Random J pop

A feed of posts from my music blog Random J pop. A mess of a pop blog written by some British asshole.

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Fujii Kaze’s doing drag again in his music video for “It’s Alright”. This video felt like a PowerPoint presentation of Tekken stages, and I mean this as a compliment. It looks really cool, and I like the message of it.

Each Tekken stage represents a teaching or philosophy. ‘No mud, no lotus’ is a Buddhist teaching of how there can be no joy (the lotus) without adversity (the mud). ‘Quiet mind’ is a state of being. ‘The earth laughs in flowers’ is a line from the poem ‘Hamatreya’ written by Ralph Walso Emerson, about the arrogance of mankind. For all of the fuckery that man does here on earth, eventually they will die and return to the earth. And flowers that grow from that earth is the earth saying ‘HA. BITCH. LOOK AT YOU. DEAD AND LOPSIDED. AND MY SHIT STILL THRIVING. LMAOOOOOO.’ It’s a tale of mortality. The earth will outlive man. And ‘We are starlight’ is tied to Hinduism, and the concept that God resides within us all.

When you know this and then watch the video and you see how the different concepts interact with each other, you see how it creates a cycle — which is life itself. It’s a really cool video concept which helped distract me from the song, which I’m not a huge fan of. But I still think it’s cool that it got a music video, and one this good.

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Madonna’s new single “Bring Your Love” sure sounds a lot like Inner City’s “Good Life”. So, of course I had to mash the two together.

Unsurprisingly, the writers of “Good Life” are credited on “Bring Your Life”. Either because of sampling or due to the obvious likeness.

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📅 17.04.2024

🎈 17th April 2026 marked the 2nd anniversary of Koda Kumi’s 18th studio album, Unicorn

Unicorn was an odd hybrid of half original songs and half covers, when it really should’ve just been a cover album.

The covers are all great. The original songs are terrible.

It’s crazy how Kumi’s covers are so good and have stayed so consistent in quality throughout her career. And yet, her original material is all over the place.

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📅 16.04.2008

🎈 16th April 2026 marked the 18th anniversary of Perfume’s debut album, Game

Game features songs which are widely considered Perfume classics. “Polyrhythm”, “Chocolate Disco”, “Secret Secret”, “Game”. Even one of the single B-sides from this album is a classic.

I wasn’t a fan of Game when I first listened to it, but I came around eventually. It took me watching Perfume’s live performances for the album to click.

Whenever anybody asks where to start when getting into Perfume, my advice is always to watch their live performances.

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📅 14.04.2010

🎈 14th April 2026 marked the 16th anniversary of Ayumi Hamasaki’s 11th studio album, Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus

Slight disconnects between the album branding, the title and the sound of the album. But, I’ll let it slide.

This was the Ayu album that won me over. So, it was a shame that she started falling off with her albums not long after.

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📅 08.04.2015

🎈 8th April 2026 marked the 11th anniversary of Ayumi Hamasaki’s 15th studio album, A One

The best song on this Ayumi Hamasaki album is a cover of a Hikaru Utada song — which feels crazy to say.

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📅 06.04.2016

🎈 6th April 2026 marked the 10th anniversary of Perfume’s 5th studio album, Cosmic Explorer

If there is one thing that will split the Perfume fandom, it’s Cosmic Explorer. Easily one of Perfume’s most divisive albums.

Cosmic Explorer was a bit of a mess. The album cover didn’t correlate to the album title. The album title didn’t really mean…anything. The music was all over the place.

Cosmic Explorer was a bit of a mess. The album cover didn’t correlate to the album title. The album title didn’t really mean…anything. The music was scattered as a result of it being a 3-years-of-singles-and-tie-in-songs dump and Nakata’s sound being all over the place.

Perfume’s team were clearly aware of how a lack of direction and too much time between albums messed things up here. Because we got shorter gaps between albums and fewer singles after this, which wound up causing other problems for future albums. But that’s a whole other post.

My stance on Cosmic Explorer is that it has some good songs (“Miracle Worker” is my shit), but it’s not a good album.

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Okay. This post is a long one. I was gonna keep it short and be like ‘Link to full post on Random J Pop’. But fuck it. You can read it here.

