A-to-J Connections' Favorite Songs of 2023!

1/9/2024

2024 will see the a full decade of A-to-J, and this "Favorite Song" article has been one of the few things that has stuck around since the early days. Well, besides all the various people who have also been around since those crazy young A-to-J years I guess! Just as in years past, several A-to-J members pick their favorite song of the year. and let you know why it's something worth checking out. You, the reader, can check them all out of course, but maybe you can also let us know what you think about our choices and how yours compare. These articles are always an eclectic mix owing to the varied membership of A-to-J Connections, and this year's grouping is no different! 2023 was a bit of a comeback year in a lot of ways, as A-to-J really got back into the swing of things following a lull that was brought about by somewhat obvious reasons. That's not why we're here though. We're here for music, and 2023 definitely provided! Without further ado we will jump into our favorite songs that dropped in 2023! Sit back, relax, and check out our favorite songs of 2023, and maybe discover some new artists and/or music too! Here's to a rocking 2024 and beyond!

Ivan: Photographer / Correspondent

For 2023 I chose this years most popular J-pop song: "Idol", by YOASOBI, which is also the theme song of the anime Oshi no Ko. I chose this song after watching the anime and seeing how they captured the dark side of the idol industry, and how Idols represent a false persona to the public.

The song premiered on April 13, exceeded 100 million views, and topped the Oricon Combined Singles Chart for 21 consecutive weeks. This made it the longest-running number-one song in the chart history.

The group YOASOBI also has another of my favorites for this year, “Yoru ni Kakeru”. The band has a bright future and I look forward to more great hits. You can check out "Idol" below.

YOASOBI - "IDOL"

J.D.: Moderator / Contributor

Looking back, it seems 2023 was the year of the romance anime for me. For the first three cours (at least), my favorite anime of the season was a romance show and the show that started off this year strong was Tomo-chan is a Girl! Because of that, it’s opening, “Kuare! Telepathy” by Maharajan, has been stuck in my head this entire year.

From the very start, the music sets up the awkwardness of navigating and communicating your feelings for a friend after those feelings stop being strictly platonic. This fits perfectly with the show as Tomo and Jun start the series as the person in the picture with their hand in half a heart sign and the one with the thumbs up respectively.

(Also, my apologies to Tomo-chan. I let you down by blanking when this came up during "Name That Anime Tune" at Tora-Con this year. I failed you. I am sorry.)

Maharajan - "Kuare! Telepathy"

Bonus Song: “Too Much Volcano!” by Abroad in Japan (feat. The Anime Man & Natsuki Aso)

What happens when you give a YouTuber (and now best-selling author) and his two friends a day to write and record a video for a rap song about part of their trek across Japan? You get “Too Much Volcano”, a beautifully goofy and super catchy song from two of Manuel’s favorite YouTubers, Chris “Abroad in Japan” Broad and Joey “The Anime Man” Bizinger, and Natsuki Aso.

This song is from 2 years ago so I don’t count it as my best of 2023 but it was my most played song this year according to iTunes. I blame that on the fact that I always seem to do better in Teamfight Tactics when the song is playing so there were multiple games where I just played this on repeat.

Yeah, I have some weirdly varied taste in music.

"Too Much Volcano"

Manuel: General Manager / Editor-In-Chief

I had a tough time picking my favorite song this year. Namewee has been a strong go-to over the past few years, and while I did think he dropped some bangers, I couldn't help but feel that none of them were my favorite of the year. That said I loved all his recent releases, with an emphasis placed on "十個男人 (10 Men)" (Which features Matilda Tao) and "We Are Everyone (千千萬萬個我)" (Which I ALMOST picked for my end of year favorite song.) This isn't even where the honorable mentions stop as one of my old favorite bands, Yoru no Honki Dance, released a new single that I just loved called "Pyramid Dance feat. Kenmochi Hidefumi" very recently, and The Oral Cigarettes released "Enchant" earlier this year, which became frontrunner for a while. Hmmm... whatever song will I pick?

Since I stalled a lot with all the honorable mentions (and maybe I have one more still!) I'll just cut to the chase here. My favorite song of the year has to be Joyce Chu's "Speeding Love", which is a song I enjoyed so much that I went to stupid lengths to legally purchase it. That's right, no piracy here, I paid actual money for this song! I know it's on some streaming services, but not only are they ones I don't use, but I'm still a bit boomer when it comes to having access to song files themselves. If you think Japanese publishing rights can be weird overseas, wait until you try to buy something that is technically only available in Southeast Asia. It took a while, but I got it, that's all that's important.

