NEWS: Last night marked the beginning of the 2009 Winter Concert Tour, Wonderful Hearts Kouen ~Kakumei Gannen~ - All in all it went off without a hitch, minus the charismatic Wada Ayaka, who was absent due to illness (get better soon DAWA!). Thankfully BARKS has some nice coverage of the debut concert, with lots of pics that everyone can check out ->HERE<-
This run of concerts marks the lead up to the graduation of the Elder Club so soon Wonderful Hearts WILL BE the Hello!Project. Get used to it everybody!
Presenting Wonderful Hearts!
Morning Musume looking very cool performing their upcoming single Nai chau Kamo
Berryz look very cute in their canary yellow outfits...
...while C-ute are hot in their suits.
Milky Way performs Tan Tan Taan! C'mon! How C-ute is Koha's outfit for Happy☆Happy Sunday ^_^!!!
Buono! in their pyjamas costumes, performing Lotta Love Lotta Love.
Firstly: MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone! I hope everyone has a great day filled with lots of joy and memories. What better way to celebrate this Xmas than with my personal favourite group, Morning Musume! Though they've only released 2 singles this year, I think many were blown away by the enigmatic Resonant Blue, a song which surprised and brought plenty of joy to lots of people this year!
When I first heard this song it was via a pretty ordinary radio rip and I was truly transfixed. It was something totally different to what MM had done before and I was in love with Resonant Blue from the first second. Around the web, there was definitely a sense of excitement about this release, the vast majority of people LOVED it and everyone was trying to find out who sang what lines (because everyone sounded so different and great) and then eventually we learnt it was all Ai and Reina lol, but whatever. From the 4 PVs to the kick ass covers, for me, this was one of the greatest releases MM had produced in years.
The new, more mainstream, image was very welcomed by a lot of the fans and one we had gradually seen MM nudging towards in recent songs. I can only hope that Pepper Keibu (which I did really like) was a slight deviation from this new direction (due to the remake album) and that MM will return to this style with their next single. I really think it is what MM needs to maintain the current fans and win new ones, we need MM to stick around for many more years! ^_^
I hope you've enjoyed reading these 12 Days of Christmas segments. I know a few people have discovered new artists through it and I hope many of you enjoyed at least reading my own thoughts on the songs. Now, I purposely only decided to use 1 H!P track for the 12 Days since otherwise there would be far too little variety lol. As a result I'll list my 10 fav H!P singles of the year:
10
Fujimoto Miki Okitegami
09 Athena & Robikerottsu Seishun Love Lunch
08 Berryz Koubou Dschinghis Khan
07 Buono! Lotta Love Lotta Love
06 MilkyWay Anataboshi
05 C-ute Namida no Iro
04 High-King C\C (Cinderella\Complex)
03 Buono! Renai Rider
02 C-ute Edo no Temari Uta II
01 Morning Musume Resonant Blue
All in all, I'd say it's been a pretty good year for H!P in regards to actual songs. I've quite liked a number of the releases and hopefully 2009 is even better! Once again, have a great day!
NEWS: Berryz Koubou had the privilege of performing at the 41st Nippon Yuusen Taishou Ongaku Shoujushou Award show last night and were also nominated for the Wired music prize.
The performance was really great with some cute new costumes. There seemed to be some audio problems: Risako's mic was booming while some of the others were hardly audible, but that may have been intentional XD
Fujimoto Miki also performed at the awards which was a nice, little surprise. She sang a duet with Takao Horiuchi.
Unfortunately I don't think Berryz won the award they were nominated in - at least I haven't heard anything about it and if they had, I'm sure I would have. The nice thing is that everyone gets an award. C-ute was nominated for the best new artist last year at these awards and despite not winning they still got little medals. Yay for Berryz.
C-ute will appear later this month at the 50th Japan Record Awards where they won the Best New Artist award last year. This year they are nominated for the Excellence Award for their hit Edo no Temari Uta II.
