Artist Deep Dive #1

 Daoko

The music gods decided to give me a challenge on my first dive and I pulled a non-English language artist who I've never listened to. 

This is Daoko, a 26-year-old Japanese pop artist who first started releasing music as a young teenager. She was nominated for Next Breakthrough Artist at the 2015 MTV Music Video Awards Japan and the Best Japanese Act at the 2018 MTV Europe Music Awards. She began her career in the realm of cloud rap and experimental/avant-garde hip hop before moving into a more pop-oriented direction in the mid-2010s.

Discography listened to (7 albums):

Hyper Girl: Mukōgawa no Onna no Ko [2012]

Gravity [2013]

Dimension [2015]

DAOKO [2015]

Thank You Blue [2017]

Shitekiryoko [2018]

anima [2020]

I did not include DAOKO×Dragalia Lost, which is a collab album that Daoko created as part of a video game soundtrack.

Rankings:

7. Shitekiryoko [2018]

This is a very shiny album, full of glitz and glamour, well into Daoko’s pop phase, but I don’t think it has the heart and soul of her other projects. It’s a bit too sleek, with too much polish, to the point where it feels a bit plastic and synthetic. (6.5/10)

6. Gravity [2013]

Daoko’s second project, Gravity, is probably her most experimental, really in the realm of art pop and avant rap. Some of the beats honestly go pretty hard, but for the most part things just sound awkward with a lot of confusing choices. Even though I admire the ambition, the weaker tracks are just bad, bogged down by slow pacing and low energy. (6.5/10)

5. Dimension [2015]

Dimension is the last album Daoko would make under the label Low High Who? and marks the end of her more experimental cloud rap leanings. Some tracks overstay their welcome, but I really dig the creative, offbeat production on this album as Daoko leans into electronics. The ceiling isn’t as high here as it is on Gravity, but the floor is MUCH higher. (7/10)

4. Hyper Girl: Mukōgawa no Onna no Ko [2012]

Daoko released her debut album Hyper Girl when she was only 14 years old and it’s hard not to be impressed. It’s a little messy - as to be expected - but it’s full of passion and potential, and the roughness gives a lot of charm to what’s essentially a dreamy bedroom pop rap album. It’s soft and bright and peppy without being in your face. A chill, relaxed, and very confident debut for a such a young teenager. (7.5/10)

3. DAOKO [2015]

This self-titled album was essentially a reinvention for Daoko after she signed with her new label Toy’s Factory, moving away from the experimentation of her earlier work and going headlong into more commercial-sounding pop music. The changes are immediately noticeable and the high-energy bops come in full force. DAOKO is much dancier, and much more instrumentally layered as she introduces abundant strings into her production. It’s a lot of damn fun and would be a great place to start for anyone interested in her discography or J-pop at large. (7.5/10)

2. anima [2020]

anima is Daoko’s most recent release and sees the artist merging the previous two phases of her career, creating a unique blend of vibrant pop rap with the left-field beats of her early releases where the production and vocals complement each other in a way that was absent from much of her early work. The album surges with personality and the mature sense of self-assuredness of an artist really finding their niche. It’s a damn good album. (8/10)

1. Thank You Blue [2017]

I think this is universally recognized as Daoko’s best album and it’s no surprise why. Thank You Blue is an extremely cohesive, well-balanced, lush, full-bodied and fully realized banger of a J-pop record. There are some weaker tracks in the back end when it gets a bit weirder and more unconventional, but for the most part it’s all rippers, no skippers as Daoko seamlessly navigates the spectrum of pop music. Disco pop. Synthpop. Dance pop. Electropop. Some EDM. Some moody gothic dream pop on “Onaji Yoru.” Some lounge pop on “Yumemitetano Atashi.” It’s all here and it’s all fantastic. The second half leaves it short of a masterpiece but Thank You Blue is up there with ROSALÍA’s MOTOMAMI as my favorite non-English language pop album. Exceptional. (9/10)

Rankings/ratings recap:

Thank You Blue [2017] - 9/10

anima [2020] - 8/10

DAOKO [2015] - 7.5/10

Hyper Girl: Mukōgawa no Onna no Ko [2012] -7.5/10

Dimension [2015] - 7/10

Gravity [2015] - 6.5/10

Shitekiryoko [2018] - 6.5/10

Final artist rating:

7.8/10*

*final scores are weighted according to my own personal rating system