Good to see that "BAKU" is actually on your top, alongside "SHUM".

"Monster" is good, but I prefer "Kaibutsu" more.

 

Late entry for BAKU actually, I almost forgot about it but that remix really helped it.

 

And now that I think about it, I also mean that entry to be "Kaibutsu", that's the one on my playlists anyway. :lol: Thanks for correcting me, I just 'knew' it was called "Monster" in English and so that's what I've been thinking of it as, and unlike YOASOBI's other songs I forgot there was an English version.

 

 

70 - Against The Current - weapon

69 - Asaka - I Believe What You Said

68 - YONAKA - Clique

67 - OR30 - Help Me

66 - Band-Maid - About Us

65 - BOOGEY VOXX - Crown (feat. Mori Calliope)

64 - Momosuzu Nene - ねねねねねねねね！大爆走

63 - Magdalena Bay - Chaeri

62 - Tokoyami Towa - Palette

61 - Gabry Ponte - Thunder

 

I do still like Against The Current after loving them loads a few years ago, 'weapon' is a fine continuation of their sound. At #69, though I loved it in 2020 too, Asaka's I Believe What You Said was the theme for Higurashi Gou in 2021 too, still gifting my favourite anime franchise with great music (though the Sotsu themes were only okay). Another YONAKA song, I think Clique is one of the best songs YONAKA have done, like all their best like Ordinary and Seize The Power, it's shouty and brash and lyrically is literally just about telling some self-absorbed person to f*** off. Which is very cool.

 

Or3o do some very fun cartoon music videos and anime culture songs, they've made some great songs about Helltaker and HoloMyth for one. The best I've heard from them though is the electro-swing 'Help Me', which is paired with a retro animation and some great string instrumentals and backing vocals.

 

I actually like Band-Maid more than my dismal playcounts of them would indicate, I've always heard good stuff from this Japanese group who've been going for ages, initially just having a gimmick of dressing in maid outfits but always providing great pop-rock along with it. And About Us isn't particularly reminiscent of their sound nor their most musically challenging, but I got a little attached to it for a while, it's a very big stadium anthem song.

 

'Crown' is a song about basking in the victory of success, where Japanese duo Boogey Voxx reflect on their career with the first of many appearances for Mori Calliope here. Mori and Fra (the guy) share the rap verses with Fra in Japanese and Mori in English, each having cool rap flow, while singer Ci brings it all together with some uplifting vocals. It's like the musical followup to 'end of a life' in some ways, that song looks at the regrets of success, 'Crown' is thanking friends for helping each other through it.

 

Nene is a Hololive member I don't really keep up with, and given her first original song is in large part repeating her own 'nenenenene' sound over and over again, I didn't expect to like it that much. But she was the last of her generation to receive a 3D model, and I caught her first concert where she received it, coming out with this initially banal song now seeming profound and emblematic of her journey as an idol - that reminded me of why I like the idol experience, even for a member that I don't follow much. It's also quite an addictive song if you let it get to you.

 

Towa meanwhile is a Hololive member whose singing I really respect, as she has a rather low and soulful range, ever since she did a fantastic cover of a vocaloid song called 'Error' that hit me really hard emotionally given Towa herself had a mistake near the start of her career that stunted her growth in Japan, and her first original song, Palette, was a fantastic followup to this. Unlike 'Error', it is accompanied by a video, starting with Towa in a life without colour and struggling to find a direction, before a light opens up, she finds her calling as Towa (represented by her trademark devil-horned beanie) and her life comes fully into colour as her current self - all accompanied by a great pop song that does everything it sets out to right.

 

Meanwhile, Chaeri and Thunder are two fantastic songs that I encountered through BJSC, one some excellent alt pop and the other some great Eurodance, had a lot of fun with both of these throughout the year.

Storm was also one of my favourite BJSC discoveries as well, I love the build on it. SHUM also stuck with me really well from ESC and Ordinary is my favourite song I've heard from YONAKA, wish that had been sent to BJSC instead x

 

Last Man on Earth is the highlight so far though, I agree it's easily the best song on the album <3

Storm was also one of my favourite BJSC discoveries as well, I love the build on it. SHUM also stuck with me really well from ESC and Ordinary is my favourite song I've heard from YONAKA, wish that had been sent to BJSC instead x

 

Last Man on Earth is the highlight so far though, I agree it's easily the best song on the album

 

Nearly all of YONAKA's "album" this year is killer no filler (I completely forgot it for my albums lol), it is quite hard deciding my favourite between 'Ordinary', 'Seize The Power' and 'Clique'.

 

 

60 - Rare Facture - Verse Girl

59 - KANARIA - King

58 - PinocchioP - God-ish

57 - Maneskin - I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE

56 - Japanese Breakfast - Be Sweet

55 - Taka Inoue (feat. Mori Calliope) - Yona Yona Journey

54 - Promis3 - Future Funeral

53 - Polkadot Stingray - FICTION

52 - Porter Robinson - Something Comforting

51 - Greta Van Fleet - Heat Above

 

Three songs from BJSC, 'Verse Girl' is excellent indiepop with some brilliant instrumental synths, 'Future Funeral' fantastic, energetic and thrilling hyperpop and 'Heat Above' a very weirdly and beautifully structured rock epic.

