O!susume 2022 Best Hits Countdown
Nagi: あけましておめでとうございます! Happy 2023 all! I’m still proud of the fact that Erin and I produced a (mostly) consistent full year of O!susume Broadcasts in 2022. While it’s certainly time consuming to dig into the histories and details of the bands we write about, often to the point of having to translate interviews in Japanese, it’s always been rewarding to learn more about the people behind the music I listen to. I’m not sure I can hold myself to any real standards of “music fan”; when most others could at least give you a basic rundown of the band members and their background, I’m in danger of failing the “name at least five of their songs” gatekeeper challenge at times. As I confess in my Band Maid Broadcast, I\’m no music writer and have no intentions of becoming one, cuz that’s a surefire way to make this project un-fun for me. In any case, it’s nice to have a corpus of work to look back on, and now to revisit and pick the ones I want to feature again.
Erin: It’s exciting that I’ve been a part of O!susume RadioBeat for a full year now talking about one of my favorite things in life—music! It all started with a guest post on Kinoko Teikoku back in 2021, and then 2022 kicked off with an article about one of my personal favorite artists from 2021—Utada! Like I said in that post, New Years is one of my favorite times of year because for me it’s filled with music countdowns and personal reflections of what I’ve listened to the most that year; what music I’ve been introduced to; and what songs and albums from already beloved artists have come out that year. This year we’re sharing some of our top songs from all of our posts in 2022, so I’m ready to give you 5 of my favorites from our recommendations in no particular order. Make sure to check out the full archive here.
Band-Maid – Blooming
Even cutting my recommendations for Band-Maid down to five was a serious challenge. But whenever I want to introduce someone to Band-Maid, I find Blooming is my go-to recommendation. I feel like it encapsulates the group’s range well, from their fast-paced technical shredding to their ethereal dueting vocals, and the light show of the MV lets the band show off their best side. – Nagi
Lucky Kilimanjaro – “ひとりの夜を抜け” (Hitori no yoru o nuke – “Passing Through The Night Alone”)
I started really getting into Lucky Kilimanjaro in 2022 specifically so I could write a more thorough article about them, and they unwittingly ended up dominating the top half of my Spotify Wrapped. They have seamlessly materialized into my own cloud of music as if they had always belonged there, and this song sits nicely along with my other top played songs this year. – Erin
Akiyama Kiro – Caffeine
I mentioned in my article that Akiyama Kiro was one of those artists who I was drawn to because a singular song drew me in – Caffeine is is truly addictive (in more than one way, hah!), something about the fast-paced guitar riffs melding with Akiyama’s whispery vocals just makes you want to listen on repeat. – Nagi
Anly – “VOLTAGE”
One of the fun parts of being a part of this blog is seeing what artists Nagi is going to recommend, and listening to their recs every month. This next artist was introduced to me through this blog back in 2019—Anly! This year we did a fun article outside of our usual O!Susume posts about one of Anly’s songs, “VOLTAGE,” that’s become one of my favorites from this year. I am really excited to see where Anly is headed in her career, and I was very excited to see her on THE FIRST TAKE recently, so go check out that song as well! – Erin
BLUE ENCOUNT – Bad Paradox
Bad Paradox is just a maximum groove. Every part of the song is earworm-level catchy, and the visual chaos of the MV reminds me of some kpop MVs in the best way possible. – Nagi
Omoinotake – “心音” (ShinOn – “Heartbeat”)
I’ve wanted to recommend Omoinotake since the beginning of joining this blog, and I was especially inspired to write about them after they released “ShinOn.” I love the scenery in this video, and it’s fun to see the singer behind such an expressive song—for someone who hadn’t watched a lot of music videos until joining this blog, this has really been an enjoyable experience that’s unexpectedly added a lot to my music experiences. – Erin
[ALEXANDROS] – Adventure
I always love Alexandros’ tendency to blend English and Japanese in their lyrics, and I think Adventure is one of the most effective results of that. Even if you don’t understand Japanese, you can easily find yourself humming the English parts to yourself for days.
WEDNESDAY CAMPANELLA – “Edison”
I seriously listened to this song on repeat so many times when I was writing the WEDNESDAY CAMPANELLA article, and I still never got tired of it. I’ve loved getting to know more about the bands that I listen to for this blog, and WEDNESDAY CAMPANELLA was a unique artist to write about while they are in transition with their new singer. – Erin
Yonige – Avocado
Yonige’s breakout hit never fails to incite a wave of nostalgia for a melancholy, hot summer afternoon. Their thrumming instrumentals help carry the emotions of their lyrics, allowing you to get lost in your own thoughts as the song follows along.
DIR EN GREY – “懐春” (Kaishun – “Yearning of Youth”)
The biggest problem about writing about my favorite band is that I had to stop and listen to the full song for each potential recommendation, and it was very difficult to try to narrow down my whole life’s experiences with the band into only a few songs. I kept being reminded about how much I love DIR EN GREY, and this song was one of the ones that I kept falling into. – Erin
Overall, this year we’ve recommended close to 100 songs, with over 6 hours of playtime with over 22 total artists, plus 2 special articles! Special thanks to our guest, Eve on the Let\’s Rate all of the Tales of series Opening Songs! article. Check out our playlists on spotify and youtube!
Check out our archive here: https://arnamantle.com/osusume-radiobeat