This CD is going to be an adventure to write about. Probably one of my all time favorite J-pop albums. When I first started listening to MCZ, I didn't understand all of the hype. Neo Stargate & Birth O Birth were okay, but I still didn't understand why exactly they were being so praised. Then I heard Saraba and fell in love with it, bought the CD, and then proceeded to be blown away. It's really too bad that this album seems to be their peak. Everything that's come after it sans Gounn is just not even close to the musical caliber this album is on.
Track #1, Neo Stargate: Let me just preface this review with the fact that these girls can't really sing. Like at all. The green girl (Momoka? I think her name is) seems to have some talent, but as a group, they're just really not good. However, that truly doesn't matter with this album. The music video for this (where I first heard the song) should contain this crazy musical intro. I've never heard an 8 minute song that goes by so fast and still leaves you wanting more. I wish I knew what piece was in the beginning of this song. Sure, I could look it up, but I don't care that much. It's just very powerful....and I swear I heard it on a Domino's commercial during the Super Bowl xD. It's actually pretty difficult to speak about the songs on this album. They're so different than the usual J-pop stuff you can find. Absolutely brilliant opener though. 5/5.
Track #2, Kaisou Dystopia: This poor poor song. I feel so bad for it. It's placed right between Neo Stargate and Mugen no Ai. Such a horrible placement. It makes it instantly forgettable just because of it's placement. It isn't one of the better songs on the album though so I do understand it's place. However, it is still darn good. Particularly the ending of the choruses. 4/5.
Track #3, Mouretsu Uchuu Koukyoukyoku Dainana Gakushou "Mugen no Ai": Also known as my most played song of all time. I've listened to it well over 200 times and I'm still not sick of it. I usually burn out on songs around 30-50 plays, but this is just on another level. Honestly, I'm not even sure if there's a song on the planet that's better than this. This is their true Magnum Opus. They'll never top it. In 20 years when people are speaking of the best songs Japan has to offer, I'm confident this will be in that conversation. It's just so incredible I can't even begin to describe the song in any way. 5/5.
Track #4, 5 The Power: Another song I feel bad for because it has to follow Mugen no Ai. Fortunately for this song, there's not much to miss by it being overshadowed by Mugen no Ai. It's still different, but I personally don't feel that it was pulled off as well as it could have been. The girls as rappers doesn't work well. The chorus also would work better as a pre-chorus too with something more powerful or memorable as the actual chorus. 3/5.
Track #5, Roudou Sanka: Another truly fantastic track. I keep reading Sanka as Santa though. It's quite amazing how this album tends to grow on you more and more listening to it. I had ignored this part for the better part of the time I owned this CD, but one day it clicked. This really sounds like a protest song to me. Even after looking at the lyrics all I can associate this song with is like labor unions xD Maybe it's just because I'm a history major at college and I've had quite a few classes that go over labor unions. 5/5.
Track #6, Get Down!: This isn't one of the better songs on the album, but I personally enjoy it. The singing in the song gets on my nerves quickly though. Again, they're not the best singers at all, but they way they sing in this song is more annoying than the usual high pitched idol singing. It's a good thing it's the shortest song on the album or I probably wouldn't have liked it. 4/5.
Track #7, Z Otome Sensou: I've been getting into this one a lot recently. Reminds me a lot of Syachihoko's Otome Juken Sensou (for obvious reasons xD) but the title similarity really mad me start listening to this one a lot since that's one of my favorite Syachihoko songs. This isn't on the same level as Mugen no Ai or Roudou, but it's one of the better tracks of the album. 4.5/5.
Track #8, Tsuki to Gingami Hikousen: The second half of this album tends to be pretty lackluster compared to the first half. Sure this half has Birth & Saraba, but as a whole, the album not structured very well. I can never remember how this song goes. Sadly, it goes from the intro sounding like it could be a pretty rocking power ballad into a pretty typical idol ballad. Blah. At least their vocals sound good here. 3/5.
Track #9, Birth Ø Birth: Only time you'll see me use the slashy O when referring to the song. It's pretty much just a style choice my the songwriter & I'm not wasting my time to copy/paste it or figure out how to type it on my computer. But anyway, it's nice to have this song come after Tsuki. The album really needs a pickup after that song. I find the placement of this song on the CD interesting. It's certainly designed to follow Neo Stargate like the music videos do, but on the album it's 8 tracks away. I like the placement though. Having this song in the first half too would just make the second half even worse than it is. Pretty much if you like Neo Stargate, you'll like this too. 5/5.
Track #10, Joukyu Monogatari (Carpe Diem): This is a song I'd classify as good, but forgettable. It suffers from what I like to call the "Mugen no Ai effect", as in it suffers from the placement right after Birth. It also has a more traditional idol feel to it to me than some of their other songs. 4/5.
Track #11, Soratobu! Ozashiki Ressha: Except for Hai no Diamond, this is my most listened to on the CD. Honestly it just sounds like a typical "jazzy" J-pop track to me. Very uninteresting. 3/5.
Track #12, Saraba, Itoshiki Kanashimitachi yo: This was the song that got me interested in MCZ. I don't remember how I came across it, but I just remember being wowed. Their other songs that I had sampled did nothing for me at that time, but this was so different. When I found the song, all I really cared about in idol groups was H!P and certain 48G songs. I had listened to other groups and had determined that the others just weren't worth listening to. While today I still believe that the majority really aren't anything special, this song helped me to be a little more open minded about exploring new groups. It was just so different. The only thing that bothers me is that "chanting" in English in the bridge. It's kind of annoying. 4.5/5.
Track #13, Hai to Diamond: I really don't care about this song. I don't dislike it, I just don't care that it exists. For a ballad, the music is very beautiful to me. It's too bad that their vocals kind of ruin it. MCZ really should stick to crazy upbeat tracks. Ballads are really not their thing. 3/5.
So I guess that for full album reviews I won't talk about music videos. It makes this not so long (and I actually forgot that music videos were a thing for this album until this morning driving to class when it popped into my head that I forgot about them xD). Even though the second half of the album is underwhelming compared to the first half, the album still remains one of my favorite J-pop albums of all time. [Note: not all of the songs are in the playlist, some things I can't find on YouTube.] 4.5/5.
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