This article gathers a number of my favourite music albums that I’ve listened to recently and want to recommend to more people out there. For each of these albums, I’d suggest listening to the entire album from start to finish, following the preset track sequence of each album.

Just like what Wiwi said in a blog post, listening to a whole album is like enjoying a complete concert. Furthermore, it’s also the best way to experience the artist’s (or artists’) intent; I’m sure that the artists behind the scenes who decide the sequence of the album tracks have put at least a fair amount of thought into this.

Without further ado, here are the three albums¹ that I’m featuring in this article ‘listicle’.

Yuu Miyashita’s Hakuu no Moto (白雨の下)

Date of initial release: 20 December, 2023

Album playlists: YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music

Active online as an ‘utaite’ who mainly covers Vocaloid/virtual singer music, Yuu Miyashita (宮下遊, miy_yuu) is an extremely talented Japanese male vocalist and one of my absolute favourite musicians.

Not only is his vocal range insanely flexible and wide, his masterful execution of various singing techniques, combined with tasteful mixing and post-production, makes his voice almost feel androgynous. Fun fact: when I got my parents to listen to one of his covers, they initially thought that it was a girl singing 😂!

He has become (even more) well known internationally after his popularity skyrocketed when his cover of Niru Kajitsu’s Wozwald² became viral on YouTube and garnered tens of millions of views; this was also how I knew him and became one of his fans!

He has so far released five studio albums, with Hakuu no Moto (白雨の下) featured in this section being the fifth and currently the most recent one. Speaking of his albums, I actually own the physical CDs of the first two of them, namely Tsumugi no Ki (紡ぎの樹, released in 2016) and Ao ni Aruku (青に歩く, released in 2018) respectively.

What’s also interesting is that if we compare his earlier albums with the more recent ones, it seems like we could put a dividing line between his first two albums and the rest, whereby the first two comprise mostly his covers of pre-existing Vocaloid songs in addition to a handful of original songs or commissioned songs written by existing Vocaloid producers (Vocalo-Ps), whereas his third album onwards consist of almost entirely commissioned songs and/or his original works.

Anyways, back to the main topic, Hakuu no Moto itself. Just like his third and fourth album, he has commissioned a number of (former and/or current) Vocalo-Ps to write songs for the album. Of course, this album also includes songs that he himself has originally composed.

Other than his amazing as usual vocals, what makes this album an enjoyable listen is how diverse the genres of the included songs are, as well as how refreshing they sound. Some of the songs are musical-coded, some are more pop-rock in style, whereas some others are heavy with electronic sounds. Regardless of your musical taste, I’m sure that you would find at least one or two songs that you prefer from this album, and be mesmerised by miy_yuu’s stellar vocal performances.

• Which is your favourite track of this album? Deus Ex Machina (composed by Somari). I like the dynamic, action-heavy science fiction vibe that this songs evokes through the utilisation of electro-synth and punchy rhythms. This may sound silly, but this song kind of reminds me of the movie Tron: Legacy, especially its combat scenes.
• Do you have a physical CD for this? No, but I’m gonna get it some time!

Hikaru Utada’s Science Fiction

Date of initial release: 10 April, 2024

Album playlists: various platforms

Among the fans of J-Pop, Hikaru Utada (宇多田ヒカル) surely is a household name, with their popularity and musical influence spanning multiple generations. A singer-songwriter with Japanese and American roots, Utada is best known for incorporating rhythm and blues (R&B) and Western dance-pop styles into their songs, contributing to their uniqueness.

Older fans (who may now be in their 50s) may know Utada through their early songs in the late 1990s such as First Love. Not-so-old fans (who may now be in their 30s) may know them through songs such as Hikari (which incidentally is also the theme song for the classic video game Kingdom Hearts) and Goodbye Happiness, which are released in the 2000s or early 2010s. As for younger fans (who may now be in their 20s or even just 10s), they may know Utada through their newer works in the 2020s such as One Last Kiss and BAD MODE.

Even though it’s been 25 years since Hikaru Utada’s debut (I was still not born yet 😂) and rise to fame, with their first single (Automatic/Time will tell) being released in 1998, currently they are still making new songs and they still do not lose their charm!

If you want to have a captivating listening experience of an authentic encapsulation of Utada’s music across decades, Science Fiction is certainly a good pick. Science Fiction is a compilation album released in commemoration of the 25th anniversary since Utada’s musical debut, and features their famous songs throughout the years, as well as their relatively recent works.

• Which is your favourite track of this album? Electricity. First released in 2024, this song is in house music genre (one of my favourites!) with a somewhat airy feel, and its incorporation of jazz elements here and there (such as the groovy flute and saxophone solos!) just makes the song even more elevated!
• Do you have a physical CD for this? Yes, thanks to my dad who bought it in Japan!

Jacob Collier’s Djesse Vol. 4 (Deluxe Edition)

Date of initial release: 29 February, 2024

Album playlists: various platforms

Jacob Collier, an exceptional musician who is sometimes dubbed ‘the modern-day Mozart’, of course I have to mention him here! His most iconic works include his choral arrangement of In the Bleak Midwinter, which is famous for modulating to G half-sharp major halfway through the song, a very unusual key centre, as well as his ‘audience choir’ improvisations. He is also well known for his unique mix of multiple modern and traditional musical genres that blur the lines between them.

Djesse Vol. 4 is the fourth and final album in his Djesse series, and just like the other albums in the series, it showcases his musical prowess and ability to play around with multiple musical styles and produce signature sounds that are heavily associated to him, with pop as the base genre. The version that I listened to was the deluxe edition, which includes extra tracks that are not in the ‘normal’ edition.

• Which is your favourite track of this album? Box of Stars (both parts; in fact they have to be listened continuously in sequence for the sake of completeness). What an 11-minute long of mesmerising soundscape! The fact that he manages to blend so many music genres, from pop, rap/hip-hop, choral, gospel/soul, jazz, symphonic-classical, Afro-Cuban traditional rhythms, to even electro-synth together so well to produce this tasteful masterpiece, is just mind-blowing 🤯!

  I also like how the beginning of the second part bears some resemblance to, if not directly referencing, the opening of Gustav Holst’s Jupiter from the orchestral suite The Planets, as well as John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine, both of which are important 20th-century classical works.

  I recommend watching this surprisingly detailed sheet music transcription made by Yvelluap to better understand the wonderful musical ideas behind this song, especially the fascinating application of microtonality.

• Do you have a physical CD for this? Yes! I bought it from a local HMV store in the UK at a discounted price.