NEWS: The list of performers for NHK's 59th Kouhaku New Years' Celebration was released today with Morning Musume notably absent from the Female Red Team (Akagumi) list. It is the first time they have not been invited to perform since they began appearing at the event in 1997. Last year they were joined by C-ute and Berryz in a joint H!P performance to commemorate MM's 10th anniversary.
Satoda Mai will be H!P's sole representative, perfoming with Pabo and Schuuchishin on the White Team (Shirogumi).
Debuting Artist Press Conference
Artists performing at Kouhaku for the first time this year include Aoyama Thelma, ikimono gakari, GIRL NEXT DOOR, Perfume, KIMAGUREN, Jero, Tohoshinki and Mr.Children.
NHK 59th Kouhaku PERFORMERS numbers indicate tally of past performances
Singer/Songwriter YUI took the top spot on the album charts this week with, her b-side collection, MY SHORT STORIES. The album, which sold 173K, is her 3rd no.1 album coming off I LOVED YESTERDAY's success earlier this year. YUI was unchallenged at the top of the charts, holding the no.1 spot on the daily ranks all week. Kato Miliyah's BEST DESTINY dropped only 1 place to no.2 this week, selling 55K, bringing her total sales to just under 150K.
The singles chart was much more competitive this week, with DREAMS COME TRUE, the GazettE and ARASHI all holding daily no.1 rankings, but it was DREAMS COME TRUE who nudged their way into the top spot. Tsurette Tsurette sold 46K, 5K more than the GazettE and SPEED who sat in 2nd and 3rd positions. ARASHI charted at 4th this week with Beautiful days selling just under 36K.
Two H!P artists managed to make the top 10 this week. Satoda Mai's Mou Sugu Christmas (with Gouda Kyodai) was 7th with a little under 26K while Buono!'s Lotta Love Lotta Love charted one place lower at 8th. Buono!'s sale numbers of 22K continue the trend of declining H!P single sales in recent times. Morning Musume, Berryz and now Buono! have seen their latest singles sell lower than the previous. Berryz Koubou meanwhile dropped to 50th in their second week with sales of 2K.
CHARTS:
Singles: 01 Tsuretette Tsuretette DREAMS COME TRUE 46,452 02 LEECH the GazettE 41,200 03 Ashita no Sora SPEED 40,058 04 Beautiful days ARASHI 35,931 05 Oshare Banchou feat. SOY SAUCE ORANGE RANGE 30,845 06 ORION Mika Nakashima 27,046 07 Mou Sugu Christmas Satoda Mai with Gouda Kyodai 25,788 08 Lotta Love Lotta Love Buono! 22,484 09 Toki no Ashioto KOBUKURO 18,164 10 Sky High GOSPELLERS 13,735
Albums: 01 MY SHORT STORIES YUI 173,741 02 BEST DESTINY Kato Miliyah 55,239 03 I am ... Sasha Fierce Beyonce 42,037 04 UROBOROS DIR EN GREY 37,588 05 Keeps Gettin' Better: A Decade of Hits Christina Aguilera 29,416
REVIEWS: I’m late once again with my new release reviews, I apologise – BUT I have an excuse this time… I spilled boiling hot soup on my hand yesterday (It stung like hell) and I literally had my hand in a bucket of iced water the whole day – so while I was able to slowly navigate my computer, typing reviews would have been extremely difficult, especially with the amount I’m tackling this week. Lots of great artists are releasing this week and I couldn’t even review all that I wanted to. Some new releases I had to skip were the GazettE’s new song which is doing really well on the charts, Nakashima Mika’s ORION, Hirahara Ayaka’s new double A-side and alan’s final elements single, Megumi no Ame. I liked some of these tracks but they didn’t really make a huge opinion on me either way. I also skipped reviewing Wakeshima Kanon's Suna no Oshiro because I ordered that and I'll do a review of it later when it arrives (bulk order so it'll be a while). In the end I went with new tracks from SPEED, HALCALI, Buono!, Aoyama Thelma, Satoda Mai, ORANGE RANGE and DREAMS COME TRUE. Enjoy!
