Chou! Wonderful 6

It's been a long time coming, so i'm glad I finally found some time to write up this review!  Well, okay, i'm sitting in class at the moment, supposed to be taking notes, but writing this blog post is much more mind-stimulating.  At first, I wasn't too thrilled about this album, so i'm glad I lagged writing this review till now, since I got to listen to the new songs many many more times.  I've become quite fond of almost all the songs actually.  So, lets see how I felt about it overall?  I might even surprise myself.

[Tracks 3, 7, 9, and 11 are not mentioned because they are singles.]

Track 1: Chou! Wonderful

A very genki song to start the album off with.  It has a great upbeat rhythm to it, and the first time I heard it, it made me excited to hear what the rest of the album was going to sound like.  I love everyones voices in it, and it sounds like it’s going to make a great concert performance!  I liked the instrumental part a lot.  Sounds like there can be a lot of wota participation there.

Track 2: Midnight Temptation

Well for one thing, what an awesome title.  Midnight Temptation sounds like a name of a song in American pop culture.  Title aside, this track was pretty powerful too.  I guess like I said with Joshikai the Night of 7 Berryz Times, this is “that song” that everybody loves the most on the album.  I loved the intro as well.  It reminded me of the prolonged intro of Moonlight Night that was the opening act of Momusu’s PikaPika concert.  I can’t wait to see this performed.

Track 4: Iza Susume, Steady Go!

Woo!  Go Nakky!  It just felt genuinely good to hear her be a lead for a song.  Things just sounded right.  She had a really great sound in the song.  It’s not one of my favorites, because I feel like it’s somewhat repetitive.  I don’t really have much to say about this song other then it’s fun, upbeat, and…Nakky.

Track 5: Rururururu

Ah, so we come to what I like to call “that slow song” of the album.  Every album needs a ballad I suppose, but it’s not my preferred choice of direction.  The song was great, and Airi sounded fantastic in it.  I thoroughly enjoyed the song all together, but it’s not something that I’m going to listen to unless I’m about to fall asleep lol.  Great song though!

Track 6: Wakaretakunai...

For some reason, I absolutely fell in love with this song.  It took a few listens for me to fall for it, but I’m glad I did.  I adore how the song starts, and love the beat.  Chisa’s voice is so flawless and clear.  This song sort of reminds me of her singing Uchuu de La Ta Ta during the Dance Special Concert medley (go check it out if you haven’t).  Some say that this song gets repetitive, but I don’t think so.  I think it’s just great.  I’m not too big a fan of the chorus, but Chissa’s parts dominate that for me.

Track 8: Circle

Aww what a cute song!  The melody is very soft and subtle which is a nice change.  Soothing, actually.  Mai’s voice matches the beat of the song in my opinion.  It was a good pairing.  I like the song, but it’s not one of my favorites, even though it’s fun and enjoyable to listen to.  It’s such a bubbly song!  It’s a very Maimai song.  Okay I’ll stop describing now.

Track 10: 3 Ban Home 3 Ryoume

Okay, retarded name aside, this song wasn’t that bad…but in my opinion it wasn’t that great either.  To me, it wasn’t very memorable.  It’s something that I would skip if it came up on my shuffle, unless I wanted something to fall asleep to.  Not saying that that’s a bad thing though.  Maimi sounded good in it, but it’s not something that sung to me.  Not one of the better tracks.

SO.  Now you all know how I felt about this album.  Did any of my picks surprise you?   I was surprised about how much I fanboy'd over Chissa's song.  Not that i'm complaining though.  All in all, I found this album quite enjoyable, and i'll be replaying these songs for quite some time over again.

Which were some of your favorites?

7 Berryz Times

 Berryz Kobo's newest album, titled 7 Berryz Times is out.  There are a total of 10 tracks on it, 3 of which are their last three singles, making for 7 brand new songs.  After a good few listens to them, I can say which I liked the best, and which I didn't like that much.
[Not including Tracks: 2,5,9 since they are Heroine ni Narou Ka, Maji Bomber, and Shining Power]

Track 1: Icchoume Rock! (一丁目ロック!)

A good song to open with.  It had a good upbeat feel to it.  Nice to hear Maasa so early into the song too (perk for me).  Everyone had a fair amount of lines here.  Wasn't too excited about the song overall, but it somewhat reminded me of Hero Arawaru (Heroine ni Narou Ka b-side).






Track 3: Bomb Bomb Jump!
Out of all the new songs on this album, this one has to be my favorite.  For some reason, it really got to me.  It has a very 60's feel to it, which appealed to me.  It made me want to dance like they did back in the day.  You know, like "the monkey" and "the swim."  Either way, this song is really catchy, and I loved everyone in it.  Very fun song.








Track 4: Masshiroi ano Kumo (真っ白いあの雲)
This song was my least favorite out of them all.  It's too slow and soft for my taste.  I was never really fond of the slower ballad type songs anyways.  I feel like there is nothing I can do with this song.  I wont really want to listen to it anywhere because it's too slow lol.  Maybe to help me sleep?






