I haven’t updated for a while for two very good reasons; the first being that I’ve had coursework and exams to do over the past week or so and for once actually got some work done. The second reason being that even if I’d wanted to write something, I couldn’t, as I found very little to draw my interest.

So what exactly has been going on in this crazy world while I’ve been gone? Well very little it would seem. Hello Pro Eggs Noto Arisa and Sawada Yuri are both going to graduate and well, that seems about the biggest news around that I can think of and I wouldn’t even count that as news. Heck, I’m even quite a big Noto fan but I’d hardly call this a ground breaking development.

So what can I possibly fill this entry with? Why, with the usual rubbish that most bloggers tend to write and yet somehow find oddly relaxing and for some reason so do readers (or at least in some cases); write a review. Since no real big releases have been made with the exception of the latest AKB stage albums which don’t seem to have surfaced yet, I decided I’d do a pointless little comparison review.

If you’ve read this blog before then you’ve probably guessed that it focuses on H!P and AKB goings on, hence the title of the blog…So I’ve decided it’s time for one of those delicious H!P vs AKB comparisons.

Now, it could take me days to write some sort of review on the girls themselves and I’m certainly not in the right frame of mind to even attempt that right now so for the moment I’m going to keep it simple. Here I’m going to review simply the opening track from each Morning Musume album and compare it with the opening tracks from AKB albums. Of course, this isn’t taking intros and such into account for each album as we’d have a lot of songs compared to “overture” which forgive me for saying so but, I think would be a bit pointless.

So that’s the opening track from each Momusu album from “First Time” up to “Platinum 9 Disc”, not counting the likes of the fan club album or “COVER YOU”. For AKB that will be A/K1, 2, 3, 4 and K2, 3, 4. To bring us up to nine (and for no other reason in particular) we’ll also go with H1 and H2.

Good Morning (First Time) vs PARTY ga Hajimaru yo (A1)

So this is where it all started, and I know that a lot of Momusu fans aren’t too fond on “First Time” or even “Second Morning” for that matter, thankfully though I’m not of that ilk. Although “Ai no Tane” brings me more nostalgia than “Good Morning” I still get a fair amount of it whenever I hear this song. This does work slightly against it though; if this song were to feature in the middle of one of the later albums for example I really don’t think I’d pay much attention to this song at all; the song could well have a minute shaved off it too as it is a bit unnecessarily long.

Whenever I see “PARTY ga Hajimaru yo” in the yearly Ax concerts I get slightly annoyed, as it makes me think that people are voting for it simply because it’s an early song, and one that personally I’m not too fond on. However, I’m a complete hypocrite as I’d say it was an outrage if Momusu ever did something similar and didn’t feature the likes of “Morning Coffee”. It does have a lot more going for it in terms of arrangement though than “Good Morning” does as it has the odd crunching guitar as well as the ridiculous robot voice at times, yet never really strays away from the happy pop tune that it is, which is a job well done since there are so many odd quirky traits added in to the song at parts.

Instinct told me that I’d be picking “Good Morning” here, but surprisingly (for me at least) “PARTY ga Hajimaru yo” edges it out by the narrowest of margins. I may not be its biggest fan, but speaking as subjectively as I can, it’s a better song and while both serve the same purpose; a catchy pop opener, I think that it manages it slightly better.

0-1

Night of Tokyo City (Morning Musume) vs Seishun Girls (K2)

I’d say that these first two albums were before Momusu really decided to show off just how crazy they can be, but the opening few seconds here show us the kind of thing that was in store for later years. After that it’s very subdued and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this on something like an S.E.S. album. The biggest plus this song has is the short piano solo, something not found in many songs relating to Momusu or AKB. Other than that though it’s a pretty run of the mill affair with a very repetitive beat that doesn’t really stray away to try anything different, my biggest criticism though would be the girls saying “Tokyo Shitty” a few times, I never have and never will appreciate Engrish in songs.

So why is it I hate the English in this song so much? It’s well pronounced and (to an extent) makes sense. I think it’s because it reminds me a great deal of the Cheeky Girls, not something I want from a song I want to genuinely enjoy. After the bizarre opening though we get a short lyrical part that sounds very similar to “Night of Tokyo City” which again, changes dramatically once it’s over. I’ve always struggled to really embrace this song and really enjoy it, in fact most of the time I skip it and the truth be told I hold the intro 100% responsible for this as well as the English lines that are repeated throughout the song. If it weren’t for this aspect of it I really would like this song quite a lot, pity really.

It had been so long since I’d actually listened to “Seishun Girls” fully that I forgot how much I liked it in parts, though the parts I disliked really did make this a hard choice. Like the last track though AKB’s song simply has more going on and it’s good to see it mixed up a little bit even if it is something as simple as the girls shouting “Seishun” a few times. AKB wins this round.