Well ARASHI are just blitzing the charts this year, aren't they? Beautiful days is ARASHI's 4th single of the year and their 4th no.1 hit of the year. They hold the top 2 positions in the yearly sales ranks, with truth/Kaze no Mukou e at the top followed by One Love. Step and Go is in the top 10, while Beautiful days is 12 on first week sales alone. The ballad sold 351K and charted at the top of the charts all week long. Fellow Johnny's group Kanjani8 fell from the top spot to 7th selling close to 22K. Sales are up from the previous singles' second week sales.
Urgh, another BEST album selling well? Actually not really ... you see Kato Miliyah's BEST DESTINY isn't really a typical BEST album, as the majority of the album is new material. The album is a collaborative effort which sees Kato-san sample other artists' material in each of her songs and is comprised of 4 singles from throughout her career plus a whole bunch of new songs. Either way, it sold well raking in 92K, up from Kato's last album TOKYO STAR. Kings of the chart last week, Porno Graffitti saw both their BEST albums fall outside the top 5, ranking at 6 and 7 with sales above 20K each.
Berryz Koubou's newie MADAYADE failed to live up to expectations, halting the recent rise of the Berryz' girls. Coming off receiving one of the New Artist awards in Korea, you would have thought they would have gained on their past singles' sales but instead they sold over 7K less first week sales than their last single Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance. The single charted at a respectable 6th for the week, but sales of only 22.8K were disappointing.
CHARTS:
Singles: 01 Beautiful days ARASHI 351,860 02 Shish Kebab Yuzu 52,271 03 Toki no Ashioto Kobukuro 33,477 04 Kyou mo Dokoka de OdaKazumasa 28,672 05 Wakaba Spitz 27,364 06 MADAYADE Berryz Koubou 22,861 07 Musekinin Hero Kanjani8 21,723 08 Nihon no Mikata -Nevada Kara Kimashita- Yajima Biyoushitsu 20,111 09 Angelic Smile / WINTER PARTY BREAKERZ 19,142 10 Somaru Yo chatmonchy 17,586
Albums: 01 BEST DESTINY Kato Miliyah 92,423 02 Surf Bungaku Kamakura ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION 56,110 03 Expressions Takeuchi Mariya 30,592 04 DJ KAORI'S JMIX II (Various Artists) 28,838 05 WE LOVE HEXAGON Hexagon All Stars 28,317
REVIEWS: I'm tardy with my reviews once again this week but I am determined to keep reviewing new singles so here are this week's reviews, new singles from BREAKERZ, ARASHI, Berryz Koubou and Yuzu.
Angelic Smile / WINTER PARTY BREAKERZ
I really liked BREAKERZ last single and I’m really interested in the double A-side thing they’ve been going for. I get really annoyed with double A-side singles when the two songs are really alike, but BREAKERZ last single had two totally unique, great songs, so I had high expectations for this one.
Angelic Smile is an upbeat rock song and it’s a great track. DAIGO of course is great on vocals, his voice really suits the rock genre; It’s really great to listen to. Like I mentioned on my review of BREAKERZ last single, this truly feels like a group rather than a front man and some band. AKIHIDE and SHINPEI get some awesome solos and the instrumental is generally really good. I like the bridge after the instrumental break in this song, it melts back into this great change of pace before the final chorus.
WINTER PARTY excited me because of the title, if you had read my post on Koda’s new track, you’d know I love all things Winter. The little bell chimes at the beginning just get my spirit soaring ^_^ … this track is really quite fun. It definitely has that Christmas vibe to it, from the instrumental to the lyrics (the chorus mentions silent night, holy night and later on they sing Merry Christmas … you can’t get more Christmasy than that ^_^ ). It actually gets me kind of excited for Christmas, so it does its job well especially for a rock song. I really like the pre-chorus bridge, it’s the highlight of the track for me. Another great single for BREAKERZ, both tracks being unique and top quality songs. They’ve captured the winter theme really well.
