Plastic Love (cover)
9m88
The warm, almost nostalgic haze of city pop gets filtered through a decidedly soulful lens here — 9m88 takes Mariya Takeuchi's 1984 disco-funk landmark and drapes it in something looser, more lived-in. The groove stays intact: that rubbery bass line anchoring everything, the shimmering guitar chords catching light at every turn. But 9m88's vocal approach shifts the emotional center of gravity. Where the original carried a breezy, almost detached glamour, her delivery leans into a kind of wistful ache — the voice dipping low on certain phrases, pulling the melody earthward. She sounds like someone who understands the song's central irony — the manufactured nature of romantic performance — not as a clever concept but as something personally felt. The production retains the silky, analog warmth of its era while feeling contemporary, bridging Taiwanese R&B's present moment with Japanese pop's mythologized past. This is a song about desire that can never quite attach itself to anything real, and 9m88 sings it with the weary elegance of someone who has cycled through that loop more than once. You reach for this version late at night, driving through a city still lit but emptying out, when nostalgia and loneliness become difficult to separate.
medium
2010s
warm, silky, nostalgic
Taiwanese R&B reinterpretation of Japanese city pop
City Pop, R&B. Taiwanese R&B / City Pop cover. nostalgic, melancholic. Opens in breezy glamour but settles into wistful longing as the vocal pulls the energy earthward.. energy 5. medium. danceability 6. valence 4. vocals: warm female, soulful, wistful, intimate phrasing. production: rubbery bass, shimmering guitar, analog warmth, silky retro production. texture: warm, silky, nostalgic. acousticness 3. era: 2010s. Taiwanese R&B reinterpretation of Japanese city pop. Late night drive through a still-lit but emptying city when nostalgia and loneliness become hard to separate.