What a weird album to begin my very first review on the new blog of my favorite group haha. Well I guess it is kind of fitting, have a compilation album first (even if it is ten years old). So thanks to Hello! Project being awesome and actually uploading their videos to YouTube, I'll have all the videos at the end of this post in a playlist for you to listen to as embedding them all separately might cause someone's computer to die xD This will be an incredibly long post though....so for those of you that dislike reading, scroll to the end to listen to the songs.
So a Morning Musume introduction.....to be honest, they have WAY more info than is possible to talk about in a brief intro paragraph so I'll just give a couple highlights. Morning Musume began as a five member group in 1997 after the five original members were the runner ups in a vocalist contest put on by Sharan Q. The five were given a chance to form this group and continue if they were able to sell 50,000 copies of their debut single, Ai no Tane, in five days (which I believe was more like event sales, not buying in stores or anything) and it was accomplished and they became Morning Musume and the rest is history. Currently, Morning Musume has 13 members (excluding Sayumi Michishige who is graduating next week): Mizuki Fukumura (9), Erina Ikuta (9), Riho Sayashi (9), Kanon Suzuki (9), Haruna Iikubo (10), Ayumi Ishida (10), Masaki Sato (10), Haruka Kudo (10), Sakura Oda (11), Haruna Ogata (12), Miki Nonaka (12), Maria Makino (12), and Akane Haga (12). [The girls are separated into generations here, the numbers after their name depict which generation they are in. There have been a total of 12 generations in Morning Musume so far].
At the time of the release of this album, the members were much different, with only Sayumi Michishige from the current line up (until next week) being part of this release. Because this is a best album, I'll put in each review which members participated in what since the lineup fluctuated a lot during this time period.
Just a disclaimer: For the most part, I enjoy all of Morning Musume's music so this is going to be the most biased review ever xD But the point of my blog isn't so much reviews (it's just a way for me to write about things), but more about hoping to spark some interest in listening to something new you might have never heard before, or getting back into a song that you haven't listened to for awhile. So above everything else, I hope you enjoy the music!
Track #1, Go Girl ~Koi no Victory~: This was the second song to be released with the sixth generation girls. Although this song is enjoyable, it's also very forgettable. I personally never remember it's existence, probably because it's release is in between two of their best singles: Shabondama and Ai Araba It's All Right. The interesting thing about this single, however, is that there is no solo lines at all. All of the lines were sung by the groups that you can see in the music video. I wish they would do a song like this now, since everyone seems to fight about who gets solo lines and whatever anymore. Even though it's not a Christmas song, it feels like one. I'm guessing it's the feeling they were going for since the release was in November of 2003. So I was originally going to say that this video was pretty good compared to some of their other earlier videos, but then I re-watched it and was reminded of those awful soccer (yes, I'm from the USA. My family is really into the NFL so in my head I can never say football for soccer cause I grew up around everyone calling the NFL football and soccer was practically nonexistent xD I know, very off topic...sorry xD) shots that have no business being in this video. I'm guessing that when it was released, it was some kind of support song for a soccer team or that Gatas Brilliantes thing that H!P used to have or still does.....idk I don't like sports so I never researched that lol. But now, it just looks so tacky and out of place. They should have released two versions of the video. 4/5
Performing Members: Kaori Iida (1), Natsumi Abe (1), Mari Yaguchi (2), Rika Ishikawa (4), Hitomi Yoshizawa (4), Nozomi Tsuji (4), Ai Kago (4), Ai Takahashi (5), Asami Konno (5), Makoto Ogawa (5), Risa Niigaki (5), Miki Fujimoto (6), Sayumi Michishige (6), Eri Kamei (6), Reina Tanaka (6)