Track 6: Joshikai The Night (女子会 The Night)
Ahh this is more what i'm talking about!  A song that's got some step to it!  It's faster and up tempo.  The audio track in the background is great on its own too.  Sounds like it could easily be Berryz next new single...but it's not.  Anyways, i'd consider it my second favorite song on this album.  Oh, and the parts in the song where the girls whisper is the best.

Track 7: Girls Times (ガールズタイムス)
This song was just eh for me.  Didn't find anything particularly special bout it.  Dunno why, but it reminds me of a Christmas song.  Maybe it's because of the instrumentals.  That kinda makes it fun I suppose lol.  Well..it is a fun song, especially with the 'shoobee doo bap bap!'





Track 8: Onna no Pride (女のプライド)
This song really reminds me of Chotto Samishii (Shining Power b-side).  Whenever i'm listening to this song, I get this quirky image in my head of Berryz Kobo sitting around a campfire and singing this together.  Sounds like a "Tomodachi wa Tomodachi Nanda" type of song.  What I mean by that is that by the beat alone, I feel the lyrics are talking about girl power or something (maybe that's because of the title) lol.



Track 10: Magical Future! (マジカルフューチャー!)
Now I know this song has been around for a bit already, but I actually haven't given it a listen until this album came out.  I think Magical Future was a theme song used for Inazuma Eleven, but other then that, I don't think it was put on a CD or anything was it?  Anyways, I like the song,  Maybe my 3rd favorite on the album (not crown worthy).  Has that upbeat tempo that I love so much.  I also really like the intro.  All in all I could definitely listen to this more often.




So all in all there were 3 songs that stood out to me, as I listed above.  Great thing about this album that I could probably listen to it all start to finish without having a problem.  Okay, I might skip Masshiroi ano Kumo, but that depends on how I feel lol.  SO!  What did you think about the album?

Rival Survival Highlights

So after all the dust settled after the graduation, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the concert performances.  I thought they were fantastic, with a lot of songs that really were top notch.  The outfits were some of my favorites that I've seen so far, and all of the girls looked wonderful.  Once again, I'm not going to talk about each and every song, just the ones that I thought were most memorable.

1. Souda! We're Alive:

Opening song for the win.  The dance number that was set up before the song started was fantastic.  I loved the military sounding music that played in the background while the girls almost marched into position.  That was really the highlight of the song.  The glass breaking sounds were cool too.

2. Handmade City:

I like bandannas.  I also like the little english at the start of the song.  I also like watching them in those outfits for just a little longer.  Yep.

3. Aisaresugiru Koto wa Nai no yo:
I liked this performance because everyone got great lines in this song.  Aika had the first solo, which sounded great.  I kinda like their outfits, and the dance was cool too.  I felt as if Gaki was yelling at me during the "ai ga ai ga ai ga aru KARAAAAAAAAAA" parts.  Calm down Gaki.  Also, it was almost as if Aichans mic was turned off for this perf.  For her solo's we could barely hear her, but all in all good perf.

4. Linlin's Watarasebashi:

Linlin was so adorable on stage reading her letter.  It really made me tear up a little bit seeing how cute she was.  Her performance was really great too.  Her voice is so melodic, I wonder if anyone of the new girls will develop a voice like hers one day.  She's really one of a kind.

5. Seishun Collection:

Let me just say: best costumes ever.  I don't really know why, but I honestly fell in love with these costumes.  I like color coordination.  The song itself wasn't anything special, but it was cool and different how they performed the entire song while circling the concert hall floor waving at everyone.

6. Odore! Morning Curry:

Awesome.  My favorite performance of the night.  It just had so much energy.  I really loved whatever was going on on the screen behind them...it was kinda mezmerizing.  Anyways, the pairings were balanced.  I liked Aika/Eri especially.  Also, towards the end, Sayu/Jun were adorable.  The wota chanting parts were cool as shit too.  "HEY? HAI!"  Just makes me wanna dance my pants off.

7. GuruGuru Jump:

This song will never die.  It will always be #1.  I loved the opening when Aika was centered with the other girls circling her.  Another high energy song for sure.  SO AWESOME.  Line distribution ftw here as well.  I could watch it a hundred times.

8. Onna to Otoko no Lullaby Game:

The outfits were so much nicer here then they were in the PV, but that's okay.  Was performed really well, even with the minor screw ups that nobody was supposed to see [cue Eri's laces tangled and Linlin falling on her butt] lol.  Im glad Eri/Jun/Lin got to perform this song once before they left.

9. Ame no Furanai something something something:

This one was probably hard to perform after constant crying for like 30 minutes of graduation messages.  It was just as hard to watch, lemme tell you that.  It was beautiful though.  Stop it.  I'm going to cry.

Well before I start crying again, i'm going to stop here.  I thought this concert was fantastic, and it was a nice way to end Eri's Jun's and Lin's time in Morning Musume.  I'm really gonna miss them, especially Linlin of course.  They won't be forgotten, and I always have this concert on DVD to watch whenever I need some more Linlin time. :D