My Top 100 J-Pop Songs Of All Time

Having watched Kngdmhrts55′s Top 200 J-pop PV’s (Part 2 of the Youtube videos coming up soon) I thought I’d make my own favorite Top 100 J-pop song countdown. Some of the songs are album tracks only (I’ll put an asterisk by the song title to differentiate from those that have been released as singles). It’s quite a varied list with idol groups, boybands, rock groups and so forth all featuring in it. So here we go with my all time fav J-pop songs starting with:

100: Morning Musume – Kanashimi Twilight
99: Yousui Inoue – Shonen Jidai
98: Yamashita Tomohisa – Daite Senorita
97: Aimmy – Blue Vibration
96: AKB48 – Iiwake Maybe
95: Sawa – Stars
94: L’arc En Ciel – Forbidden Lover
93: Thyme – Hello
92: Perfume – GAME
91: Mai Kuraki – Never Gonna Give You Up
90: Southern All Stars – I Am Your Singer
89: Exile – Fly Away
88: Yui – Cherry
87: Stereopony – Namida no Mukou
86: Exile – Fireworks
85: Wink – Ai Ga Tomaranai
84: SweetS – Sky
83: L’arc En Ciel – Driver’s High
82: X-Japan – Tears
81: Miho Fukuhara – Love!Winter Song
80: KAT-TUN – Keep The Faith
79: Dreams Come True – Sono Sake E
78: Perfume – Electro World
77: Rina Aiuchi – Navy Blue
76: L’arc En Ciel – My Heart Draws A Dream
75: Namie Amuro – Do Me More *
74: Hyde – The Cape Of Storms
73: Ami Suzuki – Potential Break Up Song
72: Meisa Kuroki – Shock ~Unmei~
71: UVERworld – Shamrock
70: RSP – A Street Story
69: Rie Tanaka – Fields Of Hope
68: angela – Dear My Best Friend *
67: Momoi Haruka – Mail Me
66: The Possible – Shiawase no Katachi
65: Perfume – Polyrhythm
64: NEWS – Bambina
63: My Little Lover – Otono nai Sekai
62: Hitomi Shimatani – Camellia
61: Olivia – Starless Night
60: NEWS – Summer Time
59: Dreams Come True – Goodbye My School Days
58: alan – Sora Uta
57: Buck Tick – Heaven
56: Perfume – Take Me Take Me *
55: Ai Otsuka – Yumekui
54: marino – Flavor
53: Maki Goto ft Sweet Black – Lady Rise
52: Ayumi Hamasaki – Fairyland
51: Koda Kumi – Taboo
50: Aiko – Kabutomushi
49: Hikaru Utada – Take 5 *
48: Shuuchushin – Yowamushi Santa
47: M.O.V.E – Romancing Train
46: Chihiro Onitsuka – Memai
45: Angela Aki – Tegami
44: Tokio – Sorafune
43: Lindberg – Believe In Love
42: Yui – My Generation
41: The Brilliant Green – Kuroi Tsubasa *
40: Namie Amuro – Rock Steady
39: Koda Kumi – No Tricks *
38: Jasmine – Sad To Say
37: Miki Fujimoto – Okitegami
36: M.O.V.E – Dogfight
35: MiCHi – Promise
34: Takashi Sorimachi – Poison
33: AKB48 – River
32: K – Almost Human
31: Erika Sawajiri – Free
30: Ayumi Hamasaki – Days
29: Yui – Tomorrow’s Way *
28: Kotoko – We Survive
27: Hikaru Utada – Passion
26: Scandal – Space Ranger
25: Namie Amuro/Double – Black Diamond
24: Hikaru Utada – Prisoner Of Love
23: Mr Children – Hanabi
22: Dream – I Love Dream World
21: Koda Kumi – Freaky
20: Nana Mizuki – Heaven Knows
19: MiCHi – Change The World
18: AKB48 – Sakura no Hanabiratachi
17: Perfume – Secret Secret
16: Acid Black Cherry – Nemure Hime
15: Mika Nakashima – Glamorous Sky
14: Perfume x Momoi Haruko – Akihabalove *
13: Ami Suzuki – True *
12: D.D.D – Heart
11: Zone – Secret Base
10: Namie Amuro – Baby Don’t Cry
9: Erika Sawajiri – Destination Nowhere
8: Yuna Ito – Brand New World
7: hitomi – Wish
6: Yumi Matsutoya – Hello My Friend
5: Hikaru Utada – Flavor Of Life
4: Lindberg – Mine *
3: Soulja feat Thelma Aoyoma – Koko ni Iruya
2: Hikaru Utada – Heart Station
1: Perfume – Dream Fighter

Yes, Perfume are at no.1 with Dream Fighter. I adore the song, listened to it so many times and I don’t think Perfume will ever top that song with whatever they release in the future.

Feel free to tell me what you think about the countdown.

Hikaru Utada – Take On Me (LIVE)

I somehow stumbled upon this performance by Hikki of the classic 80′s song Take On Me by Norwegian group A-ha on Youtube. She performed this track way back in 2000 and you can see how young she looks. I just love her version of the song. Check it out.

Hikki vs BoA – Who Won The Best English Album Battle?

With both singers’ English albums now out I had a chance to listen to them over the past couple of days so which one was better? Hikki or BoA?

First off let’s start with Hikki’s This Is The One which is what I listened to first. The obvious difference from her usual Japanese output was plain to see – she’d gone back to her r’n'b roots that she started her career off. After listening to the album for the first time from start to finish I was of the impression that I really liked it but upon listening to it again I got tired of it fairly quickly. I’ve got to say I’m fairly disappointed now in this album. Many tracks are repetitive in nature. I was frankly surprised at the sexual undertones in a couple of songs, I had to pinch myself at times that it was really Hikki singing those lines although I understand it is very tongue in cheek! This Is The One isn’t all bad though – there are a couple of good songs like Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence – FYI, Apple and Cinnamon, On and On and Dirty Desire. So the final verdict is it could have been better. Was it better than her previous English album Exodus? I don’t think it is.

