Saturday, December 12, 2009

P.S. Top 5 J-Songs

As a companion to Shane's post—since I really liked the idea—these are my top five individual songs from Japanese bands. I first heard most of them while watching anime, except for the L'arc~en~Ciel song which I heard in an HMV in Shibuya when the record came out.

The only rules: no composers, and no long descriptions.

I'm sure Cole will agree with a lot of these, and I hope the Fairy Fore song brings back memories of watching Final Fantasy Unlimited at his old apartment, not entirely sure why we were doing so (perhaps just to hear what "Soil Charge Triad" would be used next, or what would become of the purse-eating, dubiously clairvoyant Fungo).

5. Zetsoubou Billy - Maximum the Hormone



Great chorus. Just ignore the screaming/pseudo-rapping. Love the bridge at 3:08 and the female vocals.

4. My Heart Draws a Dream - L'Arc~en~Ciel



Beautiful piano towards the end. Ethereal.

3. Vivid - Fairy Fore



If sugar was music. Picture dancing chocobos.

2. Bran-New Lovesong - The Pillows



Hard to pick a single song from the FLCL soundtrack. This one stands out for me. It's like watching an orange sunset from a bridge in a small town.

1. A Town in Blue - Asian Kung-Fu Generation



Amazing guitar. Closes off my all-time favourite anime Tekkonkinkreet.

5 comments:

cole d'arc said...

all excellent choices. part of me wishes i still had FF Unlimited for all its crazy randomness.
very nice analogy (simile?) for Bran New Love Song too. i randomly inject pillows songs into the intros of my youtube videos sometimes.

Anonymous said...

really good songs. I've gotta see Tekkonkinkreet. It looks mad crazy and stylish.

I nearly put the Pillows on my list. They are one of my favorite foreign bands ever. They made FLCL much more than just your average anime.

RyHoMagnifico said...

I can't listen to these right now because I'm at school, but I shall check all of these out.

I've been looking for some new music lately, and between you and Shane, I'll have lots to try!

Also, on a slightly unrelated note, I've watched all of FF Unlimited as well. I'm still not sure what was going on, but I watched it all.

cole d'arc said...

i choose rust, the colour of discontent!

Sam said...

"The brilliance of intelligence, Marvelous Orange! The endlessness of curiosity, Maniac Purple! And finally, the strength of absolute victory, Ultra Shocking Pink!"