Ashita no Sora SPEED
SPEED’s much anticipated new single Ashita no Sora is their first since their charity single in 2003, after disbanding in 2000. They apparently have regrouped due to Eriko’s son’s hearing difficulties; that if he couldn’t hear her music, she wants him to be able to see his mother perform. So while making her son happy, she’s also made thousands of SPEED fans absolutely ecstatic. Their comeback single is a nice mid-tempo track with a bit of a soul feel to it. The song starts with the chorus which is by far the best part of the song. I think it’s really catchy and is the highlight of the song for me. The verses are a bit uninteresting unfortunately and I found myself just waiting impatiently for the next chorus. It definitely saves this song. Thankfully the verse sections aren’t too long – the chorus makes up most of the track as well as some nice instrumental sections. I think for a comeback this is a nice sound for SPEED, it has a more adult feel to it, reflective of their members having grown up since the early days of the group. This works because they’ll be targeting a different age group, their fans having also aged. For myself, who was not a fan of SPEED (purely because they were around before my j-pop fandom kicked in) I think it’s a great track that can also attract new fans.
Rating: 8/10
Long Kiss Goodbye HALCALI
It’s been over a year since we’ve had a new song from the HALCALI girls and it was over a year too long to wait! I adore HALCALI and their unique, fresh tracks so it’s great that they’ve come out with a new single FINALLY. Long Kiss Goodbye has the signature rap style vocals from the girls paired with a nice smooth chorus, an effect that works really well and that I am personally a fan of. Unlike the last review, the verses this time are probably my favourite parts of the song, though I do adore the chorus too. It’s almost a shame that after the second verse there isn’t any other rap sections, with the bridge of the song being similar to the chorus, but that’s ok. I’m not too nit picky when it comes to HALCALI tracks, I just enjoy them for what they are and I’m thankful that these girls are still producing great music.
Rating: 8.5/10
Lotta Love Lotta Love Buono!
Lotta Love Lotta Love (or Rottara Rottara as some of you like to say) is Buono!’s newest single and the closing for Shugo Chara! Doki! – While Buono! aren’t doing the opening themes anymore, they are still doing the closings, which isn’t really a huge issue. Only their B-sides have ever been opening themes for the anime, with the rockier signature sound of Buono! always being used for the closings. Lotta Love Lotta Love, I have to say is my favourite Buono! track or at least on par with Renai Rider. The whole song is just great, it’s like a roller coaster of awesomeness – thrills at every turn. The "Lotta Love" sections are catchy and fun to sing along to (not that I’ve tried), the rocky instrumental is awesome, the pre-chorus builds really well, the chorus is fantastic, the girls sound great … what more can I say? I LOVE IT!
Rating: 9.5/10
Mamoritai Mono Aoyama Thelma
Aoyama Thelma really shot to fame with Soba ni Iru ne earlier this year, which sold close to 500K and her follow up single Nando mo selling 70K which is still a good number. She has an R&B style to her music which isn’t really my favourite genre and I haven’t particularly been able to latch onto her stuff yet so I was hoping her new track Mamoritai Mono could change my mind. The track is a winter ballad which I always really love, with a touch of an R&B feel to it, which I love ... not so much. The winter sounding instrumental is really beautiful, with nice orchestral sections in it and Thelma sounds really wonderful on this song. For a ballad I have to say this track is quite good. The pre-chorus is particularly nice and interesting and the whole song has really nice elements to it. Despite this, I dunno, I just can’t get into it that much. Maybe it’s because of the R&B feel, I'm not really sure. I think this will appeal to her fans (if they are into ballads) but not particularly for me.
Rating: 7/10
Mou Sugu Christmas Satoda Mai with Gouda Kyodai
So now we get to the most popular H!P girl, Satoda Mai (who would have thunk it!) with her new single Mou Sugu Christmas. She sings this track with Gouda Kyodai (Fujimoto Toshifumi and misono) and it's linked to the Quiz! Hexagon variety show so it’s sure to sell pretty well, I would think. The track starts off with a sweet Christmas-y intro but then kind of switches to a more mid-tempo, fun beat. Apart from the odd bell or two in the instrumental it doesn’t really give off a huge Christmas feel, but Mai-chan with Reindeer antlers on the cover more than makes up for that. The song really isn’t that good lol, but let’s be honest, it’s meant to be a fun, crazy song – it’s not meant to be a masterpiece. Vocal wise, not the best from any of the singers, because they’re trying to sound silly and cute, so on that front ... mission accomplished. For fun factor, it scores high for sure.