 

'King' is a weird song to think about in terms of exposure. Anyone who's been anywhere close to vocaloid, vtuber or anime subcultures would probably consider this the most overplayed song of the year, as every vtuber and their mother has released a cover of it in the past 16 months, but that's because it's a tight, well-structured song with easy cover permissions (and very customisable artwork for whichever vtuber covers it). The vocaloid original by KANARIA has gotten an astounding amount of reach thanks to all of those covers, and though I might consider certain covers - particularly Risu, Towa, Reine and Mori/Gura's - superior to the original, the original is still a great song with a breakneck pace as it uses its hook line 'left side right side' to play with your earphones among a wall of descending synth keys.

 

'God-ish' is becoming one of PinocchioP's classics despite being less than a year old, it's popping up regularly on karaoke lists, again with a cacophony of upbeat vocaloid sounds that is brilliant to listen to.

 

Another 'feat. Mori Calliope' song, 'Yona Yona Journey' is Mori's first official collab outside of the vtuber sphere that I can think of, with an up and coming Japanese producer which is very promising for her continued ascendance (we'll get her a Snoop Dogg or Gorillaz collab one day), it's a great little radio hit with a swing instrumental chorus but otherwise could easily be a huge hit with the right push considering Mori raps and sings well in equal measure and her lyrics, while still present in the way I like them, they take a backseat to Taka Inoue's production skills - it's already been a small hit in Japan.

 

I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE I loved for being a big hit this year, it's a great energetic rock anthem and may the charts continue to reward Maneskin as much as possible. 'Be Sweet' was the lead single off of 'Jubilee', as a wistful synth background plays over it she really sells this, that dive into the chorus is lush. It was a song that instantly grabbed my attention for JB for another era, though there was a better one waiting on the album.

 

My favourite Polkadot Stingray (so far) song is 'Fiction', a peppy indie math-rock hit that keeps the vibe light and cheerful throughout. Quite a song to first get introduced to them through.

 

And finally, I did take a listen to Porter's album this year, it was great, but I never got around to returning to much aside from 'Something Comforting', which easily slots in alongside 'Shelter', 'Language' (and basically every other song I love from him, like... say... all of Worlds) as one of his great singalong anthems with simple but powerful lyrics and an awesome drop.

 

50 - Mikazuki BIGWAVE - Emotional Prism

49 - Glass Animals - Heat Waves

48 - Mori Calliope - The Grim Reaper Is A Live-Streamer

47 - CHVRCHES - Final Girl

46 - Tsunomaki Watame - Mayday, Mayday

45 - FamilyJules - Pekora BGM (Metal)

44 - Barbara Pravi - Voila

43 - ABBA - Don’t Shut Me Down

42 - Houshou Marine - Unison (feat. Yunomi)

41 - Olivia Rodrigo - Good 4 u

 

Hit alert as this section somehow contains two of the biggest hits of the year. Heat Waves just sort of wore me down and though its chart performance tells me that everyone else on the planet is absolutely sick of it right now, I still really like it as I've only heard when I want to, it's always awesome seeing a band break through in style like Glass Animals did with this one... more and varied names on the charts thanks. Similarly, 'Good 4 U' is an absolutely HUGE win for the chart as far as I'm concerned, a pop song that makes use of grunge and pop-rock stylings is something the last decade of chart hits was sorely in need of. I also find it amusing that I only eventually got to these hits through osmosis, rather than, you know, being the admin of a chart website. Maybe I'll pay more attention this year.

 

Unsurprisingly, Mikazuki BIGWAVE makes bigwave music, and 'Emotional Prism' is a great future-funky song that sounds vaguely like the Sailor Moon closing song, might well be sampled from a similar 90s anime series, got quite into this at the start of the year.

 

The first of Mori's own songs in this countdown shows up at #48. 'The Grim Reaper Is A Live Streamer' has a great electro-swing theme and lyrically is very self-referential, about the Grim Reaper hiding in plain sight as a normal person, and incidentally in this case, a live-streamer. Outside of the reality of people in real-life not recognising vtubers when they're standing next to them, it's not as personal as most of Calli's songs, but it has a few great moments, like the fully-Japanese dive into the chorus and the bit near the end where Mori starts telling at an imagined passer-by that they're standing right next to a 'death god' (shinigami) and continuing a slightly desperate 'hey, listen' into the outro.

 

'Final Girl' I noted was my favourite CHVRCHES album track earlier this year, lyrics talking about the inner thought process of a 'final girl' as she approaches a horror movie climax, it's awesome.

