Radwimps
Radwimps are a Japanese rock band fronted by singer-guitarist Yojiro Noda, who built the group's sound out of a teenage diet of Britpop and Radiohead-style art rock filtered through unusually dense, literary Japanese lyrics. After breaking out independently in the early 2000s, the band became a household name scoring Makoto Shinkai's anime films, especially the 2016 blockbuster Your Name, whose soundtrack turned them into one of the best-selling rock acts in Japan.
Radwimps frontman Yojiro Noda has repeatedly named Oasis as the band that first made him want to play guitar, discovering them in middle school and citing them alongside Radiohead as his two biggest influences; the band's early records lean hard on Oasis's all-together-now, singalong-chorus songwriting.
listen forPlay Oasis's soaring 'Don't Look Back in Anger' next to Radwimps' 'Zenzenzense' — both build a simple, strummed verse into a massive, unison-chant chorus engineered for a stadium crowd to sing back.
Noda has listed Radiohead among his very favorite artists since he started playing guitar as a teenager, and Radwimps' more atmospheric, dynamically shifting material draws on Radiohead's habit of building a song out of quiet unease before it breaks open.
listen forCompare the hushed-to-huge arc of Radiohead's 'Karma Police' with Radwimps' 'Sparkle' — both spend their opening minutes in restrained, piano-and-guitar quiet before a long, cathartic climb into noise.
Noda has cited Ringo Sheena among his formative influences alongside Radiohead and Björk; her maximalist, genre-hopping arranging sense and dense, wordy vocal lines show up in Radwimps' busier, more theatrical songwriting.
listen forListen to how Ringo Sheena piles horns, strings and jazz chords under a rapid-fire vocal on 'Honnou,' then hear Radwimps do something similar on 'Order Made,' cramming a dense, tongue-twisting lyric into a horn-and-strings arrangement without ever losing the tune.