Fantasy! Juuichi Review - "Can't Believe it Sold Less than the Last One"

No, I'm serious. Here:



These are just the first week sales. 10 My Me sold 16K total. No way is this album going to top it.

But does it deserve such suckiness? Not really, in my opinion. I actually like it quite a bit better than the last album. So, let's take a look at each track.

Fantasy! Juuichi Review




ブラボー！ - Bravo!
Just what you’d expect from a H!P album track – sounds like a b-side with slightly better production. The “cute yelling” were fine for the song, but not from Morning Musume. It’s fine if they do really genki songs, like Guru Guru JUMP!, but you have to have a crack head member like Koharu to pull it off, which they don’t anymore. Some of the layered voice effects in the verse definitely make the song more listenable, but the chorus is very predictable.

Fantasyが始まる – Fantasy ga Hajimaru
Once again, Sayumi’s vocals are right where they need to be – smothered in auto-tune. This is one of the tracks I like a lot from this album, and I think the dark and sad sound really fits Morning Musume and is the kind of thing that they can really pull off. The chorus really sticks in your head even after the first listen. The muted backing track adds to the dramatic feeling it gives off. And the line distribution is very nice; I’m definitely hearing LinLin loud and clear.

女心となんとやら – Onnagokoro to Nanto Yaru
Hmm. This is an interesting one. The kind of cheery hip-hop beat offsets the children’s song melody in a way that seems strange at first, but is actually executed quite well. I really like hearing lots of Gaki here, I think her voice suits this kind of thing well. Not really a stand-out song, and probably more fitting as a b-side, but I don’t skip over it I listen to my iPod and without a doubt it grows on you as time goes on.

愛の炎 – Ai no Honou
So far, my favorite track. The piano intro is very haunting, and I think Reina’s voice suits this song perfectly. Her falsetto sounds really nice. A few times her voice gets kind of whiny, especially when she says “Yeah”, but I’m pretty used to how that sounds so I don’t know what I expected. I like the contrast of the intro and the subtle Latin beat during the verses – I find myself listening to the beat more than the vocals sometimes. I look forward to hearing this live.

I'm Lucky girl
Some of the “techno” effects in this song are so cheesy that it is distracting, but once the vocals start and those are gone the song gets more listenable. The verse vocal melody is pretty uninspired and repetitive, which is annoying since I know for sure Tsunku can do way, way better. This is one song that I might skip over when I listen to this album.

すんごいマイバースディ – Sungoi My Birthday
I love the “churu churu” parts so much, for no real reason. The songwriting sound is very familiar, but it’s neat because I’ve never heard any H!P songs that sound like this. At times I even think the chorus sounds like something the Beatles would write, and I’ve never said that about anything Tsunku’s ever done, so… wow, congrats, Tsunku, you managed to emulate the most popular band ever. This is a good song and also one of my favorites.

1から10まで愛してほしい – Ichi kara Juu made Aishite Hoshii
Don’t really get what the title means… Interesting choice of words. But other than that, the song blends in pretty well with other peppy songs. It’s a little bit better than Bravo!, but man, not by a whole lot. This doesn’t even sound like a MM song; it sounds like S/mileage should be singing it. And I am really getting sick of all of the “Ooh Yeah’s!” on this album. Didn’t we get enough of that with Seishun Collection?

愛しく苦しいこの夜に – Itoshiku Kurushii Kono Yoru ni
Eri really gets the spotlight. Her pitch and clearness are there, without a doubt, but this reiterates the reasons why I can’t agree with others who say she’s a better singer than Reina or Gaki. She’s not. She can keep it together way better than Jun or Sayu, but she has almost no tone. Reina can sound nasally too, but she has a solid vibrato and her falsetto better, and she also has consistently sounded better live. But, regardless, even if it would have been JunJun I am happy that one of the grads got a big part to shine in.

電話でね – Denwa de ne
Ai’s solo. Am I mad about this choice? Yeah, kind of. If I cared about the stuff MM was putting out then I would be more angry about it. But after the decision to graduate Lin and Jun I really just have given up on the focus not being Ai and Reina. But, if anyone deserves to get a solo, it’s Ai—she sounds very good all the time, and this track is no exception. The song itself is pretty uninspired though. (Is that the second time I’ve used this word in this review? For fuck’s sake, Tsunku.)

青春コレクション – Seishun Collection
It sucks.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Not even bothering to check out Mano's new album, so there is no chance in hell that a review for that will be up here. But I'm in the midst of listening through S/mileage's new album, which is, sadly, a lot better than this.

Stay tuned, I guess.