 

Watame is the hololive member closest to being a rock singer (ironic as her image is that of a fluffy golden sheep), as her songs often have a heavy rock backing. Other great ones from her include 'Cloudy Sheep (feat. some pink-haired grim reaper)', and 'Everlasting Soul' but 'mayday, mayday' stuck with me the most because it's possibly the heaviest, most metal song Hololive have ever released. It's got a grungey bassline with multiple layers, and some great changes in Watame's tone of voice throughout the song, particularly the final part where her breakdown lasts longer than before and she slowly switches to English, making the message clearer with, in succession, 'help me', 'rescue me', 'save me' and then a 'don't rescue me' (where the 'don't rescue me' also sounds a little like 'don't lose to me'). It's also all about Watame going crazy over a lady who is a lot cooler than her. Which is complete nonsense of course, as she put in her Youtube comments on this song, she is a very 'Cool sheep!!!!!!!!!!!!'.

 

Many streamers have backing music, I don't think that many have metal covers released of them. I really like these artists like FalKKone and FamilyJules and PelleK who make metal covers of just about anything, but this is both in here as an appreciation of the cover and a shoutout to the best BGM (background music) in the vtuber business. Playful and arresting, Pekora's default BGM is synonymous with the antics she gets up to and is one of the few that I would happily go to someone's stream for. And then hear it for hours while she f***s around in Minecraft and never get bored of it. The metal cover adds some great guitars and a way to listen to it on Spotify. Very easy to rack up playcounts on this.

 

ABBA have another entry coming but 'Don't Shut Me Down' was a beautiful return from an artist I never thought would return to music, and I will forever be grateful that they blessed us with one final offering, this will go into their classic lists for a long time to come.

 

'Voilá' was an instant standout for me in Eurovision, if I could choose, the sort of traditional ballad that the French are right at home with sending. Barbara added a lot of emotion to it and I wasn't surprised at all to see this challenging majorly for the victory. As it happens, I didn't want it to win in the end, but it was my clear 3rd-favourite of this year's Eurovision and a ballad I'll be playing for a long time after.

 

Houshou Marine, the pirate cosplayer of Hololive, doesn't release many songs, but when she does, they are good ones, her piratical

theme song is one of the most anthemic and ridiculous songs ever produced, but 'Unison' is completely different. Abandoning all notions of structure, this is no easy cash-in by a live-streamer but an artistic and introspective statement on Marine's desires for unity while she's slowly falling into the deep sea. Yunomi did a fantastic job on production here, there's water sounds, a bottle knocking on wood, Marine whispering as backing vocals, a motherload of strange but tropical-sounding percussion. All with Marine doing a great job on vocals, I don't think she's a trained singer but her passion and affect that made 'Ahoy' so fun work great with the emotions on 'Unison'. This is one of the most unique songs I can think of, certainly as far as a Youtuber release goes, on the whole it's a beautiful rush of varying sounds that come together in one very idiosyncratic and satisfying package. If you're only going to rarely make songs as a streamer who gets company money to make one for your character's birthday, might as well make them unforgettable ones, right?

Hey Iz! 'Thunder', 'Future Funeral', 'I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE' & 'good 4 u' are my picks from the last two sections there ^_^ it's a fab thing to see some indie and rock making the chart this year. Can only hope and pray that it takes off as another chart domination phase thing like the mid 00's. Enough with all this mindless grime splurge etc.

Edited January 5, 20223 yr by Rob S~

Very pleased to see YONAKA, Wolf Alice and CHVRCHES getting some mentions here - Final Girl is one of my favourites from the latest CHVRCHES album, I love how much they've embraced the horror theme. The Eurovision songs from Victoria and Go_A were definite standouts too for me in this year's contest.

Hey Iz! 'Thunder', 'Future Funeral', 'I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE' & 'good 4 u' are my picks from the last two sections there ^_^ it's a fab thing to see some indie and rock making the chart this year. Can only hope and pray that it takes off as another chart domination phase thing like the mid 00's. Enough with all this mindless grime splurge etc.

 

Aye, I agree. Any and all rock I will welcome into the chart, I don't know if it's the grime that I really have a problem with, I love Stormzy and Dave, though I'm rarely motivated to listen to them. Though perhaps other stuff that I'm only vaguely aware of (Central Cee? I've heard that name but I don't know what they are). It's also so many overbearing megahits and a general feeling of 'it's not MY music, that I chose to like of my own volition' that puts me off the charts. So indie-rock that I liked before going into the chart to go into the chart.

 

Very pleased to see YONAKA, Wolf Alice and CHVRCHES getting some mentions here - Final Girl is one of my favourites from the latest CHVRCHES album, I love how much they've embraced the horror theme. The Eurovision songs from Victoria and Go_A were definite standouts too for me in this year's contest.