Rating: 8/10 & 9/10
Beautiful days ARASHI
2008 is definitely ARASHI’s year with all their ’08 singles selling huge amounts, their last, Truth/Kaze no Mukou e in excess 600K. So now that we’ve determined they are hugely successful, let’s get to their latest single Beautiful days. The thing I immediately like about Beautiful days is that it is unique from the rest of their recent singles which have shown a nice range for fans. While it doesn’t have the immediate infectious hit of Truth, Beautiful days has a charming, pleasant arrangement. It’s easy to listen to and the guys are all sounding pretty nice, it is definitely a genre they excel in. The chorus is particularly likeable, and pretty catchy actually. I was totally getting into it even on the first listen. I’m predicting another huge seller for ARASHI (yes kind of cheating since its two day sales are pretty amazing) … but I would have predicted this 2 days ago too, I swear ;)
Rating: 9/10
MADAYADE Berryz Koubou
Why am I doing a H!P track review in my new release reviews? – There is a very simple reason … I can’t be bothered doing a full review ;) I totally forgot to review Pepper Keibu, so I’m just gonna stick MADAYADE in here or I’ll forget that too. Berryz lately has been on top of the fun, upbeat tracks and I think that is really working for them. MADAYADE is another upbeat, catchy, fun song. I really dig the surf feel to the instrumental and the verses are really cool, especially the Arabian sounding bit (I’m probably the only one who thinks it sounds Arabian but yeah, that bit :P ). I gotta say my tiff with this song is the chorus. While the chorus is undeniably catchy, it’s also really effin annoying. HA HA!! MADA MADA MADA – I can take maybe 15 or 20 MADA’s but after that it starts to get repetitive and boring. Despite this, as a whole it’s a good song, but it doesn’t live up to the previous two singles imo.
Rating: 7/10
Shish Kebab Yuzu
Shish Kebab is Yuzu’s 3rd single of the year, and is the theme for the drama Salary Man Kintaro. I don’t know the duo well, so I don’t have much to say on them. They’ve been around for AGES, I probably should know their stuff, but alas I don’t. I’m going into this blind. So, my first impressions are that it’s a fun, upbeat, endearing song. The shish-shish-ka-bab lines are catchy and really cute (see Berryz, sometimes less is more :p ). The pre-chorus bridge has lines which sound suspiciously similar to some lines from MM’s Da Di Du De Do Da Di! … but it’s probably just me. The song grows really well leading up to the chorus and the instrumental has a nice folky sound to it. Shish Kebab is one of those happy, fun songs that doesn’t take itself too seriously. From the silly chanting to the let loose chorus, it invites you to have a fun time listening.
PREVIEW: The PVs of Berryz Koubou's MADAYADE and Buono!'s Lotta Love, Lotta Love were released tonight and I have them embedded for your viewing pleasure :D
Now, Berryz' PV features the girls in a work setting, as interns of some sort. They are pretty incompetent as work assistants which is as far as the storyline goes, but it's the closest thing H!P has had to a story PV in a while so it's a nice addition. One gripe I have is that the PV looks a bit cheap. The setting looks less like an office, and more like a stage made up to try to look like an office. Outfit wise, I've made my comments on those before. They don't get much better. The dance looks pretty stupid to be honest, although it does have its moments. The best scenes are by far the end where the girls are mucking around. Very cute! All in all, not a great PV but a huge step up from Monkey Dance which had a horrible PV.
Amazingly Buono's PV also has a premise, a recording on an old music show from the 60s. That explains the disgustingly cute outfits and the cheapo background. That being said, I still don't like the outfits and I never will. The dance in this song is pretty good and the song is great. There are closeup shots which are nice but the dance section of the PV is the best bit imo. The crazy camera angles with the dimmed lights and silhouettes makes for a great dance interlude. For a danceshot + closeup PV this one is pretty good. It would have been nice to get a different approach but, perhaps a short dramatic intro of the girls getting ready for their performance or something; That would have been a nice addition. It's still good, though.
PREVIEWS: Well maybe not a lotta previews, but a couple ;)
First up Buono's Lotta Love, Lotta Love PV cm:
Now I've already praised the song enough in my first post about the single but this PV is looking horrible. The set is ugly, the clothes are horribly cutesy and nothing like what I've come to expect from Buono!. The covers look pretty dodgy too. Thank god the song is so good. *phew* Disaster diverted.
Now Berryz's MADEYADE covers:
Oh no! I hoped, wished and prayed but these still ended up being the single outfits. U.G.L.Y - sorry, sad but true. Nice to see Chinami has been promoted, however Miyabi has been demoted >.< stupidest.move.ever. I'm just gonna have to wait and hope the PV is good cause the song is growing on me, kind of.