0-2

Love Machine 3rd – LOVE Paradise- vs Nageki no Figure (A2)

So we come to H!P’s behemoth, surely it can’t lose? Right…? Well as I hope I’ve shown already I’m not one for sentiment and so there’s no guaranteed victory here. “Love Machine” really stands out on this album for me as it really is one of very few with any sort of structure, not in terms of arrangement but in terms of overall flow for the album. Since it’s the first track we hear we’d expect to hear something very similar for the next hour or so, and we sort of get that at first before it delves into realms of weirdo, but that’s a review for another day. So “Love Machine” is a great pop song that has everything, to the moments of plain crazy to the catchy hook that of course, is a must. Most people will already know this song very well and so I don’t see much need to go into it any further than this.

I can flat out say that I prefer this song to “Love Machine” many times over, just the echo on the bells in the first few seconds grabs my attention better than “Love Machine” ever could. But there has to be a down side right? Well in this case I suppose it would have to be the fact that the chorus is sampled from Supertramp’s “Logical Song”. A harsh criticism to make since I’m sure that this is no secret (if this was Korea then maybe it would be a valid case) but it’s really all I can pick up on. The touch of electro it has throughout is superb and seems like a perfect nod to other 80’s tunes (yes I’m aware the Logical Song is from the late 70’s but you get the point) and hearing each girl deliver a line separately after singing in tandem works great too. The absence of a guitar solo even works well for AKB here, instead giving an electronic interlude that fills the bill wonderfully.

So the winner is…”Love Machine”. Yes that’s right, for all my praise of “Nageki no Figure” I can see that most narrowminded feels will see “Love Machine” as the better song because it’s catchy and got lots of pink in the video, and who am I to argue with them? It would be hard to deny Momusu the victory on this one with the sheer amount of influence it had on their future, something that “Nageki no Figure” certainly never would have done for AKB.

1-2

The Peace “4th – Ikismasshoi! –vs Tomo yo (K3)

Now this is one hell of an intro, I don’t care if you’re a Momusu fan or not, there’s little denying that that the Nazi-esque chants that kick off “The Peace” are a great and unexpected way to open up any pop album. The rest of the song isn’t too bad either, with nonsensical lyrics about school and pizza and a stupid video and back story to it to match. It’s pretty long winded though at five and half minutes, though the ending itself adds a good thirty seconds on to that. My biggest criticism here is Ishikawa’s speaking part, she may consider it her finest moment but I can’t agree with her on that one; it seems a bit pointless and even I get a bit of a cringe whenever I see it acted out at concerts. It’s worth noting that young girls shouting “Yeah” or other such meaningful things every five seconds in a song could grate on some people too.

I think it’s fair to say that I started to like this song a lot more after I saw that the girls performed it themselves, and in this crazy Idol world I’d say that’s a pretty big plus point to have. Although it’s never been an issue for me the fact that the girls are playing their own instruments is bound to appeal to more people too; though in truth for the kind of people that listen to music I highly doubt that this is something that they look for in their music. Team K’s vocals do work well here though as the girls get the chance to show off their vocal talents separately which means that we get to see just how varied the girls voices are, from Kasai’s squeal to Miyazawa’s “man voice”.

If this was left up to a panel of music “experts” I think they’d go with “Tomo yo” simply for the reason I’ve mentioned above, though they’d also clearly say how the song is very easy to play at that it got through on merit alone. However, these songs are designed to appeal for them and although it pains me personally to say it, Momusu have levelled things up on this one.

2-2

Do It! Now – No. 5 vs Tsukimisou – A3

Bog standard garbage if you ask me. Do It! Now has little to nothing going for it, whether it be performance wise, vocals, video etc. I don’t actually mind the song though it doesn’t stand out, though speaking about it critically I find it really hard to pull a positive out of it. The only thing I can say on a personal level is that I actually quite like the rap section in it, and that’s pretty damn impressive in itself. The Evil Morning version is far superior.

It seems a necessity for Idol groups to come along and do one of these songs using traditional instruments, so unfortunately I’m not swayed into thinking this is anything original. Despite the fact that the bass line is very simple the actual sound of it is very interesting indeed, it almost sounds like they decided to play it on something that hadn’t been sued for fifty years never mind even bothered being put in tune. Pretty much every idol band pulls one of these songs out of their asre at some point though so I’d consider this song a low point for AKB.

Wow, looks like this has been the worst round so far for me, I’m going to go with AKB here on the simple grounds that I genuinely think that people will agree with me on what I’ve had to say about “Do It! Now!”; “Tsukimisou” is no masterpiece but is far more tolerable. I actually think I’ve made myself hate “Do It! Now!” by writing this…

2-3

Namida ga Tomora nai Houkago – Ai no Dairokkan vs Saishuu Bell ga naru – K4

Ouch, an album full of amazing songs and the one that kicks it off is probably the most hated Momusu single there has ever been. I don’t share the resentment that a lot of people have for this song but I certainly don’t think it’s anything special either. Unfortunately that’s quite a kick in the teeth for Momusu here as this album really does have some greats on it and it’s unfortunate for this review they decided to stick this at the beginning. If only they’d known…It does actually seem to play through rather quickly though which for those who don’t like it is surely a blessing; though it probably feels like a lifetime to them. I’m actually going to give Tsunku credit for picking the likes of Konno and Michishige to take lead on this song as it’s a welcome change from the usual suspects, and I want to be all alternative and cool.

