Tomo Nakayama - Ocean (2025) Hi-Res

Seattle via Japan musician Tomo Nakayama isn’t an artist that likes to stand still and tie himself to a certain genre or a specific musical setting. He’s been making music for over two decades, making soundtracks for Netflix’s House of Ninjas and the Sundance Grand Jury-nominated film Touchy Feely, and four solo albums, starting out with a synth pop Melonday (2020) and now coming up with Ocean, an album that could loosely fall within the singer-songwriter genre. That loose term actually can refer to quite a few albums these days, with some exhibiting a sense of individuality and crossing genres others remaining in that for some dreaded acoustic category.

Still, the key lies in the quality of music and elements of individuality, and on this album, Nakayama presents us with both. Based on his quietly detailed songwriting and some excellent backing, including Yuuki Matthews (The Shins) and Christopher Icasiano (Fleet Foxes), Nakayama comes up with 10 bright, intricate, songs that might be not so easy to define genre-wise, but are so easy on the ear.