4 - Japanese Breakfast - Paprika

 

When I listened to Jubilee, the opening track really caught me by surprise. In a very good way of course, but this has been powering most of my Japanese Breakfast love throughout the year. I love absolutely huge indie-pop soundscapes and this is what Paprika is, a beast of pleasing cinematic chords, moving from one to the other so freely that every time I remember it exists I have to put it on and am trapped once again in Japanese Breakfast singing 'It's a rush', which it absolutely is, listening to 'Paprika'. Starting an album with such a great song is really a clever move, I love Jubilee but this is by far and away the best track on there. "I opened the floodgates, and found no water, no current, no river, no rush" is another very relevant lyric, because far from the spicy food this is named after (well... really, it is named after the anime film that is named after the spicy food, and that film is forever on my longlist of things I should watch!!), it feels like a rush of water that never stops going. Those lyrics are about how it feels to be a musical artist and being able to express yourself to everyone, which is right, because they feel like it, like this is the dizzy nature of being a musical artist who has hundreds of thousands of listeners across the world.

 

Oh, and this is also the highest non-Mori song in this countdown. I wasn't kidding when I said 'JUST MORI' at the start of this EOY.

 

 

3 - Mori Calliope - guh

 

The only song off of Your Mori not to get a video, and it's the best one. Guh. I sort of expected it though, as while I think it's the best one, it's also a song that Mori might not want people to be the first of hers to find. For one thing, it's literally named after one of her in-jokes, most of the time, she starts livestreams by saying 'Guh' such that that's her opening phrase, from a verbal tic people noticed from her early days. For another, I love the lyrics here individually, but as a whole, it covers ground that she's covered before and while there's a few interesting things this does, making another song about her (few in number and ever less effective) haters is not something I want her to do again. That aside, this is easily the most addictive song she's ever released, the lyrics are delivered with a great playfulness and flow that make me want to come back to them again and again regardless of their meaning, and there's a lot of awesome individual ones that I need to shout out. There's a brief allusion to her sheriff persona at the start with 'it's High Noon', indicating that this is a less than serious song, and then there's several lines worth of great rhythmic lines starting with "yeet yeet skrt to the yacht yacht steeze, a little more wind we could shoot the breeze" and ending, with no breaks, six lines later with "reaper with killer wits, they can not restrain her" and immediately into one of my favourite conceits, the singer of a song going a little crazy and talking about taking the listener into the forest with a spike bat, to which a background voice asks "Calli, are you okay?". The rest of the song does the same, huge long rhythmic stanzas with Calli going absolutely nuts on the wordplay, self-depreciation and casual roasting of imagined haters, with references that are basically calling them keyboard warriors who can't string together good criticisms to save their lives "I don't care what they say, self-hate is an art, If you want to compete with me, then get smart, 'my dog plays games better, pee pee poo poo,' gee look at the size of the brain on you", following it up with an anthemic chorus of "you will never roast me better than I roast myself".

 

I've come back to this song so much not because of the lyrical content but the way in which they're delivered and all of the little references Calli managed to throw in there, it makes it a listen I never get tired of and really cemented her image as a top-grade lyrical songwriter.

 

As do my top 2, which have always been my top 2 since the one with the later release was released, honestly the only thing I had trouble with was the order...

 

2 - Mori Calliope - Off With Their Heads

 

Off With Their Heads is and will always be a very important song to me. I am going to credit it, and it well deserves it, as a piece of media that literally gave me motivation again. I had, at its release, been doing well in my best job so far, one I'm still in, but the crucial thing is that I did feel that I didn't know where to go after it. What I'm doing now doesn't challenge me mentally, instead tires me out physically, and I have already reached the ceiling of what I'm likely to get with it. Off With Their Heads is a tough love call to create, which is something I have always sought to do in my work, and while it took time to identify something creative that I think I can do, and I'm still learning how to do that (coding), I feel a lot better about my future direction now, there is a lot more improvements I can make, in fact, I never have to stop improving and creating, and the skills you get from it are applicable to many creative fields, even just looking at a digital drawing program looks less intimidating now should I want to make some hobbyist art in the future, and I do have this song and Mori's general attitude to making something worthwhile in your life to thank for that. I have genuinely been a lot happier since it released.

