Not just you , I find that this year's release of Japanese albums weren't as good as last year's :x
That said for you , you might consider checking out Wakeshima Kanon's 1st mini album odd sting & intrigue
I've been a Kanon fan since pretty much her single debut in 2008 and the material in odd sting & intrigue to me is some of her best since her debut album Shinshoku Dolce
Prior to odd sting & intrigue , I still feel that Kanon's best material was when she released her Shinshoku Dolce more than a decade ago as Malice Mizer's Mana did a great job overseeing Kanon's material
But after that over the years , the material that Kanon personally created herself weren't able to match up to what Mana did for her
Other than Kanon albums wise , I also like Matsushita Yuya's BLACK NEVERLAND & this's Yuya's 1st solo album in 6 years but it's also his most successful album to date
Rock albums wise , I like GRANRODEO's FAB LOVE , SID's Shonin Yokkyu & B'z's NEW LOVE
For FAB LOVE , it was the 1st time GRANRODEO went overseas to record some of the material and that's a big thing cos vocalist KISHOW is known to have a terrible fear of flying
So for KISHOW to fly to US from Japan , that's a HUGE milestone
For B'z , NEW LOVE is 1 of their more harder albums to get into unlike their last few albums which were relatively easy
My favourite track in NEW LOVE is Rain & Dream . It's the longest in the album but Aerosmith's guitarist Joe Perry participated in the recording of the song which's just woah
Doesn't help that no singles precede NEW LOVE just like SID's Shonin Yokkyu but after giving more listens , both albums are quite good except for a few tracks
The other Japanese albums I listened to that were released this year , I wouldn't recommend to you cos they're Johnny groups but 1 of them was just so bad & downright a major bore I wished it wasn't released in the 1st place D: