Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Album Favorites Part 1 - Morning Musume

Prior to reading the contents of this post, I would like to inform you that everything written here is purely my opinion. If you disagree, I'm well open to hearing your opinions, but please don't claim mine as wrong or yours as right. If you intend on arguing with me, at least be mature and reasonable about it. Constructive criticism on blogging is always welcome, as are suggestions. With those cards played, enjoy.

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HIHI! As per usual, this post comes from my boredom and random inspiration! Today's subject is hidden in something that starts with t and ends with itle. I hid it really well, so look hard. Find it yet? Oh. Well. Uhm... OKAY so the subject is album favorites. I'm gonna go through all of the current groups and do two things. First I'm going to rank the albums from favorite to least favorite for each group, and then I'm going to pick my favorite song off of each album and talk about it a little while listening to it on repeat :D.


First up is Morning Musume~ of course. I like to do things in order... pardon me... Morning Musume currently has 13 albums, 1 mini album, 2 best albums (I should wait until Updated Morning Musume comes out, but I'm too impatient for that), 1 cover album, 1 special Hawaiian album, their 2 single collection albums (the A-side one and the coupling one), and the Dream Morning Musume album. I will be using all of these except their Hawaiian one, as I haven't listened to it enough to really rank it, or pick a favorite song. So that makes for a total of 20 albums in my rank. AND THAT RANK IS:

1. Platinum 9 DISC (9)
2. Best! Morning Musume 2 (Best of 2)
3. Dreams 1 (DMM)
4. SEXY 8 BEAT (8)
5. 10 MY ME (10)
6. 12, Smart (12)
7. Zen Single Coupling Collection (B-sides Collection)
8. 4th Ikimasshoi! (4)
9. COVER YOU (Cover)
10. Fuyu Fuyu Morning Musume Mini (7.5/Mini) 
11. Fantasy Juuichi (11)
12. Ai no Dairokkan (6)
13. Rainbow 7 (7)
14. 13 Colorful Character (13)
15. Best! Morning Musume 1 (Best of 1)
16. ALL SINGLES COMPLETE ~10th Anniversary~ (A-sides Collection)
17. Second Morning (2)
18. No. 5 (5)
19.  3rd -LOVE Paradise- (3)
20. First Time (1)

I'm not gonna spend much time talking about how i got to this ranking. Just bear and mind that this is based off of how many of the songs on each album I like and the general concept behind the album if there is one. Now to pick a song for each album~ I'm gonna go in the order they are on my list cause... uhm... I want to?


Platinum 9 DISC is a really hard one for me. My top 3 songs (SONGS, Take off is now, and Watashi no Miryoku ni Kizukanai Donkan na Hito) have a tenancy to change rankings quite regularly. So I'm going to go with the one that is accurate to this very moment, and that would be Watashi no Miryoku ni Kizukanai Donkan na Hito.


About the time that Platinum 9 DISC came out, I was going through an "Aika is the most adorable thing in the world" stage. That's not to say I don't still love her (and holy crap do I want that photo I just used...), but back then it was amazing how much I obsessed over her for a time. So the fact Aika actually got a solo, to me, was mind blowing and just plain amazing, so needless to say I've had bias towards the song basically since it's release. Even recently, Masacchi covered the song! I was ecstatic to find out! And listening to Masacchi's version as well... She definitely does the song justice. Momo is pleased.


Even though I love most to all of the songs on Best! Morning Musume 2, there really is no competition. YAH! Aishitai. All the way. Forever. Well maybe not all the way, forever, but definitely best song on the album. Koko ni Iruzee is pretty amazing, but it can never compare.

YAH! Aishitai... how did I even find the song? I really don't remember... All I remember is watching the video and wondering "...wtf is this... It's adorable XD" And I think this was even after I knew about Morning Musume... I don't know. The song is just so cute and so amazing. The composition of both the song and the vocals are just perfect. I love it. In case you didn't realize. Yeah... Nothing to see here, folks, carry on.


See? There's a reason I post these things. This reminded me I don't have this album on my iPod. How tragic XD. I literally just said "Nope, not doing this without the song on repeat." And waited until I downloaded it before I continued with this post. Yup, my logic. 

Anyway, my favorite song on Dreams 1 is Roman ~My Dear Boy~ DMM's 5nin version. First of all, being one of my favoring MM songs, and then having 3/5 of my top 5 girls in this group in it (Top 5 being Mako - Yossie - Yuko - Marippe - Mikitty with Nacchi and Kei following after them as 6 and 7 anyway) this song is just one giant win. Plus I love the line distribution. And for anyway that knows me... that's a biggie for me~ boring line distribution is an automatic turn off for me (ex. Ai no Dangan, Seishun Collection, The Matenrou Show)


On SEXY 8 BEAT, I'd have to say my favorite song would be Shanimuni Paradise. Although, Haru Beautiful Everyday, and Genki+ are amazing songs too, and aren't far behind.

