A song that took me totally by surprise. The accompanying video of her washing the dishes may have sealed the deal.

The fact is for me, Hikki was ON this year. And while I can't say Deep River was my favorite album. Travelling, Sakura Drops, Deep River, Letters were all great songs. It helps that Hikari was prominently featured in one of the year's more interesting games, Kingdom Hearts.

Sophia has great songs and "eh" songs but this one is just magical. I like the funk aspect added by their collaborator. I like the fact that it's all in English but is a Japanese lyric song which cleverly uses "soramimi". Sophia had a good year, and this was their best song.

Oddly enough. Though I am a self proclaimed Mr. Children fanatic, I have never deemed an album of theirs worthy of Album of the year. But this one has some teeth. Since releasing their best album last year, Mr. Children has really found their place, and at last a sound all their own. All the old comparisons are useless now. "The Japanese U2", The Japanese Pink Floyd" "The Japanese Beatles"... Mr. Children have declared their independence with their latest. As Sakurai describes the record... "it's like three or four main dishes and appetizers inbetween" The non single tracks are decidedly low key, and frankly, it's brilliant the way the album as a whole works. Songs like Fastener, UFO, and the priceless "one two three" are just too risky for most bands. A refreshing experience, and an album that stands up to almost endless repeat.

Dir en grey rocks. You get it or you don't at this point. A new album from them is worth shutting down the school system for.

Kisou is probably their most consistently "rock n' roll" record. They don't seem satisfied to sit back and phone in "Akuro no Oka 2" or "Yokan 3". Their sound is constantly evolving and yet they maintain a sense of self as a band which makes everything they touch sound basically like them...even the punchy "Jessica" has their signature grooves on it. A mix of nu-metal noodling, techno punk, and old fashioned metal hammer theory, makes for another golden 70 minutes.

After the wonderful Way of Difference and the also-ran Aitai Kimochi I expected something kind of good from Glay.

Their latest album which starts with a gospel song and ends with a shitty DJ Honda rap session which is just a redix of a song off One Love... was completely underwhelming. It felt like scraps of songs. This is what happens to big bands though, they try to branch out artistically or switch labels and phone it in... and sometimes this is the result. Let "One Love" or "Heavy Gauge" be their swan song and avoid this album unless you like droning motonous pseudo ballads.

It's like Keiko having lost against Yuzu number 1's overprotective mother, just called it quits and settled for the man who has ran through more idols than I can shake a stick at. I suppose I should be happy, but I always thought Keiko was a strong female figure and to see her break under pressure, it's just sad. Their over publicized wedding was indeed a pathetic spectacle.

I hated her, I loved her... that's the kind of unique voice she has. It grows on you or it doesn't. Her songs are being crafted by some talented people lately. And though she isn't really new... she's been around a long time. She's definitely fresh. A nice dose of Japanese to the mostly westernized pop charts. Songs like Wadatsumi no Ki and Kono Machi are gems.

The vocalist is a man's man. He's not a pretty boy, or a poser, but more similar to a poster boy for the yakuza. The songs are not the typical punk rock, or ska you might be expecting judging from his appearance... actually Crazy Ken Band owes more to lounge, blues, and pop than anything else. The lyrics, music and attitude of the band are not only very Japanese, but very human and raw. Songs like GT and Christmas Nante Daikirai... Nanchatte are unlike anything else out there and yet highly accessible.

Not only is it all of her songs from thermo plastic on, but you get a new song "vibes" and you get a reworking of some of her komuro era songs. Which were good to begin with. Especially nice is the new brassy version of Candy Girl.

I think this year had a lot of break out stars. The music industry seems to be in transission. Melo-Core/Punk is taking over the vacated visual-kei spot on the rock scene, and hip-hop/R&B is now taking the j-pop spot from the dance queens. Hot new acts included Road of Major... whose simple and sing-a-longable hit "Taisetsu na Mono" was everywhere this fall and has sold 600,000 copies as of this year, Mongol 800 whose album went on to sell over 2 million copies depsite the lack of a big time promotional push, BoA... who is breaking the barrier for Korean artists in Japan and doing the pop/dance thing better than anyone else out there now, Shimatani Hitomi... who rose to fame last year for a fantastic cover of a Janet Jackson song, turned in a few more covers this year all of which became hits, as well as a few irresistable original songs, Kick The Can Crew... whose goofy but likeable Christmas Eve Rap was a big hit last year had a good year as well, Rip Slyme... who can be thrown in the same category rose to mega fame off the success of the infectious "Funktastic" and "Rakuen Baby" which gets my vote for Summer song of the year, though frankly I think I listened to Kuraki Mai's "Feel Fine" more, ELT's Igurashi finally broke out his secret project ELT 2000 (no I'm kidding they are called Day after tomorrow) ShakkaRabbits, SR75, Cune, and former hardcore turned rappers Maha 25 also had a break out year. Hajime Chitose and Crazy Ken Band I've already discussed.

On the Hello Project side... there was major restructuring of the core units, and a big graduation. Fujimoto Miki made a big impact after overcoming comparisons to Ayaya and now is set to join Morning Musume and of all the people in the world Sonim (former EEJump) has stepped up and become the artist Tsunku makes the most "Sharan Q" like music for, his pet project. And damn she had a rough year... not musically of course her debut was a big success... but she ran across Korea, she broke the record for stacking dominoes alone, and she was put through other horrifying situations all to increase her appeal. Damn. Oh and Super Group Gomattou with Ayaya, Mikitty, and Gomaki (Former Momusu) has to be considered a successful experiment, but for the appeal a group like that should have... it didn't pull very good numbers sales wise.

The major stars made some waves this year too. Mr Children had a banner year, first with the success of their song and more importantly video for Kimi ga Suki. Then with the strong prescence their new album It's A Wonderful World had, and both the singles released after Any and Hero were big hits. Sakurai came back from a blood clot in his brain, and the tour they had scheduled, will re-start soon. Hikki had a good year, got hitched, had the best selling album... Ayu was a work horse again. And had the best selling single. The only to break a million by year's end. Kuraki Mai, put out a new album and restored some of the buzz with the aforementioned Feel Fine! Spitz came back in a big way this year, with new singles, an album and Hirai Ken captured the hearts of the wearisome salarymen, with his healing cover of an old American folk song. He gets the special Strawberry Flower "Pikmin" award for that.

On the R&B side, Nakashima Mika continued to grow in popularity despite singing flat on all her TV performances, Chemistry started off slow but picked things up in the fall and are now releasing a new album sure to be a top seller. Gospeller's kept a low profile but continued to annoy me. And former m-flo member verbal pretty much had his hand in anyone that had a mainstream rap hit. Including putting newcomer Minmi on the map. His Heartsdales are quite the entertaining lasses.

On a side note, it turns out that PuffyAmiYumi's assault on the US is being called a failure by those involved, as the cute factor and early buzz failed to translate into sales or exposure. I wonder how the girls saw it. But then again even Dreams Come True couldn't make a dent in the US. By the way they lost a member who was then subsequently jailed for a physical altercation with his sister. Yikes!

Ed's note: PV means Promotional Music Video Clip, like what is shown on MTV for example.