It’s time for another edition of Reader’s Best! Today, we are celebrating being almost half-way through submissions with a top ten by Homicidol’s Discord server denizen Russell Emerine. While Russell’s submission is chock full of SS tier tunes, I must say that it was very short on capitalization. In fact, their selection narrative did not include a single upper case character. All of the capital letters in the following post were provided courtesy of D so, Russell, you owe me a bunch of majuscules.

While waiting for reimbursement, let’s check out the list!

Russell Emerine’s 10 Favorite Idol Songs

BABYMETAL, Iine

My personal favorite by BABYMETAL. why it’s in the top ten should be no question, why it isn’t higher… this has to do with the nature of BABYMETAL. when i listen to BABYMETAL, I can’t help but feel like i care about the instrumentals more than the girls themselves, since they’re “just” singing. obviously the three of them are excellent singers and dancers, but they don’t “pop” in the same way that Io + Kagura, or Yuna, or even RITO from meme tokyo. do. I mention RITO because there’s something distinctive about the voice that really sells it, SU-METAL is good no doubt but (maybe it’s because I heard her first) she just sounds a little too normal. Meanwhile, the instrumentals *do* pop. How often do you hear a djent line written so well as in “Starlight”? And it buries the idols, which is against the whole point. In “Iine”, the girls have the chance to show off their flexibility in a way that complements the instrumentals.

CY8ER, toki wo tomete 

Whoa! I just translated the title. I never realized it meant “stop time”. This is the first song I heard by CY8ER that really felt impactful, which of course was only enhanced by the fact that it was their last song. it was only then that I explored the rest of their music and found out that the ones I heard before just happened to be the few that don’t fit my taste. Sometimes you only find the good groups when they end, and it really sucks. Now that I know the translation, this song is going to mean even more to me.

meme tokyo., moratoriumaquarium

I promise I don’t just listen to metal idol, though the rest of the list will look like it. “moratoriumaquarium” is just such a bop! A groove. A jam.

SHINGEKI (Shinshi Todoroku, Gekijou no Gotoku.), ‎Shinsokyoku : Gaia 

Mainly this is the song that first got me to listen to all of SHINGEKI’s stuff (I heard boil hazard before but didn’t pay attention to it). Also, it feels like everyone gets a turn. Sometimes that doesn’t happen lol

Broken by the Scream, Hang in there

Honestly, not too great as a song. In other songs Broken by the Scream has some amazing choruses (really just take a random song and there’s an 80% chance I’ll consider it a top-tier chorus) that the screams sometimes overshadow because it’s their shtick. But since it is BBTS… wow, that breakdown. Kagura and Io absolutely *demolish*.

PassCode, Anything New

Simply my personal favorite by PassCode. PassCode is the master of happy + powerful. Never fails to lift my mood

969, Catch the Light

It’s kinda daring to put this so high in the list, since 969 has kinda… grown out of any relevancy imo? But the chorus sticks so well, and the screams are used just right, and since it holds together perfectly as a song, it just kinda happens to end up here

KAQRIYOTERROR, lilithpride

It packs so much wild energy! I think of it as the “most KAQRIYOTERROR” song. Also anything written by syva is automatically awesome.

Zenbu Kimi no Sei da., World End Crisis

With Zenbu Kimi no Sei da., it’s hard to choose which style you want to represent. They have cutesy electronic-centered tunes (“monopa”, “Antilyours”), happy-intense songs (“Unknown Carnival” or “Heavenlyheaven”), some random weirdness (“Underscore”, “Greedy Survive”). The one I keep coming back to, though, is the à la Yukueshirezutsurezure sorrowful, emotion-loaded feel (“Cult Scream”, “Philia Philia”). If I had to choose one kiminosei song to keep out of all of them, it would be “World End Crisis”. Also anything written by syva is automatically awesome

Yukueshirezutsurezure, Doppelgänger

“Ahhh the *emotion*. With Yukueshirezutsurezure it’s tough. I could also list “Iki Shini Gairon” or “Arrhythmia” or “Kuro to Uso” as favorites, they all have this taste of lingering sorrow(?) that I can’t get enough of.