…and it has to compete with a song that was voted AKB’s fifth best song overall this year. Any hope for Momusu? To put it bluntly: “No”. AKB wins this one by three country miles as it is quite simply a better song. Sure, it’s dripping with cheese and is crammed full with more 80’s than Depeche Mode but that’s probably why people love it so much. If you slow it down using vlc it actually sounds like a Rammstein song too.

2-4

HOW DO YOU LIKE JAPAN! ~Nihon ha Donna Kanji Dekka~ – Rainbow 7 vs Tadaima Renaichuu – A4

Hooray for songs with longs titles eh? Like I said earlier, I will never appreciate Engrish but for some reason it is oddly tolerable in “How do you like Japan”. Rainbow has no sort of flow to it but again, oddly enough it’s what makes it so great, and so this is a great album opener as it is quite simply unlike anything Momusu has done before. The bass line is great, the guitars are great and everyone fulfils their vocal roles really well, really the only negative is the Engrish nonsense and even that can be quite funny at times. Niigaki;s habit of saying “I like Tokyo” at the end of this song in recent times though makes me want to throw up all over her.

This is the song that really kicked off my AKB fandom and so it holds a pretty special place in my heart. Those around me obviously hear the music I listen to and it seems that this is one of the few AKB songs that most of them seem to identify with as being a “cool” song. I get the feeling it’s the combination of the surprisingly overdriven guitars coupled with that weird noise that it goes over the top, I don’t even know how to describe it; put these with the chorus and catchy hook and you’ve got a sure fire winrar.

Despite my love affair with “Tadaima Renaichuu” I mentioned the word “cool” and in all honesty Momusu’s song is going to win every time there. Both are top notch songs and both sets of songwriters should give themselves a pat on the back as they’ve done rather well; Tsunku wins this one though.

3-4

Genki+ – Sexy 8 Beat vs – Dreamin’ Girls – H1

The only negative with “Genki+” is the length, if it had been a minute or so shorter it would not run the risk of being repetitive which it teeters on the verge of. Though there’s nothing remarkable about the vocals here the power surging through the synth here makes it a really great album opener. In truth there are times when the girls sing alone (most notable Kusumi) that the singing really drags the composition down. Fujimoto does stand out a little form the other though as the echo effect on her voice is pretty haunting and fits in really well. It’s great to see such a serious opening track from Momusu after so long too.

In terms of originality then “Dreamin’ Girls” wins without question, this isn’t the only thing I’m looking for her though. Vocals? Well AKB wins here too, as I’ve always said one of the things AKB will always have over H!P is that it holds far better singers as a whole. When those voices are all singing in harmony together then it’s never going to sound bad, and it sounds anything but that when the girl’s voices are layering over each other here.

As a stand-alone song I’d go with “Genki+” here, but as an album opener I have to go with “Dreamin’ Girls”. I sort of cheated a little I guess because I took “RUN RUN RUN” into account here as it is led into really well, whereas “Genki+” and “Aruiteru” simply don’t seem to flow into each other quite as well.

3-5

So AKB wins overall, but can Momusu earn a bit more pride?

SONGS – Platinum 9 Disc vs Romance, Irane – H2

Up until recently I hadn’t learned to appreciate Momusu’s more mature sound, but even before then I couldn’t help but like “SONGS”. Granted, the male vocals over the top are completely pointless and are on the verge of ruining the song at points but they just, just about get away with it. For some reason people seem to have fun complaining about the electro-voices that are used in this song but the only reason I can see for that is that they think it’s cool to do because everyone else is doing it. Who said it first? At least they may have a legitimate reason for doing so. Sure, a lot of other bands are doing it right now but that’s because electronic is in at the moment and so it sells, get used to it.

I’ve started to appreciate this song a lot more than I used to, but is it actually any good? Should it be kicking off an album? Well until H2 is actually released than I suppose it isn’t actually technically opening one but you know what I mean. It actually reminds me of a non-electronic version of “Genki+” and comes across as a very mature sounding song. For some reason I’ve come to associate Idols and mature with R&B recently when I really shouldn’t, as songs like this prove.

Although both are good songs I’d say that “SONGS” itself is much better at kicking things off, Ramnce , Irane could just as well be placed in the middle of an album and have very much the same effect as it is sat at the front.

4-5

So there we have it, AKB wins but it was a pretty close call. If I’d gone purely on my personal favourites then the score would have actually been 1-8. I’d list why and how I came to that conclusion but then that would make this entry twice as long and I am in no way prepared to do that.