 

Thank you! I'd probably have more of them in my taste if I weren't so focused on Japanese and internet culture, but I am, so that takes up a lot of bandwidth, but western-side I'm absolutely down on the cool indie-pop and alt-electronica fields

 

 

40 - Majestica - This Christmas

39 - tricot - いない

38 - ABBA - I Still Have Faith In You

37 - Aimyon - 生きていたいんだよな

36 - Sewerslvt - all the joy in life was gone once you left

35 - Holo Bass - Pop On Rocks

34 - Blood Command - A Villain’s Monologue

33 - xxsagexx - decaying

32 - Fran Chou Chou (フランシュシュ)　- Taiga yo Tomo ni Naitekure (大河よ共に泣いてくれ)

31 - Ado - うっせぇわ

 

I got obsessed with Majestica throughout the year even, I was still playing

, a song with an adorably perfect set of chords well into the summer. Their new song for This Christmas makes use of God Rest You Merry Gentlemen as a backing track, as is their modus operandi for this. It chronologically fits onto the deluxe version of 'A Christmas Carol' between the ghosts of present and 'to come' and focuses on Scrooge's plans for this Christmas, though less connected to the main plot and is just a big metal banger.

 

Tricot I've always had in the back of my mind as one of my favourite bands they're also the first band (whose name I recognised from before) that I saw live, though this was years ago in Exeter Cavern. And yes, that means I didn't really see bands in my childhood, I only started properly at uni. This song, Inai, means nothing, as in, literally nothing, and is an awesome rock cacophony. I thought this was a standalone as they only released an album in 2020 but they're going strong and apparently did a full album for this, got to get that in to listen soon.

 

I get very misty-eyed at the start of I Still Have Faith In You, that ABBA were able to make this swan-song, coming out of retirement when no one expected to to give one last musical hope to the world. The greatest pop band in history proved their worth by releasing one of the best ballads of their career.

 

Aimyon gave me one of my favourite BJSC discoveries this year, a beautiful Japanese piano pop-rap track about the importance of living your life (though there's many possible translations of the title I'd go with 'Wanting To Go On Living') with to the fullest and screaming out a want to live.

 

By contrast, that title from Sewerslvt isn't exactly a mood-lifter, but it hides one of Sewerslvt's best production pieces, a track that uses a lot of building synths to create an initially happy sound but one that gets ever more distorted over time as it repeats its motif until it becomes a monotone. I often think she's best when she works with samples, this proves otherwise.

 

Though now sadly a lot harder to find on the internet because of Holo Bass' deactivation (he has now reactivated and started producing new Holo music but hasn't reuploaded his old songs), Pop On Rocks is still one of the best talked-rap versions of Doctor Seuss you'll find, and well worth getting in here, I went through quite a journey with that song.

 

A most excellent piece of hard-rock/deathpop, Blood Command's A Villain's Monologue is exactly my favourite sort of edgy rock, one where you can feel the anger of the singer, especially in concept. You could really imagine a great female villain jamming out to this (Jinx in Arcane? if only because she already has her own rock anthem), the hook line of 'No Satan, not today' is delivered especially well, as is the general idea of the self-confidence and complete instability of the character singing this.

 

xxsagexx is the more personal alterego of producer Wisp X, where she puts out songs that she herself sings. I really latched onto 'decaying' because she sounds a lot like Grimes on this one, though all of the xxsagexx tracks are fantastic, and are accompanied by some beautiful if sad demon girl scribbles. 'Decaying' also has a fantastic build and production. This is quite a sadgirl section isn't it? Xxsagexx is incredible, if you heard this through UP, check out the rest of her stuff (she's only got 6 songs right now and they're all awesome breathy electronica) and also Wisp X - though this is the more popular alias, I've admittedly yet to get around to checking much of their stuff out.

 

My favourite anime OP of the year is Taiga yo Tomo ni Naitekure, which uses a bunch of fantastic chords to deliver chills just at the right moment, even listening to it on Spotify, I can imagine very clearly the characters from the show feeling struggles to advance, including, in the video, loads of Japanese 'stop' signs falling from the sky as they try to evade them. It's ultimately a great harmonisation song that even beyond the first 1 minute and 30 minutes sounds awesome.

 

Finally, the best Japanese popular artist, I think I'd just about put her ahead of YOASOBI, Ado is here with her breakthrough single, Usseewa. It's significant enough internationally that it even has its own Wikipedia article explaining that 'has even been called 2021 youth anthem'. Usseewa means 'Shut Up' and is that youth anthem because it's perceived to be about yelling at older conservative bores, a strategy I can definitely get behind. I first got introduced to it through the karaoke that Calliope and Milky Queen did together and it sounded like such a tune just from the karaoke that I had to listen to more Ado. Imagine a new pop artist, anonymous in looks but brimming with character, edge and pop style, breaks onto the scene and scores a massive radio hit and chart hit with a barely masked acerbic dig at society and an anthem for people in need of encouragement to sing to let out their own feelings. We'd be eating it up. That's 'Usseewa' for Japan, and it's incredible.

