-go for me.

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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 Playlist Draft picks 😊
No new changes or additions have been made to the Wait List.

Short-lived as it was, we now have to formally say goodbye to the Draft’s 5 ♥ streak. It was a solid run though, and again a fantastic way to kick off the new season. That said, a 4 ♥ week is nothing to frown at as it’s, quite literally, the next best thing.

It seems like the Exempt List continues to pay off in terms of the overall quality of picks we’ve been getting, but hey, that might just be me. Let me know in the comments if you think the same! And while you’re at it, which song from this week’s Draft stood out to you the most? Give it a ♥ down below!

Just one quick thing before I let you go. Like I mentioned at the start of the year, I promised myself I’d do a better job of promoting my Substack newsletter. If you’re not familiar, it’s a separate publication where I talk about new and upcoming releases each month in a series called J-Music Advance Party. The February 2025 issue is set to drop tomorrow, February 9, 2025! Feel free to check it out and see which albums I’m recommending this month. Hope to see you there!

Happy listening!