 

Why it did that is another thing. See, among those who know this song a little but not that well, they may know it as the diss track that Calli released that told a load of people on Twitter who were hanging about just talking about becoming a vtuber but never doing it, to get off their arses and make something. And while, there is that element within it, it has a load of great lyrics to that effect ("you want a balanced following? start creating, stop tweeting"), I know from listening to Mori that a diss track was never the primary intention with it, and she may even regret the slight 'tough love' image that came with the song. More than that, she meant it as a challenge. In this song, complete with its wonderful Japanese-style snare and production, made by TOPHAMHAT-KYO (of FAKE TYPE) Mori is the Sadistic Sakura on top of the mountain, waiting to challenge everyone willing to climb all the way up to a battle of motivation, a challenge to make something wonderful that will shock the world. She envisions it as being her fanbase that is challenging her and hopefully eventually surpassing her, which is why we have the "dead beats rise" lyric in there, and everything else is honestly just window-dressing and posturing of why she deserves to be at the top, and she does. As to that, an astonishing number of the English vtubers who debuted in 2021 have listed Mori as an influence, she is probably THE most influential vtuber out there in terms of inspiration. She won't accept those whose stance is average, or those who senselessly slaughter (I'm guessing, bring down others to climb above them), she will accept those who keep on trying no matter what. She gets a lot of questions about "how can I join Hololive? Must be easy to be a company hire" and sort of takes them down with that she did work hard to get in, the company doesn't just take any one. And though you get a lot of guaranteed success as part of Hololive, a lot of what Mori's done since that song is prove that she is not coasting off of that success and is making the most of this opportunity, and as I write this has just been told off by her manager for trying to schedule FOUR streams in one day after no sleep due to music video work (cutting it down to three). She is a little bit of a workaholic. Which I can accept as part of her job is playing video games for entertainment, and her fanbase do constantly tell her to take it easy and I don't want her to push herself as hard as she does for the sake of her health, but it's the work ethic that comes with this song, that it's a tough old world out there and successful creatives really do have to ride the ocean of competition. It's been my motivation anthem and lyrical favourite throughout this year and probably for the years to come.

 

 

1- Mori Calliope - end of a life

 

There's a certain anon in the Mori thread on /vt/ (I read sometimes but never post), who constantly brings up the fact that 'end of a life' is Mori's weakest song musically. Because of certain things about musical theory. Which I'm only bringing up to say that musical theory can go to hell as far as my love for Mori is concerned. 'end of a life' makes me weep uncontrollably and that is a very good thing for music to do, tap into your emotions until you get them all drained from you. And musically 'end of a life' is good, it uses simple, effective chords, expertly done by a producer who'd literally only done a Mori piano cover song of note before Mori contacted him as far as I'm aware (PrettyPatterns) - simple is best sometimes. Because that leaves more space for the lyrics to shine. And Mori's strength is always the lyrics.

 

She very nearly didn't release this song and I'm glad she did, she's glad she did because it's become one of her most popular for sure, and with its minimal character-relevant lyrics, it's stripped right back to the point where it essentially tells Calli's story of her ascension, and all the obstacles she ran into along the way. And then, what is left behind by not gaining creative success, and what happens to those who wish for it but don't succeed. It's a direct tackle of the sad reality that not everyone can get success, that life moves on and what's left at the end of it is like a memory.

 

One of the strongest images that Calli's ever been able to sell me with her music is that of running through a Tokyo-esque nightlife, something I imagine she's done herself, she did it on Cursed Night, stumbling alone, here, she starts running with a group of friends carefree, and then quickly takes off from them and leaves them behind. And then she starts, from where she is, looking back on her past and wondering what happened to all of that, what she might have been if she hadn't been incredibly lucky to get what she had now, that there is someone she wants to thank for saving her life, and most poignantly, that we'll never know what might have been had things turned out differently. The "disappearing into the mists of "never happened" is the me that I can never befriend" line is so strong because of that, you can either imagine two versions of her, or two versions of yourself there, what might have been had any one of us done something a bit differently at the past. I know there are many decisions I made in the past decade that would have lead to drastically different outcomes in my life, some perhaps better, some perhaps worse, and coming at the end of a long stanza of reminiscing, that line hits like a truck.