Love to see "Something Comforting" here. It's one of the great tracks from Nurture.

"Future Funeral" was a good BJSC entry, and "I Still Have Faith In You" was a fantastic comeback.

Love to see "Something Comforting" here. It's one of the great tracks from Nurture.

"Future Funeral" was a good BJSC entry, and "I Still Have Faith In You" was a fantastic comeback.

 

Many great tracks from Nurture, "Something Comforting" was the one that stuck with me the most though.

 

 

30 - Hoshimachi Suisei - GHOST

29 - Little Simz - Introvert

28 - gupi - What’s Known Now

27 - YOASOBI - 夜に駆ける

26 - Seven Spires - Succumb

25 - Blind Channel - Dark Side

24 - Mori Calliope - いじめっ子 Bully

23 - siouxxie - Masquerade

22 - CHVRCHES - He Said She Said

21 - Phil Lober - Alive

 

Ghost is one of the strongest Japanese pop songs I've ever heard from a vtuber, it took its time to grow on me but this is the cornerstone of why I love Suisei's music, after the fantastic 'NEXT COLOR PLANET' from 2020, it's the best of Japanese pop and as a bonus you get to see its singer be a cute blue-haired anime girl on the side. Ghost has a great set of melodies, an opening chord that captures attention and lyrics that speak to Suisei's struggles of going from being an independent artist to showing her passion for singing so hard that she got signed by Hololive and was, uniquely, allowed to keep her original character. She sings about going from being a ghost that no one pays attention to to a singer who brings happiness and joy to her fans and god the melodies and her voice on this one are just outstanding, particularly, after a great guitar solo, when there's a noticeable tone change in her voice and more emotion floods in. One of the best Vtuber originals ever (hearing it normally one might just assume a normal anime song but there's so much weight behind this if you look into it a bit more).

 

I've never hugely been into Little Simz but with my alignment trending towards rap again, this might change, particularly if great production pieces like Introvert become more of the norm. I did listen to the album beyond this but this was by far the highlight, cinematic and devastating in its lyrical analysis of the world from someone sitting inside and observing, something I relate to a lot from my years in China, but more relatable from its allusions to everyone stuck inside. As ever, I adore hard-hitting rap lyrics, but this just sounds great besides. Insane melodic work on the background instrumental too.

 

'What's Known Now' is a very addictive piece of electronic pop, its synths rubbing up against each other to produce addictive pulsating beats of noise. As I said in my BJSC countdown, this was everywhere with me for the summer, it's a very summery beautiful tune and one of the highlights of that contest this year.

 

YOASOBI really were with me throughout the year, one of the first things I can remember is getting introduced to them IRL with a colleague showing me this song on their phone, and though this song was last year, it continued to dominate Japan, so it was a regular on my listen lists. A bright, breezy listen, it has some dark lyrics in that the singer is saved from giving up their life from those they're singing it to, but despite that, the song really maintains this energy of its English title ("Racing In The Night"), with some of that sadness apparent in the singer's lyrics. The piano production is absolutely fantastic on this, I don't even remember that until I'm listening to it again and appreciating the mastery that sent this to the top of Japan's charts.

 

Succumb is one lifeline keeping me attached to symphonic metal, I want to get back into it but only a few bands are really grabbing my attention with songs that stay in my playlists and Succumb was one of those (though Temperance did release a fairly cool album this year too). As were a few other Seven Spires songs, but Succumb really stands out above the pack with its fantastic chorus 'and so I succumb to cinnamon, sweat and rum', and the really well sung 'And I pray one day our stars align, so I might hold you one more time'.

 

The other big rock song in this section is 'Dark Side', which needs no introduction as the Linkin Park-esque swinging nu-metal anthem from Finland that rocked Eurovision almost as hard as the actual winners did, finally giving Finland another HUGE hard-rock entry and rewarding them with their best result since Lordi for their troubles. I hope Finland properly gets the message, we like them being Eurovision's rock country and they are welcome to send that whenever it is possible for them. Dark Side was pretty clearly my Eurovision favourite for a long time but certain, fairly obvious events, transpired to push it into second place.

 

Mori's song called 'Bully' (the Japanese is just the Japanese word for bully) is really weird melodically for her. She sings almost all of it, with the rap being very rhythmic and almost entirely with the singing. The lyrics also refer to someone Calli felt she could call a friend but found herself taking advantage of, for which she regrets, she continues to make excuses for herself. The 'soul of ashes' line hints that the other person might be Kiara but it could well be about anyone. The chorus that starts 'I'll give you fire' is really sultrily sung - that goes with her lounge singer getup for the video. And that's it, while I really like that the lyrics are Calli going for some experimental, dark stuff, this just really sounds excellent all put together and something yet again very different from her.

 

'Masquerade' got attached to me very quickly with its rather insane flow and its sounding like you're listening to the inner thoughts of someone not quite all there, pretending to be someone they're not. Was rather pleasing to see it briefly become a TikTok meme (even if it did result in the singer reuploading the song to Spotify without its beautifully deranged anime art, boo), what an absolute anthem.

 

CHVRCHES returned with their best possible comeback single, 'He Said She Said', by doing nothing safe and everything that could have turned off many (and indeed, did), going heavy on the synths and including some lovely nods to hyperpop in its breakdown. I went lukewarm on them due to not doing this and trending towards safer pop rather than the great electropop I fell in love with them for so this song singlehandedly made me excited for their music again. The song's feminist message, while understated, is a great addition for those who'll read deeper into it.

 

And finally, Phil Lober's 2016 track Alive was on repeat for much of this year as a result of it getting entered into BJSC. I love this, it feels like it should be soundtracking a fantasy anime like Land of the Lustrous or Made In Abyss, cinematic vocaloid beauty checking all of my boxes for what makes a timeless classic.

Nice to see 'Heat Above' and 'Heat Waves' in this list - the former is bby far the best I've heard from the band, and I was delighted to see the latter manage to break the charts so successfully.

 

Giving 'Succumb' a listen now - quite enjoying the whole production of the song, they do what they do very well.

Nice to see 'Heat Above' and 'Heat Waves' in this list - the former is bby far the best I've heard from the band, and I was delighted to see the latter manage to break the charts so successfully.

 

Giving 'Succumb' a listen now - quite enjoying the whole production of the song, they do what they do very well.

 

double heat! Yeah, they're awesome, I should try more from Greta Van Fleet, at least see if it hits me.

 

Awesome, thanks for trying it out! It was my entry to Nuggets early in 2021 but not that many people take part in that and quite honestly I don't remember any of the other songs from there now I'm bad at this.

 

 

20 - Amane Kanata - 特者生存ーWonderladder

19 - FAKE TYPE - FAKE LAND

 

Kanata's debut song is what sounds like an anime mess, a cacophony of instruments all overlapping and breathing hype and energy through its veins. It's not the most technically brilliant song but it's certainly one of the most fun, I've really found myself coming back to it loads. It's the sort of song that if you go along with it, you'll have a smile on your face very soon as Kanata clumsily stumbles her way into a great rhythm and surprisingly anthemic chorus. Her 3D concert at the end of the year where she both debuted a cover featuring Mori Calliope, released a new song that may show up next year and finished strongly with this one was a great cap-off to a wonderful year for one of the hardest-working streamers in Hololive.

 

The magnum opus of FAKE TYPE's album this year was the title track, fitting to be paired with Wonderladder because it's similarly quite a mess structure-wise, but makes up for it by being incredibly hype, fun and danceable as the FAKE TYPE lads go through a ton of different voices and instrumentals. The chorus I think sounds a lot like Sunstroke Project - Hey Mamma, though I might just be thinking that because of a particularly prominent 'mama' lyric, though there's a lot of copious sax too. I love this autotuned electro-swing abrasive rap mess and I wish I'd found FAKE TYPE earlier, they're an incredible, no-f***s-given, colourful and happy duo. Who knows if this'll be their last album, I often see talk about them splitting up, then coming back together again, and both do a lot of their own music, but either way, they're very fun musicians to follow.

 

18 - Mori Calliope (feat. BOOGEY VOXX) - Graveyard Shift

17 - Genesis Owusu - The Other Black Dog

 

MORE electro-swing? How about my favourite doing it? Mori has a good sense for electro-swing, especially paired with her old rapper friends, so it was great to see her finally do it in one of her original songs. This was her yearly Halloween release, which was Cursed Night last year, but this is completely different. Starting with the very useful line "word on the street is that, once she gets hooked on the chase, this Reaper can't be stopped", it, like their other collaboration "Crown", goes between Mori and Fra rapping, and then Ci coming in with a singing bridge and drop. Unlike Crown, this is the three of them clearly embracing fun and swing and follows a simple lyrical concept of Mori, as a Reaper, chasing after BOOGEY VOXX, and finding out that their personalities, as a zombie and a jiangshi (eastern vampire/zombie) match a lot closer with her than she was expecting. It's a great party song, the first of Mori's that I can say that with and I've been playing it a lot ever since it came out on streaming services - it got slightly delayed so my playcounts are a bit lower than they would be, but I've done my best to make up for it since then.

 

Meanwhile, let's switch into rap. I need to go for more Genesis Owusu after this really but I haven't found the impetus to yet, but regardless, "The Other Black Dog" has an insane energy to it and captured me from the off, I've played it so much because of this, energetic songs no matter the genre really hit with me but I've been on a clear rap phase the last couple of years and the flow on the lyrics make it even better.