Koda Kumi has announced that she is with child. Well, Avex did, in the most corporate of press releases. And based on a lot of the public responses online, the North remembers the Rotten Pussy Fluid Scandal of 2008. If you know, you know. But in case you don’t, let’s recap.

When Kumi was on the radio show All Night Nippon in January of 2008, the topic of marriage came up, which then led to talk of children. And Kumi had mentioned that women’s amniotic fluid ‘goes rotten’ as they age, so she hopes [women] will try to have children by the age of 35. The backlash from this was swift, resulting in all promo for Kumi’s album, Kingdom — which had only released a day before — being halted, and her losing a whole bunch of brand deals, including cosmetics brand Kosé and Coca-fucking-Cola.

Japan is such a risk and controversy-averse country and culture. So, being tied to any type of scandal is going to leave a bit of a stench that never goes away. To this day, I don’t think Kosé or Coca-Cola have worked with Kumi since the Rotten Pussy Fluid Scandal of 2008. And as evidenced from the responses to news of Kumi’s pregnancy and Avex’s choice to cancel all of Kumi’s public appearances — they still remember it and are concerned everybody does too. Which they do.

But I do think it is a shame that Kumi isn’t facing this head on, to make open discussions around pregnancy, obstetrics and IVF less [turns and looks into the camera] taboo. But I completely understand why she decided ‘Fuck that shit’. It’s the safer choice not only for PR, but her well-being. Because why bother with that potential headache, as if pregnancy alone isn’t already giving you headaches and everything else.

Full post on my thoughts over at the Random J Pop blog.

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📅 28.03.2003

🎈 28th March 2026 marks the 25th anniversary of Hikaru Utada’s 2nd studio album, Distance

A Japanese artist releasing their second album during the global R&B boom of 2001, and cutting songs with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and Rodney Jerkins!?

BIG flex.

Distance is not that great of an album. It’s a bit of a mess. But it’s such a time capsule of an album. It’s tied to a specific sound, a specific time in music and a specific time in Japanese pop culture — Distance and Ayumi Hamasaki’s A Best releasing on the same day made HEADLINES.

Distance was also the first album cover of Hikaru Utada’s to be shot by Kazuaki Kiriya — who Hikaru would marry 7 years later in 2008. Kiriya became a key creative figure in Hikaru’s career, shooting their next 2 album covers and several of their videos.

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📅 27.03.2002

🎈 27th March 2026 marks the 24th anniversary of Koda Kumi’s debut album, Affection

A Kumi album which is frequently skipped. Affection is a forgettable album, but it’s not a bad one. It’s far more consistent and better in quality than the albums Kumi puts out nowadays.

I imagine that for a lot of people, Kumi’s discography starts at Feel My Mind (because of “Crazy 4 U”), Secret (because of “Hands”) or Best ~Second Session~ (because of the cultural appropriation singles). Not even the Final Fantasy X-2 songs were enough to get people to care about Grow Into One.

But if you’re tired of the nonsense Kumi has been releasing for the past decade and you’re not familiar with Affection, check it out. You might be surprised. If you like Hikaru Utada’s First Love, you might find something here you like. Affection sounds like First Love was on the Avex mood board when putting the album together. “Take Back” sounds like it wants to be “Automatic”. “Color of Soul” sounds like it wants to be “Movin’ on Without You”. And “Come Back” sounds like it wants to be “First Love”.

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📅 25.03.2009

🎈 25th March 2026 marks the 17th anniversary of Ayumi Hamasaki’s 10th studio album, Next Level

Next Level suffered from a bit of an identity crisis. The album cuts and the album shoot had one vibe, whilst the rest of the songs had another — so, Next Level never felt unified.

The popularity of EDM and Lady Gaga in North America and across Europe circa 2009 likely resulted in the image and sonic shift we got on this album, which I think hurt it. Because it felt like Ayu hopping on something for the sake of it, without taking the time and effort to really make it her own.

