1001 Japanese albums you must hear before you die

[thinkingoutloud89]

Hi guys,
do you know the book "1001 album you must listen to before you die"? I hate the absence of almost all asian albums on this list, and since I need a new thing to do for myself, I wanted to write a digital book with the same theme on Japanese albums.
Altough I listen to a big variety of Japanese artist, it is hard to compile the list, since I'm not into certain atist and genres. So basically, I'm asking for your help. The thing is, one has to push aside individual taste for the greater view. I would choose different albums for certain artist because of personal liking (for example, I hate Utadas First love), but there are albums that mean a lot to the Japanese music scene (First Love was huge success and introduced a new sound). I would appriciate your suggestions!

Ayumi Hamasaki A Best classic
Hikaru Utada First Love new sound
AKB48 0 to 1 aido singles/hype
Namie Amuro BEST FICTION new status
ayaka First message Mikazuki
BoA LISTEN TO MY HEART korean success
GIRLS' GENERATION GIRLS' GENERATION hallyu wave
Kumi Koda BEST ~first things~ best album hype
Ringo Shiina Shouse Strip
KOKIA THE VOICE
Sound Horizon ROMAN
Miliyah Kato Ring
Miliyah Kato Loveland
Mika Nakashima Music
Mika Nakashima YES
Kana Nishino to LOVE
BENI COVERS
GACKT MOON
the brilliant green the brilliant green
alan VOICE of EARTH

[terra]

I may share my two cents here, it's probably more from specific branch of Japanese music.

KOKIA - THE VOICE
Although not her commercially success album, the mixture of Irish folk, Okinawan and classical music is the highlight of the album

Sound Horizon - ROMAN
Sound Horizon's album is basically a big story book, with songs intertwining each other making a story telling experience even though it's up to the listeners to conclude it. This is their big break album I believe, and they offer a neo avant garde omnibus music (Classical x Rock Music) with dialogues in it.

Mika Nakashima - MUSIC
I don't know why, but among her album this one stands out the most. Maybe because of the variety of genre that she sang in this one and the strong singles.

Those two are probably the easiest for me right now. I wanna add things from Laruku but I'm confused.
I'm trying to find albums from Enka Singers (Sayuri Ishikawa, Kobayashi Sachiko, etc) and singers like Junko Akimoto or Sakamoto Fuyumi, but I think I lack the knowledge lol

[Next_Level29]

Mililiyah Kato - Loveland

[thinkingoutloud89]

thanks terra. with Mika I was also a bit confused. I love STAR the most, but would have picked TRUE or YES (both of which I don't like). As for Miliyah I would have gone for Ring.

[Aderianu]

ALI PROJECT - EROTIC&HERETIC

BUCK-TICK: My personal favorite album "Tenshi No Revolver", but in general most popular is "Mona Lisa Overdrive"

L'Arc~en~Ciel - AWAKE

X-Japan - "Dahlia" or maybe "Art Of Life"

[Uknow!]

Ayumi Hamasaki - I am (composed by her)
Koda Kumi - BEST ~second session~ (12 singles project)
Maki Goto - Aikotoba (Voice) (last album)
KAT-TUN - Best of KAT-TUN (first album)
Meisa Kuroki - UNLOCKED
AKB48 - 1830m (Flying get album)
TVXQ - The Secret Code (last album with the group's original line-up)

[terra]

Originally Posted by thinkingoutloud89

thanks terra. with Mika I was also a bit confused. I love STAR the most, but would have picked TRUE or YES (both of which I don't like). As for Miliyah I would have gone for Ring.

STARS could be a candidate as well, how can I forgot. YES is a candidate because of its gospel influences but I prefer STAR / MUSIC over it.

Ai Otsuka - LOVE COOK / LOVE PiECE
Both are generally considered her best release and have strong tracks, LOVE PiECE is stronger tho track per track.

alan - Voice of EARTH
An awesome mixture of Chinese-Tibetan ethnic sounds with J-Pop, plus her angelic voice.

girl next door - GIRL NEXT DOOR
I personally prefers NEXT FUTURE, but their debut album introduce and affirms their musical style to the public.

Namie Amuro - BEST FICTION
What can I say? It's a collection of her greatest contemporary songs.

Utada Hikaru - Deep River
A solid album both in terms of its cohesiveness and musicality.

Wagakki Band - Yasouemaki
The combination of traditional Japanese instruments, traditional Japanese singing style and Rock/Metal genre is just so awesome.

Yuna Ito - HEART
Granted, her albums sounds like most Pop/R&B singers, but there's something about this album I can't quiet put my fingers on.

[Ryusei]

Capsule - L.D.K Lounge Designers Killer
Something of a bit of a different Genre and sound overall, lounge pop at its finest!

Perfume - GAME
Perfume can't be left out of something like this. They started an amazing streak of albums with this awesome album.

YUI - CAN'T BUY MY LOVE
Only YUI album on which I can listen to every song and not get bored with any of them. YUI can't be left out.