 

16 - Hololive Idol Project - Suspect

15 - KeiiNO - MONUMENT

 

Hololive Idol Project is just a name for when multiple Hololive streamers do a song together, officially sponsored by the company. Most of these are rather good idol songs but one really stood out among the rest, which aren't here. Why? Because it uses electro-swing. We aren't into big surprises here. "Suspect" fully embraces electro-swing to set up a huge energy for the rest of the song and it's always an excellent listen because of this. It also has the voices of three perhaps lesser-known Hololive members, Aki Rose, Roboco and Ayame Nakiri, which is always good for my sense of fairness and enjoying content from everyone once in a while. They do a great job with the slightly whispered voices here, lending to the... sus vibe.

 

And then we have to go over to one of the best songs ever put forward for Eurovision, I was a little surprised to see KEiiNO back so soon but with this and their other releases this year (also have to shout out 'UNBREAKABLE' even though it doesn't appear here), they've really staked a claim as one of the best Eurovision acts with a really unique and cool gimmick with the joiking that nicely supplements their perfect electropop. The chorus for MONUMENT is an incredible piece of pop that would have been amazing to see at Eurovision, and even though that didn't happen, it's already outstripped my plays of Spirit In The Sky and probably will continue to. It's a monument to their skill.

 

14 - 100 Gecs - Mememe

14 - Sewerslvt - Jvnko Still Loves You

13 - DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ - Try Not To Be Afraid

 

I realised I forgot to include 'Mememe' after I started this. So it's joint 14th. Most songs I'd just leave but 'Mememe' was easily a late release into my top 20 so it needed to get in here. 100 gecs I've always loved since I first heard them but I've had trouble really letting one of their songs really stay with me as one to repeat, and though it's not as wild as most of their stuff, 'Mememe' was the one. It's the chorus line that really digs deep into my soul. And a really good melody that seems to be a result of them trending towards more mainstream stuff with a tad more polish than before, but still keeping the autotuned vocals and some of the contempt they have for the casual listener that warms my heart.

 

Then there's the two BJSC mid-year hits that used a long dance song with spoken word bits to reel in the points. First up, mine. I never expected Sewerslvt to do this well, but I'm glad it did, as it has become my favourite Sewerslvt song for its beautiful sampling of Cowboy Bebop and ear-destroying builds that fill out the song between the rest of it, but let some melodic stuff really come to the fore, which is a bit of a rarity with Sewerslvt. More than anything else, after I've gone through so much low stuff from Sewerslvt, getting attached to the positive track that wants to reaffirm that there's still some positive energy in this project is probably quite easy to see coming. It's a hopeful end to The World Is Fvcked album, it's a hopeful track from Sewerslvt period. It uses the samples to say, like the episode they came from, that some part of you, perhaps the you when you were younger, is always wishing you to go on, no matter what happens. It's a journey. And one I'm very happy to be going along on.

 

Then "Try Not To Be Afraid", an awesome song from a project I'd only paid a little bit of attention to before, Sabrina has the most joyful victory feeling coming through on "Try Not To Be Afraid". I know they aren't connected but it does work with "Jvnko Still Loves You" in my mind as a duo of coming through the darkness and celebrating leaving it, more confident and ready to face the world. An absolute beast of a track, a long song that I've come back to so many times over the year, for its uplifting, summery feeling.

 

basically these two songs are San Junipero Black Mirror in a song, both for different reasons.

 

12 - IrYS - HERE COMES HOPE

11 - Olivia Rodrigo - brutal

 

By far the best song from IRyS so far has been HERE COMES HOPE. It works in one way because IRyS is, besides being an avatar of HOPE, a Nephilim, standing exactly between light and darkness, and so HERE COMES HOPE could either be a beautiful relief or a menacing threat - especially the latter if you take it 'HOPE' to mean IRyS in one of her... playful moods. It's not just that of course, she sings beautifully as normal, switching between a light, high voice, often in English and a lower tone, often in Japanese, but what underlies this track is a thundering metal backing that moves so freely it's almost like swing metal in a way. Naturally I got very attached to this and have played it a ton to get that beautiful energy.

 

This section has another track done by an unassuming pop singer with a big rock backing track, 'brutal' was the track that got me into Olivia Rodrigo and is still my favourite from her. It really shows a lot of vision, opening the album with such a statement. I look forward to seeing what she might explore from here - seeing as brutal feels like a huge Gen Z anthem with its very unsubtle lyrics on the difficulties of surviving in the 'real world'. Maybe we should change that. In any case, hearing her say that "it's brutal out here" with those rock chords and after listing off a long list of problems with being young in this world is very hype. Really good lyrics and a song I wish was longer so I could hear more of her doing this.

Hi there!

I like seeing "MONTERO", "growing up is getting old", "The Last Man On Earth", "Final Girl", "Voila", "Don’t Shut Me Down", "Good 4 u", "I Still Have Faith In You", "Dark Side", "He Said She Said", "MONUMENT" and "brutal" from your top songs section so far.

Great list!