PREVIEW: A short radio preview of Berryz Koubou's upcoming single MADAYADE. Take a listen:
MADAYADE has that retro, surfer sound going for it. I actually quite enjoy that style but I'm not entirely sold on the actual preview atm. The chorus is pretty good and quite catchy, it's hard to totally judge it on this short preview though. It sounds like it might start to get really annoying, really quickly.
PREVIEW: Berryz Koubou's upcoming single MADAYADE is fast approaching and m-on.jp has an article on the girls upcoming tour with a new pic of the Berryz in what might be outfits for their new single?
I'm not sure I'm a fan of the outfits. They look like air hostesses on some festive, futuristic airline. Why has Miyabi been relegated to the reject position? She's the best singer in the group (by far) and she's stuck right in the back behind Yellow, Yellower and Big Red. Blah~ The song better be good.
These outfits could be the outfits for the tour, I guess? Remember all the talk about the Musume profile pic that ended up being used on the tickets for their Resonant Live tour. They do look like horrible concert outfits, but I would have thought they'd be in their specified colors, which they're not (unless they've changed them). There's still a chance, we can only hope. Hope and pray.
REVIEW: Over the past couple of months, Berryz and C-ute have performed some classic songs from way back when in Uta Doki segments for their Berikyuu tv show, which has sadly now come to an end. Thanks to Hello!°C-ute I got my hands on the segments and watched them all and was pretty impressed. So I thought I'd share my thoughts with you all. Enjoy!
My Revolution (originally by Watanabe Misato) Yajima Maimi & Tsunagaka Momoko
Aired 6th of August
We kick off the Berikyuu Uta Doki segments with this mismatched pair of sorts. The short, cute Momoko together with the tall, cool Maimi. These girls sound great during the chorus, I think their voices blend together so well. They also have lots of fun, smiling and giggling at each other, pointing at the camera, making faces. The song is pretty meh, but the girls make the best of it. This is a cute, little performance and it's nice to see these two members enjoying themselves so much ^_^
Hito Natsu no Keiken (originally by Yamaguchi Momoe) Sugaya Risako
Aired 7th of August
Risako gets a solo song (surpise, surprise!) and it's a really cool song which I think Risako does her best with. It suits her deeper voice but she sounds a bit shaky in bits and could have given it a bit more energy. She doesn't have anyone else to play off of though, so that can be forgiven. The chorus is done nicely, some nice powerful vocals from Risako especially during the closing stages. She ends the song with a bang!
Natsu Matsuri (originally by Jitterin' Jinn) Shimizu Saki, Tokunaga Chinami, Nakajima Saki & Hagiwara Mai
Aired 8th of August
Reject group #1 (sad but true) ... oh wait, I'll call them leftover group #1, that's slightly nicer. These are some of the weaker vocalists of the two groups right here but the song isn't extremely difficult so they still do pretty well. Saki S sounds particularly nice and everyone sounds really cute together in the chorus. The girls play up for the cameras which is always very sweet ^_^
Nagisa no Haikara Ningyo (originally by Kyoko Koizumi) Umeda Erika and Kumai Yurina
Aired 29th of August
Ah~, the giants get put together for a duet, lovely >.< ~ It's extremely cute from the get-go as they both wave to Manoeri before beginning. They have the cute hand moves down pat and the song is all round very cutesy and sweet. Erika plays up for the camera really hilariously at one point, she seems a little more comfortable than Yurina who has trouble figuring out which camera is filming. She figures it out by the end and gives us all a cheeky little look. Ah! Too cute from the giants!
Single Bed (originally by SharanQ) Suzuki Airi
Aired 18th of September
Airi sings a sweet ballad from SharanQ in this clip. Like Risako, Airi has lots of solo experience and she handles it well. I've perhaps heard her vocally better before, but the song is unlike songs she has sung in the past, no doubt. She does a good job for this slow ballad and she performs as if she's performing in front of a sold out stadium. Great stage presence.