I think I first really started to love Shanimuni Paradise when I heard Gaki's solo version of it from one of the Hawaii FC events. It's an amazing, energetic song that just screams summer fun to me. It's probably near, if not at, the top of my "top songs for Summer" list. I should probably make one of those... Oh darn, I just realized I still have Roman My Dear Boy playing... whooops xD no wonder I don't have much to say.


10 MY ME has some amazing, beautiful songs on it. The only problem is that for most of them, I seem to wish that I liked them more than I actually do. Specifically loving you forever, Ano Hi ni Modoritai, and Namidacchi. I really love these three songs, but they're all songs that, unless I'm specifically in the mood to listen to them, they end up getting skipped if they come on.

So the one song that I'll regularly want to play, and will rarely skip when it comes on, is Moonlight night ~Tsukiyo no Ban da yo~, and it is of course my favorite song on the album. I tend to have a bit of a semi-automatic bias to songs that have titles either related to things I like, such as stars/the moon/the sun/elements, or titles that really tug at me (I'll get into that a bit later. C-ute later to be exact) so this song had a bit of an advantage to begin with, but it's a really good song. I also can't seem to sing this song without adding "Hey"s or "Sei~"s before the "Woah oh"s in the chorus... LOL


A lot of songs on 12, Smart (most of them?)  I like to some extent for some reason. For example, Give me Ai (Love) I didn't really like much until I heard the version from a fanclub event where Aika and I think Zukki and Eripon? sang it. Aika owned the song, she made the song for me. But the one song that I've loved since the album came out, and still listen to most out of all of the songs is Silver no Udedokei.

At first I only really liked the song because it sounded pretty and had GAika raps. I mean the leads are Riho and Reina... two of my least favorite voices in Morning Musume. But then I... I don't remember if I found a translation or translated it myself, but when I found out what the song means, and also what it implies, I completely fell in love with it. It's such a pretty song, and it's so sad, and like I said, I love songs that pull at my heart, especially if it does so past the title.


I'm kinda surprised myself that the Coupling Collection album is this high on my list... I probably messed up somewhere... but... whatever. This is a blog... it's not like someone's gonna hold me to it later or anything. Meehhh.

It's way too hard to seriously try and figure out which of these 42 songs is my exact favorite, so I'm just going to go based off of the song I'm most likely not to skip if it comes on my iPod at a given time. And that's hand made CITY. I LOVE this song. A lot. My favorite line is Gaki's "Atsui Atsui yoru da yo ne!" partly because it's Gaki, but also partly because it's hot here. Very hot. Even nights. So this line's really relatable~ Anyway, I love the "I love you, wow wow city" blah parts. They're a lot of fun, as are the choruses, and the verses, and OMG the "BANG BANG BANGBANG~" parts are amazing. This song is just too good. LOL


I honestly thought this album would be higher on my list... but when I was thinking about it, it turned out to be much lower than expected. It just feels like certain songs on the album are a bit overrated (Suki na Senpai and Otoko Tomodachi) and managed to lower the rank of the whole album.

I'd have to say my favorite song on this album is definitely Densha no Futari. Densha no Futari is a 7nin song featuring Gen 1's Nacchi, Gen 4's Charmy, Yossie, and Aibon, and Gen 5's Aichan, Konkon, and Gaki. I really like how they distributed the lyrics in a way where it "paired" NacchiAibon, CharmyYossie, and TakaGaki, and then left Konkon as the soloed out one. I know Konkon had a big complex about the fact she was the "left over" around the time she first joined, but what I like about this, is that it feels like she gets a lot of spotlight being the one who's soloed out. She shines more to me in this song then anyone else does. Oh and the song is amazing is lots of fun :D (Didn't I say that line distribution often plays a big part on my opinions of songs?)


COVER YOU features way too many amazing songs. It's really hard to pick a favorite. Why is it so low on my list then? Well is because  the songs I don't like, I REALLY don't like. Enough to pull the whole album down. I'm gonna go ahead and say now I LOVE Nagisa no Sindbad, Dou ni mo Tomaranai, Ringo Satsujin Jiken, UFO, Pepper Keibu, and Romance a LOT. But for the sake of this adventure, I'm going to say Dou ni mo Tomaranai is my favorite. I'm not even going to say why, because I feel like if I start trying to explain why it's my favorite, I might end up trying to change my mind...


Shabada~ uh Shabada~ uh nananananana~ My favorite song on Fuyu Fuyu Morning Musume Mini would have to be Kotatsu no Uta. It's a pretty and fun song, and I love how the lines are distributed. I've heard someone say they didn't quite understand what it was doing on a Winter album, but I honestly don't even care. It's a great song! I also want to mention that Samui Kara Fuyu da mon is my 2nd favorite, and it's pretty close in rank too!


