Next, in November 2008, is More! More! More! And I’ll give that title one thing, it does have more good songs than their last album Flash Back. This is another house record but one that shows Nakata mixing it up after the stale bread sound of their last record. This one leans a bit back into electropop as well, featuring a singer in at least some capacity on every track. And Capsule is additionally focusing on some longer cuts here, with four songs on this thing going over six minutes.

I ... read more

In the span of just over 9 months, we go from one of Capsule's best albums in Sugarless Girl, to one of their worst albums, in Flash Back. This album is not good, really at all. Sugarless Girl was a house album that felt fun and full of life. Flash Back feels like the barest and deadest house party the suburbs have ever seen. There is one good track here and it is the title track, which is an instrumental, so it barely even counts as a Capsule song at that point. I kinda like the hook on ... read more

February 2007, a whopping (by Capsule standards) 9 months after Fruits Clipper, we get their 8th album, Sugarless Girl. This serves as the halfway point in their discography, and it’s also one of their best albums. Capsule made a lot of house records but this is the best distillation of that sound that they’ve done to date. They worked out a lot of the kinks that were present on Fruits Clipper and this, in many ways, functions as a better version of that record.

It starts off high ... read more

We get into the second era of Capsule on May 2006’s Fruits Clipper. This is the start of a big shift in Capsule’s sound. Their active and synthetic brand of shibuya-kei from their earlier records is being moved away from, in favor of primarily house flavored electronic music. And this is a style that would result in some hits, but also absolutely some misses. Fruits Clipper, despite this big shift in sound, still comes out feeling kinda similar in quality to Lounge Designers Killer. ... read more

Next, released 7 months after Nexus-2060, in September 2005, is Lounge Designers Killer. This is a bit of a transitional album for Capsule, and also the end of their first real era. It’s still very similar to many of the records released before it, but with a bit more of a focus on electropop, and dance, and even house music at points. Similar to Portable Airport from Sound Furniture, we’ve got another song like that to start off the album, with Flying City Plan. It's a house ... read more

Eight months after Sound Furniture, in February 2005, Capsule dropped Nexus-2060. It is, would you believe it, more of the same sound from the last three. Which really isn’t too surprising considering all four records came out in a two year span. This has the best start of any Capsule album. Space Station No. 9 is incredible, and one of the best songs Capsule has ever done. It’s got some heavier and darker percussion that’s an immediate contrast from the nonstop bright ... read more

Moving on to 2004, we get their 4th album Sound Furniture. This was released less than 7 months after Phony Phonic. That one came out in November 2003, this is from June 2004. However, while Phony Phonic felt more like a b-sides album to their 2nd record Cutie Cinema Replay, Sound Furniture is actually my favorite Capsule album. It’s more of the same fast electronic pop, but Nakata is experimenting a bit more on the instrumentals here, and it’s easily his best production for any ... read more

Next, also from 2003, is Phony Phonic. Early Capsule put out a lot of records in really quick succession. This only came out only 8 months after their last one, Cutie Cinema Replay. And it’s very similar to that album. They could’ve been one double album and the songs would've fit together just fine. It’s still pretty shibuya-kei inspired with a lot of high tempo pop tracks that make use of really energetic synths. And while there’s still good stuff here, not as ... read more

I think you can sort Capsule’s discography into two eras, with two big outliers. Haikara Girl is one outlier, and their second album Cutie Cinema Replay is the start of that first era. This record and the ones that would follow it are still clearly taking from the shibuya-kei scene, but the songs are a lot faster and are mostly reliant on frantic electronics. You get that a lot on Candy Cutie which is driven by high pitched synths and a cool breakbeat. Odekake Go! Go! Is another good ... read more

uploading a couple of these at a time until i finish their discography.

Let’s start with their debut, 2001’s Haikara Girl. This really stands out in a couple obvious ways. One is that it’s by far the longest Capsule album. This clocks in at 67 minutes, while the second longest is Player at only 54. Also, much of Capsule’s later albums were very heavily based in electronic music. Especially as you get into the 2010’s and later, a lot of their music was more house ... read more

would like to sincerely apologize to lausbub for calling mahogakko "the obvious best album of the week" a couple days ago. holy shit i was wrong

lausbub had already showed promise with their EP M.I.D. from a couple years ago but i did not think they were gonna get this good this fast. this is their debut album and they're coming out with excellent glitchy production. this album is constantly engaging and addictive as hell. there's still some growing pains here (80+1 hardy ... read more

written for youtube: https://youtu.be/j8YZggCZDKQ

A couple weeks ago a really cool Japanese emo album from the early 2000’s finally got put on streaming services after over 20 years. And I was excited cause it’s a great album, but y’all were too. And you wanted me to talk about it, so let me tell you a really good j-rock album, ART-SCHOOL’s Requiem for Innocence.

This record came out in 2002 and it was the first of many albums from ART-SCHOOL, but I think Requiem for ... read more

mom i want hakushi hasegawa
we have hakushi hasegawa at home
hakushi hasegawa at home:

review up on youtube: https://youtu.be/0wu0tHoSIYs

Ado is maybe the biggest popstar in Japan right now. She’s been doing sold out international tours, Show from this album topped the Billboard Japan charts for like three months straight, she did a whole collab with one piece. She is huge right now. And I’ve always been very hit or miss on her music. Kyogen was generally fine and inoffensive, while her covers album found a way to make her a worse singer than Hatsune Miku, who ... read more

i really like this but what's the point of putting a "sped up" version of a song in the middle of the tracklist, when it's both worse than the original song, and completely throws off the flow of the EP. that's the biggest thing holding this back from a higher rating

super super underrated shibuya-kei album that i think more people oughta check out
yes i made the tiktok

album so bad i had to make a whole youtube review less than 24 hours after i heard it
lyrical school has no musical identity and that's extremely apparent on the weird mashup that is day 2. everyone involved in this album seems to have a completely different idea of how it's supposed to sound. none of the new members added to this rap group are actually any good at rapping. this is a train wreck and it's disappointing to watch it kill the legacy of lyrical school. full review here: ... read more

they debuted with one of the best jpop songs of the decade and have since ran off a looney tunes-esque cliff

nerve impulse goes super hard as a debut single when you realize this guy is most famous for being in a boy band

ok i've finally come around on this. i'm lilbesh ramko pilled now