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MD Streeter's avatar

I'm going to have to listen to these songs when I'm at home tonight and this weekend. Too much is going on at the office to appreciate any of it.

So far as pop music goes, I don't listen to much. I have some Julia Michaels because my wife likes her, and I have some Meg Myers because I find her compelling in a certain way, although I'm not sure what to think of what she did to herself during the pandemic (facial piercings, ugly hair). She covered "Running Up That Hill" a few years ago, and that was probably the first time I ever heard that song. After reading this post, I suppose I'm all the poorer for it.

That said, if you're only able to listen to pop music in English you're really missing out. Right now there is a Japanese singer named Ado who is just turning 20 this year whose voice is the most frankly amazing thing I have ever heard. She hit it big on the internet with a song called "Usseewa" ("Shut the Fuck Up") that a Japanese all-girl metal band I like covered. Ado's version is the superior version, but that's because no one can sing like her. Her range. Her dynamics. And she sang "Usseewa" at 18. Most of her tracks are Vocaloid covers and the songs themselves are not all that great, but there are many excellent performances on her youtube channel, and recently, as her music has become more and more popular, she's been able to work with some of Japan's most accomplished musicians, including my absolute favorite artist in any genre in any language: Shiina Ringo.

If you are not listening to Shiina Ringo (or her other project, Tokyo Jihen [Tokyo Incidents]) you are doing yourself a disservice. When she was 17-18 she wrote and performed a song called "Tsumi to Batsu" ("Crime and Punishment") that I would put against the best anyone else is capable of writing/singing. It is a song I think is uncoverable, no one can reach the desperation needed to do it the right way. Ado does a good cover just because her voice is that good, but when I hear it it only makes me want to hear the original.

As if the blues-y original wasn't already good enough, she's re-arranged it over the years, adding a brass section and turning it into the sort of song that should be playing over the credits in a Bond movie, vastly superior to anything they put over the last few movies except "You Know My Name." Sometimes I wonder what it's like to have to perform a song like that night after night, year after year. But then, of course, you must acknowledge that you were the one who created such a thing that people still yearn to hear even all these years later.

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Ice Age's avatar

Why does music have to be transgressive or subversive? Why can't musicians just MAKE MUSIC?

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