Songs I Repeated in 2025
01. Special/Skirt
I managed to catch the bus again today, but the special premonition was just a misunderstanding.
A song I encountered when I was crushed by an event that made me think, "What kind of treatment is this?"
It has a light rhythm, but the lyrics are lonely. However, that loneliness isn't the pitch-black despair you feel when you're in the middle of it; it feels more like a scab that has formed after slowly forgetting.
If you compare life to a drama, it has various tragedies. But eventually, the thorns are removed and they become rounded. There comes a time when you can treat those events as a storyteller, rather than just the person involved. It's a song that feels like it stays by your side during the painful parts of that process.
02. Nobel Prize for You/Mega Shinnosuke
Bring happiness to my life with that twisted maternal instinct.
A desperate anthem. I wonder if it counts as a love song. It's very servile, and I don't think it's a relationship that will ever work out, but that reckless feeling is actually quite comfortable.
It feels like the theme song for a Reiwa-era 'sekai-kei' anime.
03. The Great Time Killer/Lovely Summer-chan
Life is a great time killer.
A new release after a long time from the best energetic rock girl.
The album itself is great, but this one is an especially cool, upbeat tune. It makes even a paper driver like me want to go for a drive.
I saw her live for the first time this year, and man, the sound was loud. It felt like my eardrums were going to burst. How wonderful is a loud sound?
Meaningless things are good, and our human nature, which can't stand it unless we give them meaning, is also endearing in its extreme pointlessness. That is why life is the greatest way to kill time.
04. I Cut the Wings of an Angel That Couldn't Fly/SleepInside
I want to be high on the noise I got from that girl.
The guitar riff in the intro is irresistible. The lethargic vocals are cool.
For some reason, listening to this song reminds me of my gloomy high school days. Maybe it's because I feel something similar to artschool, syrup16g, or pegmap.
05. Morning Boy/SAGOSAID
Just like that, it seems to reflect happiness; it's correct, but someday it will melt and disappear.
This is the kind of rock tune I'm looking for. I probably listened to this the most this year.
The opening line, "You laughed and said, 'You should buy some curtains,'" is just too cool. The song and the lyrics are both a direct hit for me.
06. Namida to Libido / Jibaku
The guy who first taught me about rock is working at the reception desk at the local government office
This is what rock 'n' roll is. I think this is what rock is all about. It's okay to be pathetic. It's okay to be straightforward. As long as you're straightforward.
07. Killer Song / Ring Ring Lonely Rollss
We spent decades together, and at dusk, the blues called out the stars
I don't really like songs with grand arrangements. But, pretty much all of this band's songs are grand. Yet, I love them. Why is that? Is it because I feel a sense of persuasion in the words?
You don't need a reason to like something. So I won't be pedantic. It's just cool.
08. Kaze / sidenerds
If you touch the summer, you can even smell the earth
Not to mention the song itself, but this intro arrangement. It's so insane that it leaves me standing still.
The outburst of initial impulse stimulates the band kid inside my aging self. It's very effective.
09. Tenshi-chan dayo / Trooper Salute
I picked out a single clumsy word and shoved it into the mailbox
This theatrical flair is wonderful. I wonder if the keyboard is responsible for that role. Regardless, everything is just too good.
Perhaps because it has a bit of a kayokyoku nuance, it's a mysterious song that feels nostalgic even though it's new.
10. Sunfaded / Hiro Shinozawa
Don't worry, I'm not going home, see?
Even though the guitars, drums, and everything else are distorted to the max, the vocals are crystal clear, and the synergy makes it lethally effective. It's total overkill.
It's brutal. Seriously. What even is that guitar solo? That shouldn't be allowed. I love it.
11. SALT AND PEPPER/chelmico
Commonplace things that don't even become staples, if you keep at it, someday they'll be classic
Those old-school classic scratches are irresistible. The lyric "I want to eat warm rice"—that lack of pretension is just so good.
12. Kinesin/Hyaku-en Onban
The drawings on the arms of the skater jumping over the cat path
Chasing the rose with my second eye, pedaling through the twilight
Pop music that reminds me of Cymbals or ostoo andel. It has a solid sense of nostalgia and universal elements. The concept is "a collection of good old songs that feel like classic masterpieces you can buy for 100 yen used," and that's exactly what these are. They are the kind of band where everyone who hears them thinks, "I bet I'm the only one who knows how good this song is."
13. I Think It Was Amazing Grace/Kazeho Okabayashi
Plastic bags, paper bags, and point cards with patterns not found in my daily life
This person's perspective on daily life is one of a kind. From a familiar, comforting singing voice, lyrics that occasionally startle you come flying out. When she sings, "What shone because it was lost will likely warm someone again today," how can you call this anything but folk? It's cool.
14. Nameless/Sonoko Inoue
Even though I know the beginning and the end, I don't know the middle
Will I be embarrassed again?
I think this person is a brilliant talent who will definitely leave her name in music history. If I heard her on a street performance, I would definitely stop in my tracks. There is an irresistible centripetal force in her singing voice.
15. remember/Paterson
what do you mean?
When you cry, you're a small, clever monster
A song I happened to find on YouTube.
It sounds like something else, but it's so uniquely this band's sound that I wonder if that's just their essence. It kind of reminds me of 'Untitled' by Hatsukoi no Arashi.
I think this band is going to be incredibly successful next year. Just listen to it once, please.
16. A Bad Aftertaste | sour/Laura day romance
No matter how beautifully I try to deceive, the world is in balance with this heartbeat.
It leaves a bad aftertaste that there are versions of myself that fit and versions that don't.
The song that hit me the hardest, released at the very end of this year.
I feel like this band is constantly outdoing their own masterpiece.
Lyrics woven only from words that finally emerge at the end of introspection. An intro with a sense of space that only this band could pull off. The melody in the chorus is so beautiful that even though the instruments are playing intensely, it feels quiet. That is probably because this song is so perfectly complete, as if everything is fused into one. The meaning hits you straight on.
I think it's such a masterpiece that words like 'grand' or 'lyrical' can't represent it, and trying to explain it feels pointless.