Furare Kibun de Rock'n'Roll (originally by Tom Cat) Sudou Maasa, Natsuyaki Miyabi, Okai Chisato & Arihara Kanna
Aired 19th of September
Leftover group #2 (wait a second ... Miyabi ... huh?) - Anywho~, these girls sing a great, uptempo track (perhaps my fav from all the Uta Doki classics in this series). It really suits all four girls who totally play up and have lots of fun, pointing at the camera and being total fools. Chisato and Miyabi sound fantastic as usual. Kanna also sounds really good (she's a bit up and down usually), Maasa is a touch shaky but still good. Maasa stands out a bit much in this performance, she looks like the other 3 girls' bodyguard >.< Hell! She could probably even be my bodyguard! I wouldn't mess with her :p
Joukyou Monogatari (originally by SharanQ) C-ute
Aired 22nd of September
The final two performances are group performances from C-ute and Berryz, with C-ute performing the first, SharanQ's Joukyou Monogatari. This performance is really terrific. The girls sing in groups of two with solos from Airi and Maimi. I really enjoy the duos which are paired well with high and low vocals. Kanna/Mai sound particularly good and Airi/Chisato too ... well they all sound good. Airi is great vocally in this performance and Maimi is pretty good also. This really is one of their best performances as a group and I wish they'd sing this more mature style more often. Tsunku, pay attention!
Roppingi Shinju (originally by Anne Lewis) Berryz Koubou
Aired 23rd of September
Berryz close out the Uta Doki segments with this great, rocky number. Saki starts it out wonderfully: "1, 2, 3, 4!" Risako and Momoko do solos during the verse and Momo sounds WOW! Sing like that more often, enough of that cutesy crap, please (urgh, the pinky). The girls' voices blend in the chorus really well. I think some of the girls could have given a bit more attitude, but they all look really cool. Risako gets more into it towards the end and they all glare at the camera as it passes down the line towards the end. Eek! They're like the rebels who smoke in the girl's toilets at lunchtime. Watch out, boys! Berry cool performance ;)
~~~
So there we have it. As I'm sure you could see, I was pretty impressed and enjoyed these classic tracks and these cute shuffled groups. It almost leaves me begging for new shuffle unit singles but I doubt they're ever coming back. Hope you enjoyed the perfomances as much as I did :)
ORICON ROUNDUP: This week's charts saw Hamasaki Ayumi manage to bring down the current queen of the charts Namie Amuro, with stunning sales of her new A COMPLETE ~ALL SINGLES~ album. The singles compilation moved sales close to 539K with Amuro's BEST FICTION dropping to 5th on the charts with 43.6K.
Hamasaki's no.1 debut for her A COMPLETE marks her 14th no.1 in her 10 year career and is the 4th best debut of the year behind Amuro, Exile and Bz's BEST albums. 2008 does seem to be turning out to be a year of BESTs, that's for sure. American works from Ne-Yo and Metallica charted at 2nd and 3rd on the charts, with Shikao Suga's Funkaholic debuting at no.4 with 44K. Berryz Koubou's new album 5(FIVE) charted outside the top 10 at no.11, selling a slightly disappointing 11K. With the rave reviews from fans, the album would have been expected to outsell their previous works but they could only manage a few hundred more first week sales than their previous album, and less than past works. With the album now having fallen from the charts, it seems to be a disappointing result from an album which deserved much more attention.
On the Singles Charts, Mr. Children have blasted away new releases from GLAY, UVERworld, Otsuka Ai and Nakagawa Shoko to remain at the top of the charts for the second straight week. HANABI sold another 84K to bring their two week total to 344K. New releases from DIR EN GREY, Kaela Kimura and Superfly also made the top 10 while ARASHI and Fujioka FujiMaki/Nomozi Ohashi remained high in the charts at 8th and 9th. Ongaku Gatas' newest single Come Together drew close to 10K sales, up from their last single Yattarouze! though they were unable to make the top 10, debuting at no.12. alan's newest single Kaze no Tegami charted failed to capture the Japanese audience, coming in at no.34 with only 2.8K copies sold only marginally up from her last release.