How is the song though, you ask? Well, it's quite a bit different than most of Joyce Chu's previous output, but the mellow vibes really hit different here, and the music video is just so much fun too. The low-key vocals, the catchy chorus, and simple choreography make this a song that I knew I'd be talking about somewhere in this article as soon as I heard it. Even though I liked it instantly, it took a bit longer for it to really settle into my mind that it was fast becoming one of my current favorite songs. Move over Namewee, it's Joyce's time to shine! Jokes aside, I first discovered Joyce Chu via Namewee many years ago, and it's been awesome seeing her solo music output shift and evolve over time. "Speeding Love" might not signify a totally new sound for her, but I sure hope it does since it stands out a lot when compared to her other work. Anyhow, check it out for yourself below since I'm sure that no one but me had this song anywhere near their radars this year!

Joyce Chu - Speeding Love

BIG HONORABLE MENTION BEFORE I GO! 2023 was the year that The Biscats became one of my favorite bands of all time. I discovered them via my decade panels and I couldn't believe that they released an amaze cover album this year that features several of the songs I spent much of the past year talking about at conventions! (It's called "J-BOP SUMMER" by the way.) The only reason I didn't pick this one is because none of these songs were original, released as singles, or even had proper MVs. Though if I had to pick one it would have to be their cover of The Checkers "Julia ni Heartbreak". (Which they covered earlier HERE.) So check it out and get to boppin'!

The Biscats - J-BOP SUMMER (Sound Trailer)

Warren: Streaming Host / Contributor

2023 is wrapping up so it’s that time again. Yes, that’s right! It’s our annual favorite song of the year picks! So what is my (Badman) pick for 2023? Ugh! I’ve listened to so many songs/artists this past year, and having to only choose one favorite song has gotten me conflicted. But the more I reflect on the music I got myself into, I can make this difficult decision... My favorite song of 2023 is "Season" by Iri.

Iri is one of the hottest current artists in Japan today. She possesses a variety of sounds from reggae, rap, R&B, soulx and pop. With her song "Season", she taps into the heart of R&B. The song quickly leads with a bright jazzy piano melody that beautifully plays throughout the song. I can’t forget about the beat. It is a smooth mesh of mellow electronic beats, drums, and piano. Iri's blissful voice is what makes the song whole. Her vocal performance is calm and chill but packed with an uplifting spirit. Although Iri sings through most of the song, she breaks down the song with a small rap to keep it interesting. "Season" is one heck of a bop. It’s melodic, inspiring, and bouncy making it one the best vibes of 2023. So let "Season" welcome your new year!

iri - "Season"

Winfield: Staff Writer

My top favorite song of 2023 has to be Masaki Sato’s debut solo single, "Ding Dong / Romantic Nante Gara ja nai", whcih released March 29, 2023. I would normally choose a Hello! Project song, as I thought there were a handful of songs that were released this year that are excellent in my opinion, but I was a huge fan of Masaki during her tenure in Morning Musume, and that hasn’t changed even after she has gone solo.

The music is really catchy, and the editing in the music video makes it interesting with the switch between the red and black motif. There is small choreography that goes along with certain verses in the song that I found to be really cute, and everything about the song is overflowing with her charisma.

Hope you take the time and enjoy it!

Masaki Sato - "Ding Dong"

Honorable Mention: Airi Suzuki’s single, "Saikyo no OSHI!", is also something that really resonated with me being someone who is entrenched in the Hello! Project idol fandom. The chorus and choreography is really catchy and cute. I couldn’t help but smile throughout the whole music video and, if you watch the dance shot video, there is a bit near the end that makes me think it was improvised that I found endearing. The song is the theme song to the TV drama, Oshi ga Jyoushi ni Narimashite, where Airi is one of the lead casts in the TV drama.

Airi Suzuki - "Saikyo no OSHI!"

Here we are once again at the end of another "Favorite Songs of The Year" article. We hope you enjoyed our individual favorite songs of the year, and we also hope that everyone had the best year of music possible and that we're all heading to an even better future. We're heading into 2024, and things are going pretty good already, so let's just keep that up. For the past several years we've closed these articles with sentiments like "It can only get better!", and we hope that we're finally beyond all that. We still want things to get better though of course, just not thinking that things are so bad that we'd have to especially hope for that. Keep your fingers crossed on all that of course, and hopefully the music will be good whatever the world throws at us next! Thanks again for letting us show you what we love, and here's hoping that we can continue bring you more great content throughout 2024 and beyond!

-Manuel and the rest of the A-to-J Team!

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