Monday, October 20, 2008

»» NEWS - Happy Birthday

Tracklist:
01. Happy Birthday
02. Ganganganbatte
03. GAME of LOVE (Limited Edition)
03. Push On! (Regular Edition)
04. Happy Birthday (Original Karaoke)

This single was released on October 1st, 2008.

NEWS has gone a bit bad with these two last singles. weeeek was pretty good, and Taiyou no Namida is probably their best song to date, but SUMMER TIME was not quite as good as you'd expect, and Happy Birthday is almost below average. I guess it's a bit catchy, but it's not nearly as good as the previous singles. The video was also pretty boring.

Ganganganbatte sounds a bit silly and kind of rushed. It feels like a song you close your concert with, I can almost see them all walking around the stage, singing badly, tired, yelling 'arigatou gozaimashitaaaa' and waving at the fangirls.

GAME of LOVE is probably the best song off the single. It has a strong early 90's feel to it, and they sing it quite decently. The chorus is very fun, very danceable. Shige sounds quite sexy in his lines, and Masuda sounds a bit out of place. Masuda is definitely better with ballads, silly songs about friendship and more serious songs. Dancey is just not his thing. On the other hand, Tegoshi is like a candy shop, he fits right in no matter what kind of song it is. Where's Yamapi in this, anyway? I can't quite hear his voice anywhere in it. Maybe I'm not paying enough attention xD

Push On! sounds a bit like a Tohoshinki song, I just don't remember which one (no surprise, since they've released like a million singles in three years...). Koyama's voice sounds a bit off here, and the song is totally boring. The chorus doesn't stand out at all. Not a very good song. I'm glad it's a b-side, 'cause NEWS' albums are pretty good, a song like this would totally ruin their album.

By the way, their new album's tracklist is out and they're finally going to release SNOW EXPRESS! It has totally become one of my favorite NEWS songs ever since I saw them perform it live on the pacific tour DVD. Can't wait ^^

Overall score: 7/10. Sorry, guys...

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by Sairo!