Track #2, Do It! Now: It's always been incredibly difficult to rank my favorite MM songs because there's so many great ones, but I would say that Do It! Now would be in the top 5 if I were to sit down and actually make a list. I had first heard the song when I was going through some of their older ones to see if there was anything interesting. As I was not a big fan at this point, nothing was really sticking out to me until I came to this one. I was so shocked with how good it was and really it helped to fuel my love for the group because it got me interested in not just what was being released by Morning Musume in 2011, but also what was being released during the earlier years of the group (When I first started looking into them, I had no idea about the concept of the "Golden Era", the "Platinum Era", the "Colorful Era" or whatever else fans label these "eras" as, but I viewed everything pre-Kanashimi Twilight as "the early years".) The video for this song is pretty fantastic too. It seems to me that for Morning Musume, the videos from I Wish to Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari are their best in terms of quality. Almost all the videos pre that are either awful or incredibly dated and everything after that tends to be either very formulaic (most of them) or just plain BAD (The Manpower, especially). Also, random, but doesn't anyone else think that Kaori Iida and Haruna Kojima are strikingly similar in terms of looks? I do xD. 5/5
Performing Members: Kaori Iida (1), Natsumi Abe (1), Kei Yasuda (2), Mari Yaguchi (2), Maki Goto (3, final single), Rika Ishikawa (4), Hitomi Yoshizawa (4), Nozomi Tsuji (4), Ai Kago (4), Ai Takahashi (5), Asami Konno (5), Makoto Ogawa (5), Risa Niigaki (5)
Track #3, Koko ni Iruzee!: This song was one of those that was just meh to me....until within the last few weeks. Something finally just clicked and I really love this song now, especially the end where it starts talking about "lonely boys and girls". Maybe it was from listening to it without the video (which although good, is just kind of weird). The video had never really made a lot of sense to me. The rainbow part reminds me of chimney sweeps who joined a circus or something and then the other part shows them as like miners and other random jobs involving....dirt? I guess. As someone whose Japanese doesn't go much further than "Arigatou" or "Konnichiwa", I'm guessing I just don't get it because I'm sure it makes more sense with the lyrics. Maybe I should start learning Japanese one of these days. 5/5
Performing Members: Kaori Iida (1), Natsumi Abe (1), Kei Yasuda (2), Mari Yaguchi (2), Rika Ishikawa (4), Hitomi Yoshizawa (4), Nozomi Tsuji (4), Ai Kago (4), Ai Takahashi (5), Asami Konno (5), Makoto Ogawa (5), Risa Niigaki (5)
Track #4, Ai Araba It's All Right: I already mentioned earlier that this was one of my favorite songs by them (which I have a lot of....it's really not a special classification), but the reason I love it is because of it's ultra sing along nature. The final chorus is it's ultimate point and I would LOVE to see this done live with EVERYONE singing along. It'd be absolutely amazing. The video really isn't anything special though. It's probably one of their weakest between the videos I mentioned earlier. 5/5
Performing Members: Kaori Iida (1), Natsumi Abe (1, final single), Mari Yaguchi (2), Rika Ishikawa (4), Hitomi Yoshizawa (4), Nozomi Tsuji (4), Ai Kago (4), Ai Takahashi (5), Asami Konno (5), Makoto Ogawa (5), Risa Niigaki (5), Miki Fujimoto (6), Sayumi Michishige (6), Eri Kamei (6), Reina Tanaka (6)
Track #5, The Peace!: It's probably bad for me to say that I prefer the Updated version of this song to the original isn't it? It probably is, but I do. I mean, I like this song a lot, but I just like the Updated version more. Personally, I don't think the song works as well without the video. I'm not one to think that the video makes a song or anything, but The Peace's video is just so crazy and fun that it makes the song more enjoyable than it actually is. If anything, just watch the video and enjoy the crazy. Probably one of my favorite MM videos. 4/5
Performing Members: Kaori Iida (1), Natsumi Abe (1), Kei Yasuda (2), Mari Yaguchi (2), Maki Goto (3), Rika Ishikawa (4), Hitomi Yoshizawa (4), Nozomi Tsuji (4), Ai Kago (4)
Track #6, Mr. Moonlight ~Ai no Big Band~: This song I'm not too keen on. I love the big band feel to it, but only Hitomi can really pull off the male vibe. Maki just sounds silly and Natsumi....well I've never really cared for her to begin with so she's just there. I also find it incredibly interesting how Risa gets the opening line and Makoto is super prominent in the video. Back then were they designated as the "aces" of gen. 5? Because that has always confused me how in gen. 5's debut single the two of them got the most spotlight. To be honest, I wish Risa had become the "ace" of gen. 5. I've always preferred her singing voice to Ai's. 3.5/5
Performing Members: Kaori Iida (1), Natsumi Abe (1), Kei Yasuda (2), Mari Yaguchi (2), Maki Goto (3), Rika Ishikawa (4), Hitomi Yoshizawa (4), Nozomi Tsuji (4), Ai Kago (4), Ai Takahashi (5, first single), Asami Konno (5, first single), Makoto Ogawa (5, first single), Risa Niigaki (5, first single)
