What Was The Best J-Pop Album Of 2009?

It’s time to look back at what was the best J-pop album released in 2009. For me, these are the pick of the bunch:

SWEET BLACK feat Maki Goto. It was a fantastic return for Gocchin and this album really rocks.

Stereopony – A Hydrangea Blooms. Debutants Stereopony burst onto the J-pop scene with a couple of great singles and the album delivered too.

Nana Mizuki – Ultimate Diamond

Miliyah Kato – Ring

Ayumi Hamasaki – Next Level. Ayu’s new album continued her fine tradition of producing  a solid album full of top tunes.

Koda Kumi – Trick. Kumi came out with a brilliant new album. Actually this nearly came to be the best album of the year but as you’ll see somebody else pipped her to the title.

Aira Mitsuki – Plastic

Ayaka Ikio – Gossip. I was browsing through HMV in Center Gai, Shibuya during my holiday there in the Summer when I discovered this young woman.

Scandal – Best Scandal. Scandal just keeps getting better in my opinion. 2009 saw them releasing some great songs.

Hitomi – Love Life 2

Michi – Up To You. British born Michi debuted in 2008 with Promise and in 2009 came out with the superb Change The World single. Her 2nd album came out in September which contained the singles Kiss Kiss xxx and You.

Namie Amuro – Past < Future. As 2009 came to an end, Namie came out with her new album mid December which had some excellent tracks on it such as her single Wild.

So if none of them came out on top, which album was my favorite of the year?

Perfume – Triangle. The 3rd and much anticipated album from Perfume has to be the best one for me as it contains my favorite song Dream Fighter plus Love The World, Edge and One Room Disco.

This is a live version of the song Night Flight which is also on the Triangle album.

2 Great Songs I Enjoyed On My Recent Trip

These are 2 fantastic songs I came to really enjoy listening to on my recent trip to Japan:

1. Ayaka Ikio – Spider Web

This is from her new 2nd mini-album Gossip which came out last week. I’m actually tempted to buy it as it’s so good. For me this is the standout track from it. No PV is available I’m afraid:

2. Jasmine – Sad To Say

Like the look of this young woman with her pink hair!! This song has gradually been growing on me as I wasn’t that keen when I first heard it. I wonder where the PV was filmed?

2009 – The Year Of Electropop?

With Perfume going from strength to strength, it seems like some bands and solo artists are jumping on the electropop bandwagon hoping to catch a little bit of success for themselves. Could we see electropop featuring heavily in the Oricon charts in 2009? Take a look at these acts who COULD make it big this year (PV included with each artist).

Aira Mitsuki – This 20 year old female has been on the scene since 2007 releasing 6 singles and 1 fantastic album called COPY. One of my favorite electropop artists.

Coltemonikha – A male/female duo produced by Capsule’s Nakata (also Perfume’s producer). I need to listen to this duo a bit more but I like what I’ve heard so far from them.

CosmeticROBOT – a relatively new trio who have only released 1 single so far called SERIAL NUMBER 99 which was a really great song. I’m not sure if they’re an idol group or not but these girls have got potential and I’m looking forward to what they come up with next.

Portable – Another new female group that try their best to be like Perfume and succeed somewhat in their efforts. They do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! Their debut single called Hajimesasenai is a fantastic tune. I expect good things to come from them in the future.

Sawa – Yet another great female soloist that debuted last year. The best song I’ve heard from her so far has been the excellent Stars which is nice and catchy.

Ayaka Ikio – Here’s another electropop soloist who released a mini-album last month called Acid Queen which contained the awesome Spin Me Round tune.

It is still Perfume that the above artists need to catch up with in terms of popularity at the moment in Japan. Will they manage to achieve the level of Perfume’s success? Who knows but it’ll be interesting to see them try. Here’s a PV with a difference from Perfume – they drop their electropop style and go full on dance and team up with self confessed otaku artist Momoi Haruko for a superb track called Akihabalove which was a special limited release a couple of years ago.