passion.

So I didn't like Kingdom Hearts II. But I have in the meantime really fallen in love with the theme song from the game: "passion" by (of all people) Utada Hikaru. I normally imagine myself quite immune to the charms of slick j-pop. I can enjoy a bit of the overly poppy stuff now and again, but this is different.

This is pure 90's overwhelmingly heavenly vibe, turned up. Think Sarah McLachlan's "Sweet Surrender" passed through Orbital's live version of "Halcyon and On and On". Add in a little "Mummer's Dance" while you're at it. Plus, the bonus point for me of being in largely intelligible japanese. I really am crazy about this song right now, and therefore really am a big old dork.

But speaking of "largely intelligible japanese"... I'm in a phase with Japanese where I still don't recognize clichés. So even pretty cheesy lyrics aren't robbed of their impact by failing to meet some standard of cleverness. In fact, cleverness is a pretty big disadvantage for me, since I don't really have the means to get puns.
I have been in this phase before too. With german. There, and here, no matter how jaded I am on the products of my culture, if they're translated into the local tongue, all my defenses go down.

Thus I like dopey japanese and german music. But god help me if I ever imply that I like french pop music.