Track #7, Shabondama: This is my favorite song of the Best Album and also my favorite song of the pre-Platinum era Morning Musume. Even though I can't speak Japanese at all, when I was in high school I learned all of the lyrics to this song and could sing it by heart....even the monologue xD That's how much I was in love with this song. I'm weaker at remembering the lyrics nowadays (as it's been about 3 years since my "Insane fan" phase when I first began to get really into them), but my love for the song hasn't stopped. The video is another of the weaker ones from the era, but it's not bad. 5/5
Performing Members: Kaori Iida (1), Natsumi Abe (1), Mari Yaguchi (2), Rika Ishikawa (4), Hitomi Yoshizawa (4), Nozomi Tsuji (4), Ai Kago (4), Ai Takahashi (5), Asami Konno (5), Makoto Ogawa (5), Risa Niigaki (5), Miki Fujimoto (6, first single), Sayumi Michishige (6, first single), Eri Kamei (6, first single), Reina Tanaka (6, first single)
Track #8, Souda! We're Alive: I cannot figure out what I really think about this song. I like it, but the shouting parts get annoying after a while and the structure of the whole thing is nuts. It's like "fight song", then the music sounds like a remix/mashup of their really early material, then into the verse which sounds very Renai Revolution/Do It Now (yes I realize Do It Now was released after this), chanting, "fight song", generic idol pop, back to the verse style, more annoying chanting, then the bridge turns into a weird Koi no Dance Site feel, then back to generic idol pop, then the final annoying chants. It seriously sounds like 5 separate songs.....but thanks to it being a Tsunku production it works. The video is equally as strange and disjointed as the song. I'm wondering if Tsunku meant it to sound like a combination of their past songs....especially since 2002 would have been their 5th anniversary. Hm. Interesting to think about. 4.5/5
Performing Members: Kaori Iida (1), Natsumi Abe (1), Kei Yasuda (2), Mari Yaguchi (2), Maki Goto (3), Rika Ishikawa (4), Hitomi Yoshizawa (4), Nozomi Tsuji (4), Ai Kago (4), Ai Takahashi (5), Asami Konno (5), Makoto Ogawa (5), Risa Niigaki (5)
Track #9 As For One Day: I've really never thought about the existence of this song very much. I think before today I had only listened to it in full once before. The song and the video both remind me of an earlier Naichau Kamo. It's a pretty good song though. Not sure why I never paid any attention to it. 4/5
Performing Members: Kaori Iida (1), Natsumi Abe (1), Kei Yasuda (2, last single), Mari Yaguchi (2), Rika Ishikawa (4), Hitomi Yoshizawa (4), Nozomi Tsuji (4), Ai Kago (4), Ai Takahashi (5), Asami Konno (5), Makoto Ogawa (5), Risa Niigaki (5)
Track #10, Morning Musume no Hyokkori Hyoutanjima: So. This song. I don't hate it, it's just....a glaring difference in their discography. I truly mean I don't hate it, it's actually kinda catchy (and the only MM single I truly hate is Roman), but I also really wish it wasn't in MM's discography. It's like a MiniMoni song. Very childish. MM's done crazy and cute songs before, but this is just overly childish. I know it's a cover of some old Japanese kids' show theme song, but why? I really don't understand why they released this. Why not as an album song? The music video's cute though. I'm guessing it has something to do with the old TV show? 3/5
Performing Members: Kaori Iida (1), Natsumi Abe (1), Kei Yasuda (2), Mari Yaguchi (2), Rika Ishikawa (4), Hitomi Yoshizawa (4), Nozomi Tsuji (4), Ai Kago (4), Ai Takahashi (5), Asami Konno (5), Makoto Ogawa (5), Risa Niigaki (5)
Track #11, Dekkai Uchuu ni Ai ga Aru: So this song is actually not a single, but the B-side of The Peace! I have no idea why it seems to be on all of their early releases. Seriously. I own three copies of this song from three different CDs and when I buy their first Coupling Collection I'll have four! I'm guessing it was a huge concert crowd pleaser. It seems to have the same feel as Ai Araba, so it does seem like a crowd pleaser. It's certainly not as good though. 3.5/5
Track #12, Yah! Ashitai!: This is the only new track on this release. Today was the first day I listened to this song and I really enjoyed it. It sounds like it could fit in with their music today. 4.5/5
Sorry Souda is last...I accidentally forgot to add it to the list at first and I don't know how to move videos.
So I apologize for this incredibly long post, but I hope you at least check out some of the songs in the playlist above! For the release as a whole, it's an incredibly strong showing for their singles during this time period. 4/5.
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