 

You can never go back to those days and that's what this slow, emotional backing rises to throughout the chorus, that given it's now just a memory, is it real, is the joy we felt still there with us? The second stanza switches focus away from Calli (as she is now), rather to the her that she was before success (or alternatively, someone who never sees success), featuring either the best or the worst line depeending on your stance on wordplay (I am the former) "thinks an office is a coffin until off is where you're laid" - it exactly works both meanings. This person then considers whether it was worth it to write music that no one listened to, but is the world a sadder place without their works? Likely not. Then there's a lot of Calli beating herself up for having feelings of regret about those she surpassed, she had heroes for years before starting to write music, and once she did, almost in no time at all she surpassed them, and instead of feeling down she's telling herself to 'feel blessed that you got it made', that she beat the odds, that she was the lucky one. She's said that her life does seem a bit like a made-up story, and that she half expects to wake up a lot of the time to find it was all a dream, a memory. This, very, very, very personal song is awesome to think about as it's attached to one of my favourite people, that she felt comfortable enough to put all of her thoughts and worries about her mind inside of success and out into a lovely-sounding song, and I really, positively, absolutely, love the result.

Top 100 (excel copied so some songs are badly formatted credits it's fine dw)

 

1 - Mori Calliope - end of a life

2 - Mori Calliope - Off With Their Heads

3 - Mori Calliope - guh

4 - Japanese Breakfast - Paprika

5 - Maneskin - ZITTI E BUONI

6 - Mori Calliope - Red

7 - Ado - Odo

8 - Gawr Gura - REFLECT

9 - Masked Wolf - Astronaut In The Ocean

10 - YOASOBI - Gunjou

11 - Olivia Rodrigo - brutal

12 - IRyS - HERE COMES HOPE

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

14 - 100 Gecs - Mememe

14 - Sewerslvt - Jvnko Still Loves You

15 - KeiiNO - MONUMENT

16 - Hololive Idol Project - Suspect

17 - Genesis Owusu - The Other Black Dog

18 - Mori Calliope - Graveyard Shift

19 - FAKE TYPE - FAKE LAND

20 - Amane Kanata - Wonderladder

21 - Phil Lober - Alive

22 - CHVRCHES - He Said She Said

23 - siouxxie - Masquerade

24 - Mori Calliope - Ijimekko Bully

25 - Blind Channel - Dark Side

26 - Seven Spires - Succumb

27 - YOASOBI - Yoru Ni Kakeru

28 - gupi - What’s Known Now

29 - Little Simz - Introvert

30 - Hoshimachi Suisei - GHOST

31 - Ado - Usseewa

32 - Franchouchou - Zombieland Saga OP2

33 - xxsagexx - decaying

34 - Blood Command - A Villain’s Monologue

35 - Holo Bass - Pop On Rocks

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

37 - Aimyon - Ikiteitaindayona

38 - ABBA - I Still Have Faith In You

39 - tricot - Inai

40 - Majestica - This Christmas

41 - Olivia Rodrigo - Good 4 u

42 - Houshou Marine - Unison

43 - Barbara Pravi - Voila

44 - FamilyJules - Pekora BGM (Metal)

45 - Tsunomaki Watame - Mayday, mayday

46 - CHVRCHES - Final Girl

47 - ABBA - Don’t Shut Me Down

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

49 - Glass Animals - Heat Waves

50 - Mikazuki BIGWAVE - Emotional Prism

51 - Greta Van Fleet - Heat Above

52 - Porter Robinson - Something Comforting

53 - Polkadot Stingray - FICTION

54 - Promis3 - Future Funeral

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

56 - Japanese Breakfast - Be Sweet

57 - Maneskin - I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE

58 - PinocchioP - God-ish

59 - KANARIA - King

60 - Rare Facture - Verse Girl

61 - Gabry Ponte - Thunder

62 - Tokoyami Towa - Palette

63 - Magdalena Bay - Chaeri

64 - Momosuzu Nene - Nenenenenenenenene

65 - BOOGEY VOXX - Crown

66 - Band-Maid - About Us

67 - OR30 - Help Me

68 - YONAKA - Clique

69 - Asaka - I Believe What You Said

70 - Against The Current - weapon

71 - Wolf Alice - The Last Man On Earth

72 - Silver Sphere - football game

73 - Ikimonogakari - BAKU

74 - Hoshimachi Suisei - Stellar Stellar

75 - BABYMETAL - BxMxC

76 - GO_A - Shum

77 - Ado - Readymade

78 - Icon For Hire - Brittle

79 - Louis II - Glorious

80 - Vivy - Sing My Pleasure

81 - Jeangu Macroy - Birth Of A New Age

82 - FAKE TYPE - BEELZEBUZ

83 - YONAKA - Ordinary

84 - Taking You With Me - Little Violet

85 - Worakls - Storm

86 - Takanashi Kiara - Heart Challenger

87 - Victoria - growing up is getting old

88 - Lil Nas X - MONTERO

89 - PinocchioP - Because You're Here

90 - YOASOBI - Kaibutsu

 

 

 

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:

 

Thank you guys and everyone else who commented. I'll try and keep an eye on other EOYs to see if I can comment but I like to have a specific thing to say about a song when I comment, that's just me. Maybe I'll select something you're talking about that I think I might like to discover. Who knows. Anyway, that's me all done for regular posting in this thread.

 

5/5

COMPLETE!

Oh darn, you've got very similar thoughts to me on Jvnko Still Loves You and Try Not to Be Afraid and I've not written about them yet! Promise that it's not plagiarism when they come up x

 

Brutal was my favourite of Olivia Rodrigo's album too, it was quite unlike anything I expected from her. I heard Be Sweet from Japanese Breakfast recently and liked it, so I may try checking more of this era out, the album has got really good reviews.

 

I remember liking end of a life for it being not far off my points in BJSC as well (I felt I should say something about Mori given the amount you've written about her in here! :kink:)

Here are my picks of your last 30:

 

27 - YOASOBI - Yoru Ni Kakeru, (masterpiece.)

25 - Blind Channel - Dark Side

15 - KeiiNO - MONUMENT

10 - YOASOBI - Gunjou

7 - Ado - Odo (great BJSC entry! I enjoy it)

Possibly the only chart here not to have IWBYS as Maneskins highest track. For what it's worth I prefer ZITTI too but both are grand. Also liked that Blind Channel entry as well. Bringing some much needed diversity genre wise to Eurovision. DJ Sabrina was an excellent piece as well. I hadn't heard the other one of thiers but was blown away by how epic this one was and rightfully was the biggest smash too.

 

Genesis was catchy as anything too and 'Alive' also a nice decent entry. I got to be honest I don't remember much memorable stuff from UP personally but I recall 'decaying' sticking out. Was certainly an intriguing choice.

Edited January 11, 20223 yr by Rob S~

Oh darn, you've got very similar thoughts to me on Jvnko Still Loves You and Try Not to Be Afraid and I've not written about them yet! Promise that it's not plagiarism when they come up x

 

Brutal was my favourite of Olivia Rodrigo's album too, it was quite unlike anything I expected from her. I heard Be Sweet from Japanese Breakfast recently and liked it, so I may try checking more of this era out, the album has got really good reviews.

 

I remember liking end of a life for it being not far off my points in BJSC as well (I felt I should say something about Mori given the amount you've written about her in here! :kink:)

 

I will accept that it is not plagiarism, but I want royalties anyway, I'll look forward to seeing them turn up! Definitely feel I know more of your EOY than most of the others here.

 

And yes, do check out Jubilee, it's awesome indie-pop, I think if you like Sufjan Stevens you'll have a good time with it.

