My favourites of the year so far...
album: Yo Irie "Love Affair"
single: LAGHEADS "Your Light"
most anticipated album: Hazel English
A playlist from last year: https://blog.gingerbeardman.com/2023/12/31/japanese-music-re...
album: Yo Irie "Love Affair"
single: LAGHEADS "Your Light"
most anticipated album: Hazel English
A playlist from last year: https://blog.gingerbeardman.com/2023/12/31/japanese-music-re...
I've been a fan of Cindy Lee's work since before they started the project and were in the band Women, who're a sort of your favourites' favourite artist. Part of the hype around Diamond Jubilee is the context of that band, and the development of successor bands since.
But part of the hype is also that it comes from a very sincere place - it's a full-on auteurist work, the antithesis of "lo fi chill hip hop beats to study/relax to". It can aesthetically or artistically be your thing or not (it very much is mine), but it's a breath of fresh air to have such a fully-realized artistic statement that isn't a focus-grouped, try-hard Event get the acclaim it deserves.
I don't have much affinity for 1940-60s pop, outside of The Beatles, Motown, and the Phillu Soul we refer to as Northern Soul here in the UK. Which I guess is probably why Diamond Jubilee doesn't do it for me. It's purposefully derivative, which is fine... it's just not to my tastes.
So I'm keen to hear specifically what you think the Japanese tracks are derivative of, that'd probably be more my style.