ピジカート・ファイブ
Pizzicato Five

Listening to Pizzicato Five might've been the first time I really got absorbed emotionally in song lyrics. After finding a webpage — started in 1998 and is still up to this day — dedicated to translations of their lyrics, I would listen over and over while reading every word like it was the first time. I was fascinated by how they felt so much like a diary entry, or how sweet the narrator would find their lover's quirks, or how subjects so sad could sometimes be backed by such upbeat and energetic instrumentals like this one.

Icons of style. Icons of kitsch. Icons of Shibuya. Inspired by genres such as lounge music, 60s rock, French Ye-Ye, their unique sound envelopes you into a world of interconnected catwalks. Though you might start out at fashion week, keep walking and you might find yourself enjoying a cocktail in a dimly-lit booth with velvet seating, sitting at a cafe watching a couple outside by the window slowly realize they need to break up, dancing on the sunny side of the street like no one can see, or being swept away by a rare groove into the sky UFO-style.