One of these days, there could come a day when finally, at long last, I get bored of listening to music. “All right,” I’ll say. “That’s enough music for me.” Having decided I’ve heard all I want to hear, I’ll hang up my music hat. One day, who knows? I might graduate from listening to music.
But that day is not today. And in all likelihood, it’s not tomorrow either.
Here’s some of the better music I’ve found since last time.
Urakami Souki
“Dreaming of Dream Harbour”
2024 | POP
The freshest of these findings. I only just discovered this artist last month.
In a word, I love how beautifully melodious his music is. Just listen to the song—it’s crazy the directions his melody lines go. It’s too early to say for sure, but I think I’m about to become a fan. Can you imagine how cool this song would sound live?
Fun fact: this song features on bass guitar the great Shin Rizumu. He is a fantastic solo artist in his own right.
DeBarge
“All This Love”
1982 | R&B
Let’s just bring out the big guns right away. For the past six months, DeBarge has been by far my favorite music to listen to. I am absolutely hooked on this group. I don’t know how to explain it. There’s simply something about their music that touches some deep part of my soul.
I have written fan mail to musicians a grand total of two times in my life, both when I was a teenager. Suffice to say, I am now well past the average “fan mail sending age.” And yet, I currently have on my desktop a file entitled “El DeBarge.txt” in which I have been trying (and failing) to write something poignant that I could message to this man you can see singing above. I’ll probably end up never actually sending it out. The problem is that I’ve forgotten how to write fan letters. What exactly is a grown man supposed to say to another man in a fan letter? I mean, really. What? “Hi, I love your music. I’m a fan.” Yeah, great…
I wish I could somehow literally take the feeling of absolute bliss I feel in my heart when I listen to this music and send that out to El DeBarge.
Goddammit, I love DeBarge.
Elis Regina
“Aprendendo a jogar”
1980 | MPB
While I was previously familiar with Elis Regina, I was not familiar with this album. To me, it comes across as a major hidden gem among her discography.
Speaking about this tune in particular: I love how she becomes more and more unhinged as the song goes on. On the live version above, she gets so totally into it that there are parts in the latter half where I’m not even convinced that’s a language she’s singing in as it is some sort of broken, incoherent babbling. And she’s just laughing the whole time. It’s awesome.
What a jewel she was.
Michael Sembello
“Carousel”
1982 | AOR
The Michael Jackson aficionados among you will already know this, but his version of this song, written by Sembello, was almost included on the Thriller album.
I first came across him while watching a Stevie Wonder live performance from 1974. It’s a bit embarrassing, but as I was watching the show I couldn’t help but notice this young, long-haired, very white guitarist among Stevie’s otherwise all-black backing band. “Wait, who’s that guy?”
Well, it was this guy.
I lost my heart on the carousel
To a circus girl who left my heart in pieces
Lost my heart on the carousel
To a circus girl who ran away
But what I can’t recall
Is if there was a girl at all
Or was it just my imagination?
Kumagai Sachiko
“Minna Ame no Naka”
1992 | J-POP
I really could’ve picked almost any song of hers to introduce you to her with. Initially, Kumagai Sachiko’s music might sound like your stereotypical 90s J-pop. But on closer inspection, you can hear how the songwriting is just so playful and, more importantly, original.
The thing I love the most about her music is how unpredictable it is. I don’t mean “unpredictable” in the sense that you’re going to hear sudden death metal blastbeats or symphonic prog rock interludes in the middle of her songs. I mean “unpredictable” as in her sense of melody. In listening through her discography for the first time, I could not predict where any of her songs were headed. Her melodies sound like they could go anywhere at any given time, but the thing is that it never feels forced or weird, nor does it feel like she’s doing it just to be “different” or “quirky” or any stupid shit like that. It’s genuine, and it just works.
I know nothing about music theory so I can’t explain it to you in proper terms. But I can give you examples to illustrate what I mean. In this song, it’s a lovely J-pop chorus like any other but not in a million years was I going to guess the chord change at 1:24. In this song, that opening riff in the first four seconds, sure, okay, but the change at 0:05 was never going to be on my musical bingo card. In this song, the out-of-the-blue descent at 1:26 is just pure ear candy.
You get my point. I like it.
S.E.S.
“Meguriau Sekai”
1999 | K-POP
Is this K-pop or is it J-pop? The girls singing it are Korean, but the lyrics are in Japanese and nine out of the ten songs on the album were composed by Japanese songwriters with the music sounding very much in the vein of Japanese pop in the year 1999. It is a real conundrum.
I suppose you could just drop the prefix and simply call it “pop.” If you want to be like that. If you want to be a boring, not fun-loving person. If that’s the sort of life you want for yourself.
Whatever the case may be, it’s a cheerful, feel-good album. I’m not going to say it’s some hidden masterpiece of pop music, because it isn’t. What it is, though, is a very pleasant, “guilty pleasure” kind of album to listen to when you just want something that’s both effortless to listen to but also competently made. Something to get hooked on for a month or three.
Korgonthurus
“Marraskyyneleet”
2009 | BLACK METAL
Sounds of despair.
I forget now how I found this band, but I do remember this being the first song I heard from them. I have since gone back and listened to their entire discography, and it is all amazing. It’s difficult to imagine an honest-to-God black metal fan (pun intended) who wouldn’t like this.
Highly recommended listening for fans of cold, dreary black metal. Even on the songs where the tempo picks up, it’s never in the sense of, “Oh shit, here we go!” Instead, their music is always hidden behind this murky veil of depressive darkness. I love it.
John Zorn
“Brother Sun, Sister Moon”
2019 | CHAMBER FOLK
This is a really cool album (the first in a trilogy) that features nothing but three acoustic guitars.
Some of this album sounds bright and shiny like the title track above, some of it sounds dark and broody, and some of it sounds like a mix between a Bach lute suite and the background music when you stumble upon a small friendly town in a Final Fantasy game.
Anita Baker
“Sweet Love”
1986 | SMOOTH SOUL
Anita Baker’s Rapture is a great little album of 80s soul. I’m possibly the last person on Earth to have heard this album and this song, so it might be somewhat redundant of me to even be introducing it like this. But just in case…
I suggest paying attention especially to the bass—this track and a couple of others on the record are blessed by the incredible playing of Ready Freddie Washington. Watch his performance above and witness a couple of minutes of effortless mastery. Really. Listen to it.
The interviewer’s ear-to-ear smile says it all.
soraya
“Hitori”
2022 | JAZZ POP
This duo just put out their debut album last year, and it is without a doubt among my favorite releases from 2024.
Don’t be too quick to dismiss this group. Your initial two-second first impression might be, “Oh great, another jazzy piano band with cutesy female vocals.” And yeah, your first impression isn’t wrong in the sense that it is a jazzy piano band with cutesy female vocals. But the thing that sets soraya apart from similar groups is… Well, the songs. They’ve got a real good set of songs.
I just love this album. You’re listening to the song above and, oh! Finally! Here comes the chorus! How exciting! Except, wait… Her singing’s just so… listless? Even the lyrics are going, “You’re all alone; it’s all so dull.” The chorus literally starts with the words: “つまらないな…” (“How boring…”)
This is a band I will be keeping my eye on. Or, you know, my ear.
Catch you in the next one.
Cheers!