Kato Miliyah - TRUE LOVERS/LIBERTY
IMO the superior album to RING and LOVELAND, there's just more emotion in it IMO. Also her newest album LIBERTY is criminally underrated

[thinkingoutloud89]

^I will add those later

as for Miliyah, I'm a huge fan and yes the albums you mentioned sound better, yet Ring was her only big hit and created what later became the Kana Nishino sound. I personally don't like Ring that much. Loveland for me, is her weakest since TS.

[YuriChan]

B'z- LOOSE, MONSTER, EPIC DAY (Can't just choose ONE album! lol)
hitomi- huma-rhythm
globe- Relation
Spitz- Hachimitsu
ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION- Sol-fa

[Zeke.]

You definitely need a globe album because they are so iconic to Japan.

I'd have to think a bit but I'd include:

m.o.v.e - SYNERGY

[Gustavopc]

Akina Nakamori's Fushigi was pretty iconic, and is certainly an interesting album and very experimental for a mainstream artist - not my favorite tho. Enka is also iconic and an incredible album, all songs being enka covers. For other original albums really worth listening in such a big list those that come up to my mind are Resonancia, which is heavily inspired by Latin music, and Stock, a true late 80s/early 90s pop-rock album (I can see almost all songs being used as anime openings hahahaha). She has many studio albums but imo these have the strongest album tracks and are pretty unique. Also Best II catches most of her best singles imo.

[Yumsushi]

MUCC - Houyoku
Suneohair - Best
Gackt - Crescent
Despairsray - Monsters
Dir en Grey - Marrow of the bone
Masami Okui - S mode #3

Originally Posted by Aderianu

BUCK-TICK: My personal favorite album "Tenshi No Revolver", but in general most popular is "Mona Lisa Overdrive"

Mona Lisa overdrive is awesome but so is 13kai wa Gekkou

[blackmage]

Originally Posted by Gustavopc

Akina Nakamori's Fushigi was pretty iconic, and is certainly an interesting album and very experimental for a mainstream artist - not my favorite tho. Enka is also iconic and an incredible album, all songs being enka covers. For other original albums really worth listening in such a big list those that come up to my mind are Resonancia, which is heavily inspired by Latin music, and Stock, a true late 80s/early 90s pop-rock album (I can see almost all songs being used as anime openings hahahaha). She has many studio albums but imo these have the strongest album tracks and are pretty unique. Also Best II catches most of her best singles imo.

Wow I was surprised to see someone mention Nakamori Akina, I was thinking her ANNIVERSARY album, but you are right, Fushigi was very experimental and iconic.

------


With Namie, she would need two albums in the list if possible... SWEET 19 BLUES AND Best Fiction, both due to popularity that each album had while showing the artist's sound evolution. If I had to say one, I'd pick SWEET 19 BLUES, I can't imagine Namie as a solo artist without that initial album release.

Don't forget Angela Aki, I think HOME should definitely be on the list. Its hard to pick a specific album with her, but I think that would suffice.

Do As Infinity... TRUE SONG was a great album of theirs.

Hitomi's Thermo plastic album. (Bias, but that's my favorite album from her with HTM TIARTROP FLES close second)

Jasmine's GOLD album.

Nobuchika Eri's first self titled album, was not highest top ranking album on the charts at the time, but definite is a good, solid album.

Going a little old school but... mayyyybe

REBECCA - SINGLES 1984 - 1990 (compilation album)

An album from Pizzicato Five would have to be mandatory on this list. too hard to choose an album too.

[Macro]

globe - relation
Hikaru Utada - Deep River

[Karori]

Good idea! I would say...

TAK MATSUMOTO - THE HIT PARADE (covers from Japanese hits sung by GIZA artits)
Rina Aiuchi - TRIP (a masterpiece, in my opinion)
Rina Aiuchi - LAST SCENE (last album from Rina Aiuchi, a must have for Rina fans)
Namie Amuro - SWEET 19 BLUES (a classic)

That's all I can think about, right now...

[EndOfTheWorld]

I would include some of these artists in addition to the ones you listed:

Aikawa Nanase
hitomi
Perfume
Misia
Mai Kuraki
T.M. Revolution
Hitomi Yaida
Miyavi
X Japan
Globe
Every Little Thing
Morning Musume
Seiko Matsuda
Zard
Do As Infinity

There are others I know of but this is what comes to my mind right away. It's hard to include everyone in these kinds of lists.

[jean-baptiste]

This is such a good idea!

Namie's SWEET 19 BLUES and Concentration 20 should be there I think. Maybe even her first best album 181920.

Kumi's BEST ~first things~ for sure.

Definitely ayu's A BEST, maybe even LOVEppears.

Utada's first 3 albums. I don't think they're the best things she's put out, but the fact that they're all in the top-10 best selling albums in Japan of all time says something.

Definitely gonna check out a lot of the albums mentioned previously.