A couple of days later I listened to BoA’s debut English album and what a difference this one is compared to Hikki’s. It’s just magnificent and way better. I can’t fault any of the songs – it is just solid from the opening track I Did It For Love right through to the final one Hypnotic Dancefloor. It’s full of catchy upbeat tunes. I really really loved it. I’m hoping this does well for BoA because she deserves it for releasing such a brilliant album. Don’t miss out on it!

At the end of the day BoA’s album easily won this battle. I expected better from Hikki but she’ll come back strong with her next Japanese album I’m sure of it.

Hikaru Utada – Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence – FYI

There’s a couple of songs from Hikki’s new English album This Is The One floating around the internet at the moment and one tune I’m particularly enjoying is Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence – FYI. Come Back To Me was OK in my opinion, not the best song by Hikki but this one is far better. I’m baffled by the Star Trek reference in the song in which she mentions Captain Picard! I’ve yet to hear one of the other songs being previewed which is Dirty Desire but if the 2 songs I’ve listened to so far are an indication of what we can expect from her album then it’s going to be brilliant. I just hope it does well in the US. There was nothing wrong with her previous English album Exodus, in fact I thought it was excellent so we’ll see how this one fares this time round.

I’ve heard rumours that This Is The One will be delayed now until May. Is this true or not as I’ve yet to hear an official announcement. It’s supposed to come out this coming Saturday – March 14th.

Notable 2009 1st Quarter Single/Album Releases

In this post I’ll give you the release dates of notable singles/albums of artists that you might be interested in purchasing/downloading right up to the middle of April:

25th February:
Ayumi Hamasaki’s double A-side single Rule/Sparkle comes out next week which is sure to be a big seller and go straight to No.1. On the same day the excellent Ami Suzuki releases her new single Reincarnation, Ai Otsuka with Bye Bye and misono who’s inconsistent at best with her songs releases her latest one Kyuukon. On the album side Tomoke Kawase releases 2 best of CD’s for her alter egos Tommy February6 and Tommy Heavenly6 named Strawberry Cream Soda Pop “Daydream” and Gothic Melting Ice Cream’s Darkness “Nightmare”. Quite a mouthful aren’t they!!

4th March:
The underrated Chinese female soloist alan finally releases her debut album called Voice of EARTH. I’m really looking forward to this one. I’ve no idea why she’s overlooked by Japanese music fans. Also coming out will be the first collaboration between siblings Koda Kumi and misono with their song It’s All Love plus AKB48 release 10 Nen Sakura. Hope that does as well as their last song Oogoe Diamond.

9th March:
AKB48 sub-unit No Sleeves release their 2nd single Tane.

14th March:
Hikaru Utada’s 2nd English album called This Is The One comes out. It’ll be interesting to see how this one fares in the US as Exodus bombed big style over there. I like her song Come Back To Me. I’m expecting good things from this album just as long as she doesn’t abandon the style that made Heart Station such a success.

18th March:
Plenty of good music coming out on this date including BoA’s Best&USA album plus another album simply called BoA. I think this is released on the 17th. An artist that I’ve started to get into lately Saori@destiny brings out her mini-album WOW WAR TECHNO. Morning Musume’s album Platinum 9 Disc also comes out. On the single side of things the highly anticipated new single by Namie Amuro called Wild/Dr will be released. I really like Namie so I can’t wait for this single from her.

25th March:
The big release for me this week is Perfume’s 14th single One Room Disco. I’m waiting in anticipation for the preview and PV to this song. Gackt’s latest song which is also the OP for tokusatsu TV show Kamen Rider Decade called Journey Through The Decade also comes out plus Ayumi Hamasaki’s 12th album NEXT LEVEL. That should be great. One of my favorites from old skool Morning Musume – Mari Yaguchi releases her single which I mentioned sometime ago called Seishun Boku. In addition to the above, Koda Kumi gives us a double whammy with 2 CD’s – one’s a remix album called Koda Kumi’s Driving Hits and the other is a compilation called Out Work & Collaborations Best. My wallet is going to be hit hard on this date!!!

April 8th:
alan comes out with yet another new single Kuon na Kawa

April 15th
The brilliant Girl Next Door after a busy end to 2008 with 4 singles and an album release their newest single Seeds of Dream. I really enjoyed their debut album.

What Was The Best J-Pop Album Of 2008?

IMO 2008 was a vintage year for great J-pop music and this year many top albums were released. The candidate for best J-pop album depends on the individual – each person has different tastes. These were the ones I enjoyed the most:

Hikaru Utada – Heart Station

Perfume – Game

Girl Next Door – Girl Next Door

Koda Kumi – Kingdom

Namie Amuro – Best Fiction

Ayumi Hamasaki – A Complete~All Singles

but for me the best album to be released in 2008 is one which I listened to just this week and it’s Ami Suzuki’s Supreme Show. I’ve always thought that Perfume were the masters of electro-pop but I was wrong. Ami’s album blows Perfume’s Game out of the water. I can’t seem to find any weak songs on Ami’s album, they’re all killer tracks. It’s a shame the Japanese public don’t agree with me as just under 14k has been sold. This album deserved to sell a hell of a lot more than what it did. My favorite songs are TEN and TRUE – 2 fantastic tracks guaranteed to get everybody on the dance floor. Below you’ll find a video from Youtube with a melody of songs from the album. Enjoy.

 

Let’s hear from you which album you considered to be the best last year.