Obligatory rant about this:
Did you think I grew up and chilled out about "Best Australian ___" lists? No! Never! Yeah, I know all the top 10 has to be MOR inoffensive stuff, and that's fine. But the likes of The Saints, The Go-Betweens, The Triffids not being in the top 20 is unacceptable. What is Savage Garden doing up there?

Tori Amos
Pitchfork gave the re-release of Little Earthquakes 8.6, so I'm listening to it again. I thought it was influential enough to score higher than that. I think they gave some Oasis reissue a higher score, and that's not right.

Another Japanese list
I wouldn't ordinarily pay attention to any Rolling Stone list, but this one is a bit odd. Merzbow in the same list as Utada Hikaru? Also, interesting points about record labels not liking these kinds of lists.

Katamari Fortissimo Damacy
First: oh my god Katamari Damacy is over 10 years old now. This album is amazing and I don't know how I've only just downloaded it now. Katamari On The Rocks is hilarious in a good way, which is not something I can often say about music. Even the grumpy people at rym like it. "It's the Japanese version of Illinois" summarizes its scope.

From this list here. This was the best I could find when looking for a list of  "classic" Japanese songs. English sources that talk about J-pop mostly focus on idols or anime songs. The list is a bit outdated, but it covers a good variety of genres.

1. Southern All-Stars
tsunami (2000)
涙の海で抱かれたい　～sea Of Love～  (2003)

2. YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra)
firecracker (1978)
solid state survivor (1979)

3. Yumi Matsutoya
ひこうき雲 (1973)
ルージュの伝言 (1975)

4. Happy End
風をあつめて (1971)
夏なんです (1971)

5. Hibari Misora
川の流れのように (1988) - voted best Japanese song of all time in 1997
愛燦燦 (1986)

6. Tatsuro Yamashita
Ride On Time (1980)
Christmas Eve (1983)

7. Momoe Yamaguchi
さよならの向こう側 (1980)
秋桜 (1977)

8. Yosui Inoue
夢の中へ (1989)
少年時代 (1990)

9. Eiichi Ohtaki (member of Happy End)
君は天然色 (1981)
さらばシベリア鉄道 (1980)

10. Seiko Matsuda
風は秋色 (1980)
あなたに逢いたくて ～Missing You～ (1996)

11. Ryuichi Sakamoto (member of YMO)
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983)
bibo no aozora (1996)

12. Keisuke Kuwata (member of Southern All-Stars)
明日晴れるかな (2007)
白い恋人達 (2001)

13. Motoharu Sano
Visitors (1984)
アンジェリーナ (1980)

14. Eikichi Yazawa
止まらないHA～HA (1986)
I LOVE YOU, OK (1975)

15. Flipper's Guitar
恋とマシンガン (1990) - highlight of this quarter of the list for me.
Groove Tube (1991)

16. RC Succession
I LIKE YOU (1990)
Transistor Radio (1980)

17. Kenji Sawada
時の過ぎゆくままに (1975)
勝手にしやがれ (1977)

18. Kyu Sakamoto
上を向いて歩こう (1961) - aka Sukiyaki. The only Japanese song to top the Billboard 100.
坂本九見上げてごらん夜の星を (1963)

19. The Blue Hearts
Linda Linda (1987) - heard it in Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan
Train-Train (1988)

20. Miyuki Nakajima
わかれうた (1977)
地上の星 (2000)

21. Tetsuya Komura
Running to Horizon (1989)
I want you back (1989)

22. Boowy
Marionette (1987)
わがままジュリエット (1986)

23. Yutaka Ozaki
I Love You (1991)
Oh My Little Girl (1991)

24. Hikaru Utada
First Love (1999)
travelling (2001)

25. Tamio Okuda
愛のために (1994)
息子 (1995)

2015 Releases

Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
This is super hyped, but I'm not totally won over yet. I like the songs that are on Spotify, so there's hope.

Courtney Barnett - Depreston
"If you've got a spare half a million, you could knock it down and start rebuilding" makes me think of my friend who is knocking down his house and splitting the lot in half. Early contender for song of the year for me. Future Australian classic, even.

Susanne Sundfor - Ten Love Songs
This is fun. Current highlight for me is Kamikaze.

The Grates - 7-Eleven
Used to hate this band. But this song was just what I needed after coming back from two weeks in Japan, which involved a lot of hanging around in convenience stores. "I light up like a NightOwl in Brisbane" gets it some points too.


Vocaloid - Because I actually heard Vocaloid songs playing in shops in Japan.

rerulili - Spinal Fluid Explosion Girl
This is it, this is my theme song. Those lyrics are on point. There should be more pop songs with jazz piano and chiptune together.

hachi - Panda Hero
Does this song have two bridges? Excellent. Covers don't hold up to the original, because I think it works better with the deadpan, robot voice. Everyone seems to think it needs to be shouted because of the rollicking backing track.

Jin - Kagerou Days
Worth watching the PV and reading the subs.


Other things

Halfway - Dulcify
Won Song of the Year at the Queensland Music Awards. Improves my opinion of QLD slightly. But they seem to have misplaced 2014 on the website.