Tuesday, August 18, 2009

»» Nanchatte Renai goes #2!

Nanchatte Renai went #2 on the Weekly Charts, outselling B'z by a thousand copies, and was outsolf by Ayumi by 20k. It sold 54,973 copies, which is kind of awesome, they hadn't sold this many copies in debut week since Iroppoi Jirettai. There are still some handshake events and other stuff they're doing to promote the single, so hopefully it will sell some more copies. Another thousand copies and it'll outsell Resonant Blue. Let's hope the third single also sells a lot, and helps Morning Musume and Hello!Project regain some popularity :)

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by Sairo!


Wednesday, August 12, 2009

»» Morning Musume - Nanchatte Renai

01 Nanchatte Renai
02 Aki Urara [Regular Edition]
02 Subete wa Ai no Chikara [40th Anniversary Edition]
03 Nanchatte Renai (Instrumental)

And here it is, the 40th Morning Musume single. This time we get 4 different versions, and 2 different b-sides. I've already expressed my feelings towards Nanchatte Renai: it's absolutely awesome. Aside from the fact that Aika, JunJun and LinLin have close to no lines, it's a great song, nearly everyone gets some attention, some screen time on the video and all... It's a great a-side, and even though everyone seems to think it sounds a bit too much like Shouganai Yume Oibito, I don't agree. And even if it it did sound similar, I don't think that would be a bad thing, since Shouganai Yume Oibito is a terribly awesome and was a #1 single. Another thing I should mention is Koharu. I never thought I'd say this, but her vocals sounds good in it. There, I said it. Koharu sounded good during her solo lines. Hell can now freeze over.

Aki Urara, the b-side included in all versions but the commemorative one, is quite a treat. I like how the beginning sounds kind of sounds like it's going to rock, but then it doesn't. The song reminds me a bit of old-time MM, especially during JunJun's and LinLin's lines, and it also reminds me of Yowamushi, which is probably my favourite MM b-side ever. The chorus is very catchy and everyone sounds very good in it. Sayu really surprised me by sounding particularly awesome. But you really can't expect anything but awesomeness from Sayu, ne?

Subete wa Ai no Chikara is really up-beat, and is going to be an awesome concert song. For some unknown reason, I can't understand why JunJun and LinLin are the first ones to have solo lines in this song. They never have solo lines on a-sides, it makes me think it's physically painful for Tsunku to give them lines, so when they get any, I kinda feel overwhelmed. Hell, they are give so little lines that I still wonder 'is this JunJun? or is it LinLin?' when I hear them in a song. Anyway... the rest of the song is really b-sideish, but not bad or mediocre in any way. If it wasn't for Aki Urara being so fucking awesome, I would be totally loving this.

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by Sairo!


Saturday, August 1, 2009

»» AAA Break Down Single Review

01. Break Down
02. Break your name (Saihuun)
03. Summer Revolution
04. Break Down -Break Deep Mix-
05. Break Down -TOKIMA TOKIO Summer Of Love Mix-
06. Break your name -Break the limit Mix- (Saihuun)
07. Break your name -YUKSEK Mix- (Saihuun)
08. Summer Revolution -Summer Splash Mix-
09. Break Down -Instrumental-
10. Break your name -Instrumental- (Saihuun)
11. Summer Revolution -Instrumental-












After a long 4-month period without any releases, AAA is back with a triple a-side single. It was released in 4 versions, one being a CD Only, and the 3 others, CD+DVD packages. Each DVD contained a music video and either an off-shot video or a live performance.



Break Down, as you might have guessed, is performed by Misako, Naoya and Nissy only. It is a fast song that emulates previous AAA eurobeat songs like Red Soul, Let it beat! and BLOOD on FIRE. It's got kind of a house feel to it and I really like how the same small bit of Misako's voice singing 'Break Down' is repeated a hundred times before the thing actually starts. I must admit that when the video first came out, I wasn't in love with this song, but it has totally won me over by now.



The video is quite good. Though it was fully recorded in front of a green screen (blue in this case, as you can see in the off-shot video), it looks really expensive and professional. The members got kind of new looks. Chiaki and Naoya are looking particularly awesome, and Hidaka shows surprisingly hot abs. I keep repeating that scene every time I watch the video. Shinjiro's belly also makes a brief appearance, but it's not really note-worthy. Look out for Chiaki's amazing sexy blink.


Break your name is performed by the AAA boys, though they're credited as Saihuun. Saihuun is a secret project that features 15 males, and none of them were revealed 'til this came out. As it turns out, the 5 AAA guys are in it. The song is really awesome. It's kind of a 90's melody inside a 2009 arrangement. It's really kind of techno, and features some Hidaka rapping. Unfortunately, Shuta and Shinjiro are nowhere to be heard in this song. No surprise there. Once again, when I first listened to it, I wasn't crazy about it, but now I really like it. I wish it was oficially an AAA song.

The Break your name video was also made in front of a green screen, but it seems like avex decided to give them a great budget, 'cause it looks spectacular. The concept it a bit old, it's a futuristic city, and the guys dance on top of a building and on top of moving cars. Towards the end of the video a big cool screen appears (carried by a helicopter wtf?) and stands behind the 15 guys and it makes quite a cool effect on the floor where they're standing, which reflects the images displayed on the screen. The dancing is really impressive, by the way. Hidaka's hair looks waaaaay better than it looked in the Break Down video, and Naoya looks really gorgeous. They all look great in black, really.



Summer Revolution, my favourite song in the single, is a girls-only song. As usual, Chiaki gets a fair amount of lines, and really owns them all. It's also kind of a 90's flavoured song, which mixes a bit of TRF, GIRL NEXT DOOR and AAA together, and sounds awesome in the end. I really love the bridge and the vocals are absolutely awesome. Best song in the single.

The video features all 7 AAA members dancing in the desert. This desert is also created by a green screen. Which is actually blue. Chiaki's haircut makes her look absolutely gorgegous, and Misako's outfit is really cool. The boys dance in a circle with the girls just standing there in the center, singing. Something that is really cool about this video is that the boys do a lot of dancing. Like the old days, when they performed those crazy BLOOD on FIRE and Kirei na Sora choreographies, which were absolutely impressive. When the song hits the bridge, we get some images of the girls wearing white wigs and lying down on this silver sheet. They look really awesome, but the whole thing is completely disconnected from the rest of the video. I guess they couldn't get away with just the desert thing. It's a great video too, really.

The remixes in the single are pretty good, the best one being the TOKIMA TOKIO Summer Of Love Mix of Break Down. The rest of them are just listenable. Even though they're not particularly great, I think it's a great idea to put this many remixes on singles, makes me feel more inclined to buy them.

Overall, this was a great single. AAA put out three great songs, and according to Oricon, they're selling quite well, though I think that is actually thanks to the whole Saihuun thing. They have already announced they're going to release a new single in 2 months, and I'm really excited about it, it's just awesome when AAA starts to work like crazy, releasing awesome single after awesome single xD This single is really good, and I hope they keep up the good work.

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by Sairo!