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📅 23.03.2000

🎈 23rd March 2020 marked the 26th anniversary to Crystal Kay’s debut album, C.L.L. Crystal Lover Light 🎈

This is a Crystal Kay album which gets skipped over a lot. But it’s a damn good album, which features some great songs — all of which deserve way more acknowledgement from fans and Crystal herself.

One of the things I like most about this album is how free it sounds. There is a sense of Crystal and everybody who worked on this album having a lot of fun and not feeling confined to any one style, sound or type of song.

And despite Crystal Kay being known as a J-R&B artist, C.L.L. Crystal Lover Light isn’t strictly R&B. It runs a gamut of styles and flavours, making it one of Crystal’s most eclectic albums.

Also, Crystal Kay’s best music videos are from this album. The creative direction is so cool and it’s aged so well. There is such a clear and consistent vibe with these videos, which makes C.L.L. Crystal Lover Light feel visually definable in a way I don’t think any other Crystal Kay album does.

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📅 19.03.2003

🎈 19th March 2026 marked the 23rd anniversary of Koda Kumi’s 2nd studio album, Grow into One 🎈

This is the album with the Final Fantasy X-2 songs on it.

If it wasn’t for “Real Emotion” and “1000 Words”, this album would not be all that memorable. I have to remind myself that the FFX-2 songs are even on this album. But Grow into One is a nice album. As per Kumi’s debut Affection, this album is largely J-R&B, but with a mix of the Cheiron Max Martin sound which was popularised by Britney Spears and NSync, which was R&B influenced anyway.

Grow into One is an overlooked album from Kumi. It lacks any real impact and is largely defined by it featuring the FFX-2 songs. But it’s a decent album.

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📅 18.03.2015

🎈 18th March 2026 marked the 11th anniversary of Koda Kumi’s 12th studio album, Walk of my Life 🎈

An album during that stretch of Kumi’s discography where all of her releases just bled into one. None of the singles stood out. None of the albums stood out.

Every song on Walk of My Life was sourced from a pool of songs from European / American songwriters and producers, some songs of which were leftovers, and (no disrespect to the writers and producers credited on this album) you can kinda hear it. This whole album sounds like free use versions of songs which were on US pop radio circa 2010.

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📅 17.03.2009

🎈 17th March 206 marked the 17th anniversary of BoA’s self-titled English debut album 🎈

BoA had been dubbed ‘The Korean Britney’. So, it’s fitting that this album would feature songs from Bloodshy & Avant, Henrik Jonback and Sean Garrett — all of whom worked on Britney’s Blackout.

And the Britney connection doesn’t stop there. BoA’s album also features the song “Look Who’s Talking” — a previously unreleased song which was originally intended for Britney’s 4th studio album, In the Zone. And Britney’s vocals are still all over BoA’s version.

There’s a lot to be said about the quality of this album and how BoA was packaged. But the biggest issue with BoA’s US debut was SM Entertainment. They had no clue what they were doing with anything. This US debut shockingly revealed how little they actually knew BoA. Because if they did, not only would we have gotten a different album, but SM would have realised that they didn’t need to change so much of what BoA was already doing. It’s funny that her Japanese single “Eien” — which was released the same year — was the type of song she should have been releasing for the US market.

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📅 13.03.2009

🎈 13th March 2026 marks the 17th anniversary of Hikaru Utada’s 2nd English language studio album, This Is the One 🎈

As in ‘this is the one’ Hikaru Utada album which fans seem to like the least.

Produced by Stargate and Tricky Stewart — This Is the One was a far more commercially driven album than Exodus was. The end result was an album which wasn’t that great, but still featured some great songs.

“Come Back to Me” was such a dusty choice for a lead single. “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence – FYI” was right there. Not only was it a great song, but it felt like a great balance of something for US radio without completely compromising Hikaru’s vibe and sound.

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📅 10.03.2010

🎈 10th March 2026 marks the 16th anniversary of Iconiq’s debut album, Change Myself 🎈

Her real name is Ayumi. But being signed to Avex, they were never gonna have her debut with that name. So, it was Iconiq and baldness.

It’s a shame that this was the only full length album Iconiq put out, because it was a damn good album. One of my favourite releases of 2010. And her follow up EP Light Ahead was really good too. And the singles after that? Also really good.