Now I get to explain myself again…

1. Reina Tanaka – Yeah, was there ever any other doubt? This hasn’t changed. Not just my favorite MoMusu, not just my favorite H!Per, but my favorite J-idol, period. Beautiful voice, beautiful face, nice rack, nice butt… fuggedaboutit.

2. Koharu Kusumi – My geinou adopted daughter, and the young woman responsible for three of the most twisted albums in the Hello! Project canon to date, was #3 on last year’s MoMusu poll. Curiously, she was listed twice on Paul’s new poll as both a MoMusu and 1/3 of MilkyWay, so for shits and giggles I went with her MilkyWay outfit, since her tenure voicing Kirarin Revolution is coming to an end (along with the series itself) soon – and also because I seem to be cuing up “Anataboshi” quite a bit lately.

3. Mari Yaguchi - It’s about fucking time Mari hit the studio for the first time in four years and recorded something. My copy of the new single came in today, although I’ve been spinning a leak on my iPod since I caught wind of it (my impatience strikes again, buffered by my conscience saying that since I already bought the record, it’s OK.)

4. Hitomi Yoshizawa and 5. Rika Ishikawa - Placed here mainly because the HANGRY&ANGRY EP has been a frequent visitor to my iPod and CD player. Not to mention I liked Ongaku Gatas and Viyuden. And no, I’m not putting Yossy in this spot just because Reina placed 4th in Vee’s own survey last week.

6. Miyabi Natsuyaki – 1/7 of Berryz Koubou, 1/3 of Buono! and Aa! Responsible via her shirt on the Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance single for the name of this blog. H!Per most likely to make like Mike Watt or Jah Wobble. Shares a birthday with Elvis Costello. 

7. Airi Suzuki - 1/7 of C-ute, 1/3 of Buono! and Aa! H!Per most likely to make like Johnny Ramone or Ron Asheton. Responsible for those great high notes in “Maasara Blue Jeans”. 

8. Yuki Maeda - I’m probably going to be one of the few people voting for the Elder Club’s resident enka singer, but I don’t give a fuck. Yuki set off my interest in enka music long before a fellow Pennsylvanian flew to Japan and gave the genre a kick in the ass. Here’s hoping her future singing career brings her a longevity that equals, if not rivals, Sayuri Ishikawa’s and Yuriko Futaba’s. 

9. Kaori Iida - We still love you, Johnson. Please make another solo album soon. 

10. Nozomi Tsuji - Ah, Nono, if only things were different (read: If only Naoki Yamazaki wasn’t such a stick-in-the-mud prude)… Someone at UFW should dust off the master recording of W3: Faithful and, if not give it a legit release right away, at least force one by leaking the goddamn thing online. 

MORNING MUSUME
Platinum 9 DISC
(Zetima/Sony [Japan]/JapanFiles.com [USA])
Available on CD and through JapanFiles.com and iTunes US and Japan
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Man, talk about playing catch-up. The last time I saw a favorite band release a shitload of long-playing albums in such a short period of time was when Black Flag had come back in 1984 from a couple of years of legal limbo during which they couldn’t record or release new material. In one calendar year, they had released the studio albums My War and Slip It In, the live cassette Live ’84 and the half-spoken word/half-instrumental project Family Man – all in one calendar year. While that may sound like an odd comparison anywhere else in the J-pop blogosphere, I myself don’t think so. While Morning Musume didn’t have any legal holdups to speak of, 2008 was a somewhat idle year release-wise for the band, with only two singles and a side-project for them to speak of until the release of COVER YOU last November. Now, we already have a new album and single out, and a second single already in the can and scheduled for release in May – now that’s the MoMusu release schedule I’ve been acquainted with for the past five years! 

On to the album itself…

“SONGS” starts with a quiet piano intro – unusual for Morning Musume albums of recent vintage, before going into percussion-heavy disco. A couple of ProTools tricks crop up during the song’s bridges, and while that may suggest an abundance of Perfume/T-Pain vocoder/AutoTune oversaturation (blech!), instead Tsunku uses a little strobe effect on the vocals here, some AM radio simulation there, and so forth for artistic effect. Normally, these girls’ voices don’t need to be covered up.

“Resonant Blue”, one of the band’s best singles and one of this author’s all time favorites, follows. The group’s melding of various 70’s funk influences (Ohio Players guitars, Parliament-Funkadelic bass lines and drum grooves, Earth Wind & Fire horns and synth plinks) and Ai Takahashi’s and Reina Tanaka’s lead vocals still sound great almost a year after release.