 

(thanks for acknowledging Mori, every time someone does that it gives me power and makes me smile :wub:)

 

Here are my picks of your last 30:

 

27 - YOASOBI - Yoru Ni Kakeru, (masterpiece.)

25 - Blind Channel - Dark Side

15 - KeiiNO - MONUMENT

10 - YOASOBI - Gunjou

7 - Ado - Odo (great BJSC entry! I enjoy it)

 

Thanks, great picks for my J-pop & Eurovision interests

 

Possibly the only chart here not to have IWBYS as Maneskins highest track. For what it's worth I prefer ZITTI too but both are grand. Also liked that Blind Channel entry as well. Bringing some much needed diversity genre wise to Eurovision. DJ Sabrina was an excellent piece as well. I hadn't heard the other one of thiers but was blown away by how epic this one was and rightfully was the biggest smash too.

 

Genesis was catchy as anything too and 'Alive' also a nice decent entry. I got to be honest I don't remember much memorable stuff from UP personally but I recall 'decaying' sticking out. Was certainly an intriguing choice.

 

I sure hope not! 'Slave' is a great rock song but it's very... typical and I do think only became their biggest hit because of English supremacy, while ZITTI E BUONI has a lot of special energy and passion behind it, no contest in my mind as to which is better - I don't think 'Slave' would have won Eurovision. 'ZITTI E BUONI' and 'Dark Side' are two of the best rock hits in Eurovision ever, even with bias I'll say that, and in the same year as well

 

I always try to do the intriguing choices, I hope that helps people remember my choices. Thanks for dropping by!

Hey Iz,

 

I liked these in your top 40:

 

1 - Mori Calliope - end of a life

2 - Mori Calliope - Off With Their Heads

5 - Maneskin - ZITTI E BUONI

9 - Masked Wolf - Astronaut In The Ocean

11 - Olivia Rodrigo - brutal

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

14 - Sewerslvt - Jvnko Still Loves You

15 - KeiiNO - MONUMENT

22 - CHVRCHES - He Said She Said

25 - Blind Channel - Dark Side

29 - Little Simz - Introvert

38 - ABBA - I Still Have Faith In You

 

I did enjoy a couple of those Mori songs! Zitti didn't do anything for me at Eurovision but I couldn't deny the charisma of the standout performance and it helped the song to grow a lot on me.

 

Absolutely ADORE the DJ Sabrina song, my favourite 'foreign' BJSC entry of the year and was 9th in my EOY, the same position as the song I sent myself by DJ Sabrina got to in my 2019 EOY. Monument really would have been a fantastic entry for Norway, shame they didn't go for that. And I absolutely adored the ABBA return, I Still Have Faith In You is so gorgeous.

Edited February 7, 20223 yr by gooddelta

Hey Iz,

 

I liked these in your top 40:

 

1 - Mori Calliope - end of a life

2 - Mori Calliope - Off With Their Heads

5 - Maneskin - ZITTI E BUONI

9 - Masked Wolf - Astronaut In The Ocean

11 - Olivia Rodrigo - brutal

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

14 - Sewerslvt - Jvnko Still Loves You

15 - KeiiNO - MONUMENT

22 - CHVRCHES - He Said She Said

25 - Blind Channel - Dark Side

29 - Little Simz - Introvert

38 - ABBA - I Still Have Faith In You

 

I did enjoy a couple of those Mori songs! Zitti didn't do anything for me at Eurovision but I couldn't deny the charisma of the standout performance and it helped the song to grow a lot on me.

 

Absolutely ADORE the DJ Sabrina song, my favourite 'foreign' BJSC entry of the year and was 9th in my EOY, the same position as the song I sent myself by DJ Sabrina got to in my 2019 EOY. Monument really would have been a fantastic entry for Norway, shame they didn't go for that. And I absolutely adored the ABBA return, I Still Have Faith In You is so gorgeous.

 

Thanks for leaving a comment Rich!

 

Always appreciate Mori love, thank you

 

I have enjoyed what else I've heard from DJ Sabrina after checking them out a bit further because of this, although not quite as much as this.