Faye Wong often borrowed liberally from the Cocteau Twins' style for her 1996 album 浮躁 Fuzao, but the music isn’t simply a pastiche of the Scottish band—it's also steeped in the sounds of Beijing’s nascent rock scene
Revisit our review: pitchfork.visitlink.me/Y-6x2…
digging the new 8bite album, love “夏烬,” where both vocals and guitar feel directly borrowed from dijon but the rest is solid
open.spotify.com/album/7MY1y…
have y’all looked at qq or netease charts? everything is about tiktok virality: nostalgia-driven ballads resurfacing from the 00s; anonymous and poorly-produced dreck made just for doomscrolling; televised singing competitions
that said, within the mainland, the non-mainstream might be at its most interesting in history: tons of underground hip-hop, electronic, rock and left-field pop coming out
This Side of Japan's Best of 2020-2025: The Friend's List
Wrapping up, we invite back our friends and contributors from over the years for their list of favorite Japanese songs from this decade so far!
Enjoy our friends picks - nearly 300 songs! thissidejapan.substack.com/p…
For This Side of Japan issue #100, we present the Top 100 Japanese Songs of 2020-2025!
We look back at this decade in Japanese music so far through the era's best songs from Ado, Pasocom Music Club, PAS TASTA and many more!
thissidejapan.substack.com/p…