Cocco's last studio album deserves my nod for the album of the year- it took more listens to break me in then her other efforts, but it's certainly no less rewarding. It contains some of her most beautiful songs as well as some of her most abrasive. It's a more introspective sounding album then her previous works, and it bit less 'rocking' overall, but it certainly doesn't disappoint.

Ajiko's first studio album combines two fantastically talented artists, UA and Kenichi Asai. The thing is that I've always really enjoyed select songs by each of these two, but neither of them were able to sustain my interest for an entire album. Putting the two of them together causes a whole that's greater than the sum of the parts; it's akin to getting chocolate in your peanut butter. Bottom line is that this is a fantastic album with a wide range of great music on it. It goes on my recommended list for anyone who likes classic guitar and a soulful voice. Tokie on Bass is rather amazing at times as well. Thank goodness she left Rize.

I'm eternally greatful that someone has picked up the torch so unceremoniously dropped by ELT after Igarashi left. No one has made new wave this good since 1984, Eurythmics. "Kiss One More Time" tweaks my secret 80's fetish with a vengence. If you are a fan of 80's music, buy it. Now.

It's my policy not to give a Single of the Year and an Album of the Year nod to the same artist in the same year, but if I hadn't given Sangrose the nod above, then this would have been my single of the year. It's an amazing song, and pardon my french, but the English translation provided is shit. The first time the epiphany hit and I actually understood this song in Japanese, I cried. In public. "Rainbow" (one of the four freakin' B-sides) is the song that I would pick as my all time favorite Cocco song if I was heinously tortured until I chose one. This should be labled an EP, not a single.

Although I didn't give it Album of the Year honors like Brian and Aaron did (and a large part of me still disagrees with that choice), this is the one album that I command all of you to acquire. If you have any cell in your body with that incessant craving for rock, it really doesn't get any more raw and beautiful than this. Chisako Mikami's lyrics combine simple and complex in a way that I simply can't find a sufficient comparison for.

On the suggestion of a contingent from our now-defunct messageboard, I rented Youjeen's debut album. I listened to it 3 times. I told Brian that her screaming "disturbed my rock wa". A single later I went back and listened to the album again. Perhaps I was more angry at that time and willing to accept the screaming, but the album grew on my like a body-devouring fungus. It's one of the few albums I actually purchased new last year.

I will immediately ask to be excused for my next set of comments, but I simply can't understand how anyone with a soul, let alone Brian (who cried when he heard the news) could possibly be more disappointed with any other occurance in Japanese Music this year. I've lost something that I can't describe, but is absolutely irreplacable and priceless. We all have.

1) fra-foa - After producing one of the most distortion- and noise-laced albums of 2001 and proving to me that they have what it takes live, I know that their second album is going to be nothing short of amazing. As I've told Boo many times, the only reason they didn't get my album of the year nod is that their first album felt like a 'potential' album to me; I strongly believe that their second album will see that potential realized.

2) Script - This bizzare semi-visual pair of rockers grabbed me out of nowhere last year with their catchy song 'Siren'. The video was unassuming but pleasing to the eye, and the music combined classic pop-style hooks with a nice guitar riff and well paced lyrics. I'm going to spend a nice bit of time in 2002 finding more music by them and reading up. Here's hoping they don't disappoint.

3) L'arc~en~Ciel - Will they break up? No one knows, but I must say that they move more and more into my favorite areas of music with each album, so I was looking forward to the next effort that may or may not be coming. It's a depressing thought that the dome tour Aaron, Teresa and I saw a year and some change ago may have been their last tour.

4) globe - TK has gotten the ball rolling again with his first #1 hit in quite some time (the Ayu/Keiko duet "A Song is Born"). As Brian put it, it's time to 'Capitalize'. Being that globe is the only respectable project that he hasn't dropped in the past year (respectable effectively eliminates his wife's ill-begotten 'music'), it's really his only choice for trying to claw back up the charts. I don't personally think he has the pull to snatch up another beautiful girl and catapult her to the top of the charts (not to mention that he's married now), so perhaps he will allow globe to stop sucking. I'm just trying not to get my hopes up as he's burned me for over a year now.

5) Laid - Centigrade's favorite Indies band is WAY overdue for a push into the major labels. Their flavor of 80's hair-rock is not only nostalgic, but skillful as well. They put on a great live show and, dammit, we got backstage. I'll cheer for these guys till the very end. Anyone Indies band that puts a "Japan-only Bonus Track" on their 3rd Mini-Album pegs the cool metre.