If

I've always wondered, if I were to tell my friends "I listen to Japanese music" and they wanted to hear something- what on earth would I reccomend? Well...

1: Ayumi Hamasaki (memorial address, song for xx... not sure.)
2: Luna Sea  (I for you, Gravity, Sweetest coma again)
3: Kiyoharu and SADS  (Rinne, Slow, Life beyond desperation, Awake)
4: Plastic Tree  (Spica!!!! Alone again wonderful world too. I've not listened to alot of them- though I plan to!)

4: 12012 (Caus' they are my favourite and most listened to J-rock after SADS and Kiyoharu. Shower, Deep forest in particular)
5: Gackt  (Caus' he's sexy. Redemption, mind forest and Yami no Shuen. Ahh...and last song!)
6: Chihiro Onitsuka  (She has a beautiful voice and her songs are very moving. Infection, Drifting feathers)

(this list could change at anytime apart from those in bold who I adore and think are extremly talented. I like 4 to 6 but not sure about what my friends would- and seeing so that's the focus of this post...)

What about you? Is there anything that you'd never ever tell anybody you listened to it? :P Is there something you'd force onto your friends?

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I've been listening to LUNA SEA lately. I'm curently working through their best of albums- it's amazing! To be honest I've never like X-Japan, the singers  voice annoys me, however for LUNA SEA their music is just so beautiful. Everything sounds so unbeliavbly right, and it's even relaxing in a way. A fantastic listen and the singer has a beautiful voice. I think the guitarist (Sugizo?) is also very talented. I've not skipped a song yet, and that's something for me. Only Ayu, Kiyoharu, SADS and Chihiro Onitsuka get that sort of treatment from me : ) Naturally, there's one or two but not quarter of the album like I usually do!

I can totally see the hype around LUNA SEA. They are total awesomness.

Other than that- have you heart Plastic Trees alone again? It's amazing! Though at first the constant, repetitive in-your-face guitar part annoyed me It grew on me: Ryotaro (is that right?) has a beautiful tone to his voice. I love the chorusy bit : ) At first I admired Plastic Tree for their visuals, but I'm steadily begining to love their music as well. I'm definitly gonna save up for some of their ablums. Also, have you seen the merchandise for their upcoming concert tour too? I so want the t-shirt and wrist-strap- the panda is adorable!!  (Sasabuchi has the pictures of them)

Olivia has new song! Title "bleeding heart" (inspired by bleeding love?) it's a really nice laid-back pop rock special Olivia ethereal-ness type of song. I didn't like it that much at first but I love it now. So glad she's back and still sounding fantastic. I think Nana was the best thing for her, she's really matured :D

Lastly, Just like to say that I don't really like Ayu's new single. I don't know but everything annoys me about it. The covers are photoshopped in all the wrong ways, and Ayu looks weird expresion wise. The PV no matter the meaing is wierd and over the top, And her performance of it was equally over the top. She couldn't walk in the shoes. The song itself is really good, though the string part is unnecesary and it really doens't stand out as anything amazing. Life is also OK but mediocre, and the two new versions though wonderfull sung were never songs I liked from Ayu. I would have prefered "Powder snow" or "song for xx" or even "poker face".  Depend on you's instrumentation sounds ripped off from somewhere. also, there is a riduculous amount of versions"! all in all, money-grabbing good but nothing special single. Dissapointing after the awesomeness that was GUILTY.

That's about it.   Bai bai : )