Best Asian Albums of 2012 Thus Far
 

Since we are practically half way through the year now, I thought I would ask which albums released in this half of the year have been your favorites and which ones are you most looking forward to for the rest of the year?

For me, my favorites of 2012 have been JAPONESQUE by Koda Kumi, Party Queen, and Pamyu Pamyu Revolution by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. I'm also starting to really get into Hello Venus so their mini album might make my list, too.

I'm most looking forward to Uncontrolled by Namie Amuro and Kana Nishino's new album that should come out later this year. :heart

Ikimonogakari's NEWTRAL. The album is amazing and made me fall for the band right away. It's undoubtedly the best album of the year and I'm not sure if it can be surpassed at all. Beside that, there's Do As Infinity's TIME MACHINE, which was also amazing, but I wasn't expecting any less from them, so I wasn't caught by surprise like with NEWTRAL.

Less amazing but still nice albums would include two cover albums from artists I was previously unfamiliar with: Angela Aki's SONGBOOK and BENI's COVERS. Both albums were very nice but nothing mindblowing. Party Queen, to me, was also OK, but not on the level of any of the albums previously mentioned.

There's also the beautiful, almost flawless Eiko Shimamiya produced mini album 5TEARS, but I'm not sure if I should count it since it was released almost last year... Whatever, I'm counting it, it was amazing and while I was expecting it to be good, I wasn't prepared for so much goodness.

As for expectations... There's Mami Kawada's SQUARE THE CIRCLE coming out in August, but I don't think I'm expecting any other albums at the moment. I'm ready to be pleasantly surprised, though!

SDN48's Yuuwaku no Garter. That's it. Japonesque was nice too...

Party Queen was nice, and Return Road is the best song of the year so far
Japonesque was Koda Kumi's best album to date and the PVs, covers etc were fantastic
Galileo Galilei's PORTAL was really enjoyable
Ikimonogakari's NEWTRAL was just amazing and fantastic
And BIGBANG's mini album ALIVE was epic

Only ones I can think of are AI's Independent, which was flawless, and ayaka's The beginning.

ayaka's The Beginning continues to blow me away. This chick has THE VOICE.
Party Queen is now 'alright' to me.
Angela Aki's Songbook is just lovely. (I CAN'T WAIT for her new album! It's gonna be EPIC)

Party Queen & JAPONESQUE :P

I'm more in favor of Ayaka's "The beginning" and ikimono-gakari's "NEWTRAL"...

Glen Check - Haute Couture
METEO - EA


I heard NEWTRAL was a good album, but I haven't listened yet.

I think JAPONESQUE is worthy because it IS her best album, and it's one of the best things to actually spend your money on, with how gorgeous everything is, all the PVs, etc.

Maybe mini's album.

Albums that I really adore :

Acid Black Cherry - 2012 [my most fave ABC album outta the lot & it didn't kicked Party Queen's butt for nothing & let alone is yasu's very 1st #1 that he has gotten after being in the business for close to 13 years . 2012 deserves all the praises that it has received . If not , why avex Taiwan made an OS press of 2012 & not his previous 2 albums eh ?]

ayumi hamasaki - Party Queen [I'm quite an ayumi stan so generally I like most if not all that she has released xD]

ayaka - The beginning [welcome back ayaka ;_;]

Koda Kumi - JAPONESQUE [her best album since Black Cherry imo & I have not enjoyed a Kumi album at such a level until now]

Matsushita Yuya - 2U [in all levels so much better than his debut album I AM ME]

Other worthy mentions :

Hey ! Say ! JUMP - JUMP WORLD
KAT-TUN - CHAIN
Kis-My-Ft2 - Kis-My-1st
Kuroki Meisa - UNLOCKED
Kuriyama Chiaki - CIRCUS Deluxe Edition
L'Arc~en~Ciel - BUTTERFLY
Shota Shimizu - Naturally

Still waiting for Namie Amuro's Uncontrolled , SID's M&W to be out later in the following weeks/months x) & hopefully a BREAKERZ best album too [come on guys make me poor now xD]

JAPONESQUE
Party Queen

And still waiting for Uncontrolled.

SDN's Yuuwaku no Garter
May'n's HEAT
After School's Playgirlz
Miss A's Touch
4minute's Volume Up

EXO's MAMA
So far probably the best debut album ever for a boygroup and the promotional strategy was amazing (espcially out of of an economical view), great variety of songs and the lyrics and amazing and refreshing for kpop, since basically every second song deals with love.

Kumi's Japoneseque
There should be no doubt about it (and I keep staring at the album art and can't believe that she was already pregnant when those pics were taken)

BIG BANG's ALIVE was epic and the re-released version is even more epic (if that's even possible)
BLUE is such a nice and nostalgic song and I keep repeating TOP's boom shakalaka part in Fantastic Baby in my head. MONSTER is the best song imo, sad lyrics and a contrasting powerful chorus.

mini's Electro Hako Banban Picasso (still loling @ the name)
Girl is on the way to be come the next Japanese House/Electronica/Dancefloor queen,
her songs are presh and fierce

Junsu's Tarantallegra
just. look. at. the mv. and then listen to his songs. (gawd his voice too perfect to descrive + he got the skills) super artistic and amazing and he pulls off the unisex concept greatly

Wonder Girl's Wonder Party
Haters keep hatin', R.E.A.L is such a diverse song and I love the cute aegyo talking and Yubin's rap, additonally Like This will be eaten up Korea this summer, now I could talk endlessly about the rest.

Ayumi's Party Queen is love/hate for me, but I really really like the concept

Acid Black Cherry - 2012 :heart

Koda Kumi - JAPONESQUE
mini - Electro Hako Banban Picasso
Singer Sen - Ghost Street EP

Yeah... nothing's really caught my attention so far other than these.

BIG BANG Alive. Didn't expect to like every song.

Baek Ji Young Good Boy. Had never fully appreciated her beautiful voice until this mini album was released.

To be honest I didn't listen to many albums this year (and most of them were Korean), but most of my favourite artists either disappointed or haven't released anything so far. Well, maybe the second half of the year will be better :dead2.

JAPONESQUE from Koda Kumi, which is quite a surprise because I really haven't been interested in anything she's done since I bought her first album affection.

Wonder Party from the Wonder Girls. Unbelievable. It's a mini-album but it's just blowing my mind. I normally am not interested in this style of music, but I keep playing their tracks over and over. I even purchased it hardcopy so that I could obtain the best quality of music possible. I didn't expect them to match Wonder World so quickly or so well, and some songs even surpass those on their 2011 album.

Although I have only heard one or two songs, Big Bang's new releases sound pretty good too.

Kuu's JAPONESQUE for sure, Ayu's Party Queen too, and Namie's Uncontrolled will be great as well I assume ^^

I may just have to add Wonder Party by the Wonder Girls to my list. I woke up this morning knowing little to nothing about the Wonder Girls, but after seeing their album on iTunes and giving Like this a try, I had to purchase it. I could see myself becoming a fan. :P

Koda Kumi - JAPONESQUE
mini - Electro Hako Banban Picasso

easily