Loving the Olivia tracks featuring, brutal is an album highlight for sure! :heart:

 

10 - YOASOBI - 群青

 

Gunjou, meaning "Ultramarine", is the best of YOASOBI's songs that I've heard. It's their second-biggest hit, following "Yoru Ni Kakeru" into the stratosphere. What it does different is allow the backing vocals to be overtaken by a uplifting choir at lots of key points in the song, and the whole song sounding even more joyful than most of their work. There's little better than the singer taking you on a long, breathless journey and it all coming to an end by that perfectly timed choir.

 

 

9 - Masked Wolf - Astronaut In The Ocean

 

Probably my favourite mainstream chart hit of the year (though not QUITE the last chart hit), Masked Wolf really caught my attention with his slightly aggressive Australian-accented lyrics that take the listener on a descent into a song where the frantic pace of the song is a selling point, where the rather unusual imagery makes you stop, and with its short length, listen to it again. Very easy to get hooked on this one.

 

8 - Gawr Gura - REFLECT

 

I don't think I can quite undersell how perfect a pop hit REFLECT is to me. It's not just the trilingual nature of the song, though the Ancient Greek bookending the song is a great hype builder and finisher, and the English and Japanese share pretty clear cut dual roles, the former to hype up the next line and the latter to carry the song with simple but effective lyrics that even those who don't know Japanese that well can grasp the meaning of. It's not just that it's Gura's debut song, though I watched and liked her a lot before this, I do that with a lot of other vtubers, and none of them bar Mori have ever made a song that I loved quite this much. Though her slightly raw voice and playful nature throughout it really sells the song's uniqueness. It's how that pairs with the thunderous and beautiful stabbing synths to give everything a huge rush of energy (particularly those lovely descents into the bridge), the structure of the lyrics that deal with an inner conflict of 'Evil Gura' taking a stab at Gura's self-confidence - I love narratives of dark sides and coming to terms with your own self confidence, the fun asides that lead the song down the 'a shark is all you'll ever be' route, the synths that continue on into the outro, this more than anything else was my 2021 summer song.

 

 

7 - Ado - 踊

 

Also a bit of a summer song, though more of a late one as I only came to Ado a bit later on, 'Odo' was something I was initially unsure of with its slightly unusual structure. And then I watched the video, saw the translations of the lyrics, saw Ado's eyes dominating the screen as she yelled 'tonight's a party in the dark' and fell in love. There's Latin influences here, there's a lot of influences from recent western hits that perhaps those more used to chart hits wouldn't think about but it's quite unusual from a Japanese pop perspective. It has a fantastic lineup of producers, Teddyloid, Giga, DECO*27, which is pretty much as close as you're going to get to a holy grail in Japanese pop these days. Ado is at her best, really making me feel things throughout but particularly when the song comes alive and she does her 'woahs' after a long wait with all those concurrent builds. As it's the song title translated, this is what I hope a lot of people are dancing to. And they are. In Japan. This is my favourite Japanese hit of 2021.

 

6. Mori Calliope - Red

 

When Your Mori was announced and released, 'Red' was the first song to get a video and therefore the first song that attention was drawn to. Strongest goes first, though it's not quite the strongest from that EP in my opinion, it comes pretty damn close. 'Red', as for where it stands in Mori's discography, it's an extremely competent one that I'd have to say is an easy one to get into if you are unsure of her musical ability, the lyrical references to her character are subdued, it's mostly sung more than it is rapped, and the general feel is that of a pop-rock song where the singer does some fast-rapped verses more than anything else. It has some of what I think are her best conceptual lyrics though. Her two most consistent and best lyrical themes are the finite nature of everything and the virtue of striving despite that, and they're both very present on Red, with the hook line "Time, I'll always be a prisoner to my ambition", which goes on to a chorus where the reaper, time limited by the sun, turns from red to black and then to stone. Some lyrics in the verses are less fantastical, more relatable with "Every day's a fight to stay relevant" and "There are blades to be swung yet", the whole song is also an encouragement for anyone to go ahead despite, or even because of a lack of self-confidence ("I'll bet my heart on the cards because I trust me the least"). She even counts down the time left, constantly reminding you that your time with the song, and more generally, life, is limited. Possibly the best Mori's been yet at allegorical lyrics.

 

 

5 Måneskin - ZITTI E BUONI

 

Eurovision 2021 might have been the best night of the whole year - if it wasn't it certainly was the best Eurovision I've been around for and I don't even think that's recent bias hyperbole. The joy of seeing a coming together event once again with so many really strong songs competing out there for the best song in Europe, and this time, Europe absolutely chose the right song. A song done by a young band of discordant and flamboyant Italians that were absolutely revelling in the victory, one that has some really excellent chords throughout the whole song, angry Italian... telling people to shut up... hey I've just realised, 'ZITTI E BUONI' is the Italian 'Usseewa'! They ripped off Ado!!!! No but really, this is a fantastic rock song that dominated my Eurovision week and well beyond that, with a song that I've already graduated to being my second-favourite Eurovision winner behind Lordi, and hopefully one that is remembered for years to come, it at least seems to be off to a great start.