Monday, February 23, 2009

»» Platinum 9 Disc Covers

On March 18th, Morning Musume is finally releasing their 9th album, Platinum 9 Disc. It's going to be the first album to feature JunJun and LinLin (the compilation doesn't count, and COVER YOU... well...), and SEXY 8 BEAT was released quite some time ago, so it's kind of a big deal. Here's the tracklisting:

1.SONGS
2.Resonant Blue
3.Ame no Furanai Hoshi de wa Aisenai Darou
4.Take off is Now
5.NaiChau Kamo
6.Watashi no Miryoku ni Kizukanai Donkan na Hito
7.Guru Guru JUMP
8.Mikan
9.Jounetsu no Kiss o Hitotsu
10.It's you!
11.Onna Ni Sachi Are
12.Kataomoi no Owari ni
13.Kanashimi Twilight

Some of the songs were already performed on their latest DVD released, and they're pretty great. Watashi no Miryoku ni Kizukanai Donkan na Hito is a solo Aika song, It's you! is a solo Sayumi song, and Kataomoi no Owari ni is a Eri song, so I'm hoping for something big. I was also hoping for a JunJun + LinLin song, but instead we get a JunJun+LinLin+Koharu song (Guru Guru JUMP). It was performed on the DVD, and it's pretty good. I just wish the Pandas could have the spotlight on them for a whole song. Maybe next time. I was also not too happy to see Onna ni Sachi Are and Kanashimi Twilight in there, since they were on the compilation, but... those are good songs, and it's not like I can do anything about it anyway.

Now, on to the main point of this post: the covers. When they came out last week, I wasn't sure whether I liked them. They were such LQ versions, so I couldn't really tell. Today, however, I finally got to see HQ versions of them, and unfortunately what I was afraid of seeing is exactly what I'm staring at right now: the covers suck.



First or all, the background. Anyone who doesn't think this is cheap, needs professional help. I'm pretty sure I have seen a similar background in sweet 16 pictures somewhere, and that's really not a good thing.

Those bright spots and those strings all over them are definitely not helping, and definitely make the whole thing look exceptionally tacky, though they probably wouldn't if it wasn't for the amazingly tacky outfits they put the girls in. I mean, I can take some awful outfits in concerts, 'cause that's standard procedure in H!P, but on album covers, it's just a bit too much. They're too bright, too short, and those things on their heads are not helping at all.

While we're at it, let's talk about the most important thing about their heads here: the hair. Who the hell came up with the idea of getting everyone these curls? That person seriously needs to get a seat or something. Koharu, Reina and Eri had already successfully worn curly hair before, so it was a safe choice for them, but JunJun, Risa and Sayumi paid high, very high prices. JunJun is seriously pretty, but curly hair just doesn't suit her at all. She looks absolutely awkward in both covers, like she was like stuck in traffic, came in terribly late, got her hair and make-up done in a tremendous rush and went on to take the pictures.

Sayumi, one of the cutest members of Morning Musume, looks like she's 15 years older than she really is. That might be caused by poor make-up, though. Risa usually looks great with curls, but this time someone screwed her up by dying her hair in such a light shade of blonde. She looks like a hooker.

Ai's case is quite different. She doesn't look bad with curls, and the dress isn't too bad for her, but she looks absolutely out of her element. I don't know if it's just me, but I kind of feel like she's getting a bit too old to pull this off with everyone else. She looks really mature, and that's probably part of the concept, but when she looks this mature while standing next to the other girls, and most of them are a few years younger than her, she stands out. Maybe her image no longer fits Morning Musume?

On the bright side (no pun intended), Aika and LinLin look pretty good with their new hairdos. Aika's smirk looks cute on the regular edition's cover, and her hair really goes well with her face. LinLin doesn't look that different on the regular edition, but looks super sexy on the limited one.

I just hope it looks better when you're holding a hard copy of it (as I've seen happen millions of times before), 'cause otherwise, these covers are going to help them sell this album at all.

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by Sairo!