Rating: 7.5/10
Oshare Banchoufeat. SOY SAUCE ORANGE RANGE
Oshara Benchou feat SOY SAUCE is another crazy track from ORANGE RANGE, with a techno dance style. It’s the promo song for the Glico Pocky Chocolate cm which features a scantily clad model crazily dancing to the song with pocky in her hands. Yum! ... the pocky I mean ... ^_^ - I really enjoy the track there, but sans hot model I’m not sure I will :P The track is a bit hard to review lol. I’m not sure where to start – This song feels a tad repetitious but then I guess all dance tracks are to some point. The chorus is repeated ad nauseam; thankfully it’s the best part of the song. It’s been produced really well, there are some interesting effects throughout – yeah… I dunno, just listen to it *lol*
Rating: 7/10
Tsuretette Tsuretette DREAMS COME TRUE
DREAMS COME TRUE is another really popular group that I haven’t ever gotten around to having a good listen to but this single really stood out to me – The winter promo pics, the “winter limited edition”, the snowman on the cover … this all screamed AWESOME WINTER TRACK to me. I was a bit disappointed though, this song isn’t very Winter-y at all o.O Despite this I gave the song a listen and it actually was better than I expected. The whole song is quite a laid back, mid-tempo track with a bit of a soft dance beat to it. The chorus is the highlight of the song, beginning with a really lovely line which has a nice melody to it that’s quite catchy and repeated with the "Tsuretette Tsuretette" lines. The song sort of floats on by really nicely and towards the end of the track there are some pa ra pa pum pum’s (at least I think that’s what they’re singing) which makes it a bit more Winter-y. Tsuretette Tsuretette is the kind of track that grows on you I think, it got a lot better each listen for me (I usually listen to the tracks over and over before and while I review – ;) I’m listening right now!). So yeah if you don't like it straight away, maybe give it another few listens, as it's quite a nice track... even if it is only slightly Winter-y :P
PREVIEW: Satoda Mai (who is quickly become the most successful H!P members ... well until she graduates) has a new Xmas single coming out soon titled Mou Sugu Christmas where she is joined by comedian Fuji and singer misono (collectively known as the duo Goda Kyodai).
The single goes on sale the 12th of November and is limited to 30,000 copies so get in fast if you want to nab this one.
Quiz! Hexagon, the popular variety show, has scored the no.1 album this week with We Love Hexagon. The album features Pabo (with Country Musume's Satoda Mai), Shuuchishin, misono and other celebrities on the show, collectively known as the Hexagon All Stars. The show's popularity soared the album to the top of the charts with a whopping 270K sold. Last week's no.1 Expressions dropped down to second after a 3 week reign at no.1. Takeuchi Mariya's best-of has now garnered close to 600K in sales.
Hey! Say! JUMP unsurprisingly leap frogged their way past any opposition, easily taking the top spot on the singles chart with 211K. Mayonaka no Shadow Boy continues their string of no.1 singles since their debut (4th) and their first week sales are up over 50K from their previous single. Fukuyama Masaharu sold over 110K to take second position while AKB48 has eclipsed their previous singles' first week sales to take 3rd with 48K. Tohoshinki, who held the top spot last week with Jumon -MIROTIC-, had a huge fall to no.25 only managing to sell 5K in their second week.
CHARTS:
Singles: 01 Mayonsaka no Shadow Boy Hey! Say! JUMP 211,322 02 Sou ~new love new world~ Fukuyama Masaharu 110,598 03 Oogoe Diamond AKB48 48,258 04 Shiawase ni Narou mihimaru GT 15,002 05 Kirei à La Mode Nakagawa Shouko 13,758 06 The Birthday ~Ti Amo~ EXILE 13,584 07 Vanilla Salt Horie Yui 13,099 08 Akai Ito Aragaki Yui 12,776 09 Hyakunen no Kodoku GARNET CROW 12,344 10 Itsuka Lee Byung-Hun 12,293
Albums: 01 WE LOVE HEXAGON Hexagon All Stars 270,310 02 Expressions Takeuchi Mariya 82,733 03 Akuma no Koori (Black Ice) AC/DC 19,246 04 12 Love Stories Dohzi-T 17,061 05 SHAKALABBITS SHAKALABBITS 14,672
PREVIEW: Aladdin (Pabo + Shuuchishin) debuted Hi wa Mata Noboru last night with a live performance of the upcoming single on Quiz Hexagon. Very colourful!
The group also announced a concert called the HEXAGON FAMILY CONCERT. It is set to be held on the 4th of October at Yoyogi.
A PV preview for Hi wa Mata Noboru was also aired today on Mezamashi TV. It follows the same 'live performance' route that Shuuchishin's PVs have.
Hi wa Mata Noboru is released on the 30th of July.
NEWS: Everyone's favorite 'baka girl', Satoda Mai has been featured on the GIRLS In Shop featurette at the Best Gear Magazine online site. She apparently likes shopping very much ... who knew?
She is photographed looking pretty and shopping for headphones and reading material. That looks like a pretty thick book, I'm guessing she's just looking at the pictures.
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