I think I have a bit of a bias against this album simply because none of the songs on the album were performed live with the original cast as the studio release... It's really depressing to me. But my favorite song on my album is definitely Bravo! And Ironically, Gaki's solos from the 5nin version from Kangei Shisen Matsuri are what won me over immediately for this song (you know, the solos that weren't even solos in the studio version of the song?) But the song is just so cool sounding, and catchy, and fun to sing along with <3.


Ai no Dairokkan (or more commonly know as Ai no Dai 6kan) had a lot of good songs, but the thing is... that's all they really were to me. Good. I'd probably have to go with Sukiyaki as my favorite song. It's a really fun(ny) song with a repetitive pace that's easy to follow all throughout the song. Plus the GakiKoha duet version at Koharu's grad concert was amazing. 'nough said.


HOW DO YOU LIKE THIS JAPAN? Hands down. This is my favorite song on the album. It's the only song I would consider amazing on this album. Other songs are really good, but this takes the cake. Not only is it the perfect song for the start of an album, but it makes a perfect "get the crowd worked up" song at concerts. Plus the ones to get chorus parts are Gaki, Mako, and Kame! And Reina, but really who cares about her? (LOL just kidding! My point is just that her having a main lead is no real shocker to me...) This song. Just. So amazing <3


I'll be honest, this album was somewhat of a disappointment for me... At first the only song on the album I liked at all was Be Alive. Now I like Be Alive, Lalala no Pipipi, and Dokkan Cappricco. Not much of an improvement considering it's been out so long already and had plenty of time to grow on me... That out of the way, my favorite song on the album is definitely Lalala no Pipipi. The song is just perfect for Shige. The lyrics scream Shige. The composition screams Shige. It's just... perfect. You really can't beat this song at suiting the singer to the T.


I wonder if anyone remembers? One of my all time favorite songs ever? Say Yeah! -Motto Miracle Night-. Remember where that's from? Yeah, this album. Needless to say, there is literally no competition here. Motto Miracle Night 5eva ftw and all that jazz. I know the chanty/weird noise things in this song exactly what and when they are. I mix up the choruses a lot at the end, but this is that song that I know almost to all of the lyrics by heart, and given the chance, I WILL belt them as loud as I can without killing my throat. That's just how I am combined with how amazing this song is to me.


Another hard decision, having to choose, I'm going to have to go with Koko ni Iruzee! for now. That song is just so much fun, so bouncy, and even the PV was hilarious  There's just so much personality in this song, a lot of the solos have a little individuality to them, and the song just really shows off one of the best of Morning Musume's releases ever.


I have always loved Otome no Shinrigaku. It was actually one of the first MoMusu songs I ever heard. I found it and it was titled by the English name (A Girl's Psychology) when I found out, so I couldn't find who it was by because I didn't think at the time that a Japanese song might... you know.. have a Japanese name. The use of left and right channels in this song makes it really unique to Morning Musume's other songs, even to this day. And everytime I hear the song I think of things like Pink Panther... and detectives... Not entirely sure why. But this song is just sooo interesting, I love it. PLUS HARMONIES. The harmonies are nice.


My favorite song on No.5, by far, is definitely Tsuyoki de Yukouze! This is a song featuring Gen 4's NonoAibon and Gen 5. The song is really fast and a lot of fun. It's really hard to sing, but that just makes it all the more fun to try. Plus it's really unique when it comes to the line distribution and even some of the... techniques used in the lyrics such as the part with "Kobushi agero kobushi agero kobushi agetara ALL MY LOVING"


Ever since I heard the TakaMako version of the song, no competition remains in my mind. Aisha Load de is the BEST song on this album. It's so cute and the use of solos vs. other solos vs. group parts is very well chosen, which is something I won't normally notice specifically in songs. Plus Mako go the extra solo paragraph in her duet with Aichan, so I'm not gonna pretend I don't have major bias to the song to begin with.


Don't get me wrong, I don't think First Time is a bad album, It just happens that I don't really like the songs much on it. They just don't really hold my attention well. My favorite song is, again because of the corresponding best shot version in which Mako graced our ears with, is Dou ni ka Shite Doyoubi. The original version is a chorus song. Normally this would turn me off pretty quickly, but their use of harmonies is fascinating, and the song in general is pretty good too. I still like the MakoKame version much better than the original, but I like the song for itself too, so yeahh.


Alright, I was gonna do All of the current groups, but then I ended up waiting while I downloaded the Dreams 1 album... so... it's almost midnight already... again. SO I'm going to continue this later when I shouldn't be in bed. I hope you enjoyed reading :) Good night/day/morning to ya.

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