Decadeology: It's the place you want to be

Another post about my favorite songs of the decade. It was the summer of 2003, I was listening to Jellyfish's Spilt Milk, which is one of my all time favorite albums, and a great summer album, to boot. I found myself wondering what was going on with the Jellyfish guys, since they had split up in 1994, about a year after the release of Spilt Milk. I remember finding a page that said Andy Sturmer was writing and producing for a Japanese pop group called Puffy (known as Puffy AmiYumi here in the states). Intrigued, I looked for something to download so I could check it out.

After a few false starts, I finally obtained a full copy of Nice., which was the latest release, and I was finally able to click the play button. The opening track, Planet Tokyo, blindsided me the way that Scott Stevens destroyed Eric Lindros. Seriously.

This album checked a bunch of different genres, but it didn't sound like cheesy ripoff. It sounded more like a joyous celebration of all things pop. The production was airtight and pristine. The voices of Ami and Yumi melded together in harmony so perfectly, you'd never guess that it was a talent contest that brought them together. Listening to Nice. is like being on a party bus made of cotton candy. If you took Nice. along with you on a fishing trip, you'd catch more fish than you could carry home because this album has hooks for days. Okay, that was really bad, but I think you get the point.

This was the album that got me hooked into Jpop. Like the lyrics in Planet Tokyo said, "Planet Tokyo, it's the place you want to be, tonight." Yeah, I wanted to be there.

Puffy AmiYumi > Planet Tokyo