CHARTS:
Singles: 01. Hanabi Mr.Children 84,262 02. Aka To Kuro To Matadora/I Love You Wo Sagashiteru GLAY 68,206 03. Koishikute UVERworld 52,333 04. Kurage, Nagareboshi Otsuki Ai 34,118 05. Tsuzuku Sekai Nakagawa Shouko 32,906 06. Glass Skin DIR EN GREY 25,890 07. Mustache/Memories (Original Version) Kaela Kimura 22,554 08. Truth/Kaze no Mukoe ARASHI 172,272 09. Gake no Ue no Ponyo Fujimaki Fuijioka & Nozomi Oohashi 17,037 10. How Do I Survive? Superfly 11,310
12.Come Together Ongaku Gatas 9,740
34. Kaze no Tegami alan 2,812
Albums: 01. A Complete ~All Singles~ Hamasaki Ayumi 538,876 02. Tear Of The Gentleman Ne-Yo 62,163 03. Death Magnetic Metallica 47,354 04. Funkaholic Shikao Suga 44,023 05. Best Fiction Amuro Namie 43,608
No I haven't gone insane ... New Year has come early this year with the previews of Hello! Project's 2009 calendars and some look really wonderful.
Morning Musume
(click to enlarge)
This is just amazing. I love the background and the theme first off, very pure and sweet. The girls all look great in white, with varying outfits and styles. Gaki stands out to me the most, she just looks amazing. Reina and Ai are also very pretty as are the other girls. Nobody looks bad, which is rare for group photos. I hope the pics inside are as good as the cover!
Matsuura Aya
(click to enlarge)
This is another incredible cover. It honestly looks like a photobook to me. Ayaya really pops against the grassy backdrop and her expression is beautiful. Very nice!
Abe Natsumi
(click to enlarge)
This one also resembles a photobook cover to me. It's not as great as Aya's but it's still pretty nice. Nacchi's skin looks flawless (thanks photoshop? or genes?) and the whispy maiden look suits her. I only question her leaning towards the camera, her head looks slightly large. No biggie... *oh wait*
Berryz Koubou
(click to enlarge)
hmmm... What can you say about this? It's a bit boring. They're just standing there in front of stairs (of all things) in some rather ugly outfits. Risako looks possessed , Yurina looks like she is about to cast some horrible spell on me and Miyabi is thinking "wtf am I doing here... and why am I in the back row?!" Hopefully the pics inside are better.
C-ute
(click to enlarge)
Oh lord, ok *lol* Ummm... Hmmm. This kind of looks like some annual UN Conference camping trip. Coming together in peace and harmony to roast marshmallows over a blazing bonfire ^_^ Inside should be interesting, to say the VERY least.
PREVIEW: Berryz Koubou has new profile pics for their upcoming album 5 (FIVE) up on the H!P official site.
I'm not certain what I think about the outfits. They seem very 60's mod inspired which is kinda cool, but they could have been done better. I only really like Yurina & Miyabi's (who are wearing pretty much the same thing in diff colours). Both those girls look stunning. I really don't like Momo & Chinami's outfits and the other girls' are hmmmm ok. It's all very bright and colourful though, which should mean a fun album with 5 (FIVE).
Here is the tracklist for 5 (FIVE):
1. HAPPY! Stand Up 2. この指とまれ！ (Kono Yubi Tomare!) - Tsugunaga Momoko, Tokunaga Chinami, Sudou Maasa 3. バカにしないで (Baka ni Shinaide) - Shimizu Saki, Natsuyaki Miyabi, Kumai Yurina, Sugaya Risako 4. 行け 行け モンキーダンス (Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance) 5. Ah Merry-go-round - Shimizu Saki, Tsugunaga Momoko 6. CLAP! - Natsuyaki Miyabi, Tokunaga Chinami, Kumai Yurina 7. REAL LOVE - Sugaya Risako 8. 夢を一粒～Ｂｅｒｒｙｚ仮面 Ｅｎｄｉｎｇテーマ～ (Yume wo Hitotsubu ~Berryz Kamen Ending Theme~) 9. ジンギスカン (Dschinghis Khan) 10. 付き合ってるのに片思い (Tsukiatteru no ni Kataomoi) 11. BE 12. スッペシャル ジェネレ～ション (エキセントリック Remix) (Special Generation (Eccentric Remix))
I'm especially looking forward to CLAP! and the ~Berryz Kamen Ending Theme~. 5 (FIVE) is released on the 10th of September.
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