“Ame no Furanai Hoshi de wa Aisanai Darou” brings in the first ballad of the album. The full group sings close harmony throughout over a (mostly synthesized) orchestral backing. Apparently two years without a major lineup change has been a major benefit to the band, and it shows on this track. Definitely one of the best ballads I’ve heard in recent years from the group, and an undisputable highlight on the album.

Reggaeton gets mined (for the second time in the Hello! Project canon – Berryz Kobuou’s “Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance”, anyone?) for the first of two Ai Takahashi/Risa Niigaki/Reina Tanaka subgroup tracks, “Take off is now!”, although the track frequently also harks stylistically to Ai and Reina’s High-King A-side “C/C (Cinderella Complex)” and throws in some frantic powerchords in the middle and an electronic percussion outro a-la Missy Elliott in the fade out.

After “Naichau Kamo” (review of the single here), Aika Mitsui gets her first ever feature track, “Watashi no Miryoku ni Kizu”. The track’s arrangement seems to suggest a lost anime closing theme in places, and the song itself is pretty good, but Aika doesn’t seem to get enough room to stretch vocally – which may be more of a weakness of the song itself rather than the singer. Fortunately, the overall package is sturdy enough.

“Guru Guru JUMP” follows, presenting long suffering fans of the Pandas, Qian Lin and Li Chun – LinLin and JunJun to most of you – with their own feature. Unforunately for detractors of a more veteran MoMusu and fortunately for her supporters. Koharu Kusumi joins in the fun. A lost Kirarin Revolution track, or an excuse to do a second-generation Rainbow Pinku lineup? Doesn’t matter. Any MoMusu album with Koharu involved needs its dose of kawaii bizarre, and “Guru Guru JUMP” fits the lineup, even if the girls sound more like °C-ute than themselves in the choruses.

One of the band’s most underrated recent singles, “Mikan”, follows. This song seems to have grown tremendously on most Morning Musume fans since its November 2007 release. I’ve liked the song since it came out, but the song’s optimistic feel resonated with me even more in the wake of Barack Obama’s presidential victory when it came up in shuffle play the day after the election. If the song doesn’t grab you by the time the harmony guitars come in, something is wrong.

The second Ai/Risa/Reina collaboration, “Jounetso no Kiss o Hitotsu” follows, delivering more solid modern urban pop that hasn’t been heard on the American airwaves in quite some time. (Do NOT make me type another “Not since TLC…” statement or refer to my favorite and much missed R&B trio again… OK, I’ll make one: If these girls ever covered “Baby-Baby-Baby” or “Red Light Special”, my head will explode.)

Sayumi Michishige gets her first ever solo feature on a MoMusu album with “It’s You”. The arrangement reminds me greatly of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis’ early Janet Jackson productions, complete with “Nasty” synth stabs, a “Rhythm Nation” new-jack-swing beat, and some serious and DEEP keyboard bass. Sayumi’s vocals are very breathy and sultry here, and she fits in quite well with the track. Congratulations, Sayumi – while you won’t be putting Kelly Clarkson or P!nk out of work anytime soon, you can indeed sing!

I am surprised by the inclusion of “Onna ni Sachi Are” and “Kanashimi Twilight” on the LP. Since both tracks appear on ALL SINGLES COMPLETE, I thought those tracks would be like “Shabondama”, “Go Girl Koi No Victory” and “Ai Araba IT’S ALL RIGHT” were to Best! Morning Musume 2 – not to appear on any MoMusu studio album. Whether the sudden burst of recording activity since last September led to not enough chances for more new tracks to be cut for Platinum 9 DISC is unknown, but the tracks themselves are definitely not unwelcome and fit nicely into their spots on the track sequence of the album.

Of course, “Onna ni Sachi Are”, the band’s first post-Miki Fujimoto track and the first song recorded with the Pandas in the lineup, is solid techno with a chorus melody cribbed from Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, while “Kashashimi Twilight” – the last MoMusu single to feature Fujimoto and Hitomi Yoshizawa – is a punk-informed slab of MoMusu-style “You’re an asshole and I’m going to rip your dick off with my bare hands” anger. It’s inclusion at the end of the track sequence closes the LP out nicely, although the track’s mix seems a bit different here on first listen compared to the single version.

In between both songs, Eri Kamei gets the last of the album’s feature tracks, “Kataomoi no Owari ni”. While the song is similar in feel and tempo to her Sexy 8 Beat collaboration with Aika Mitsui, “Haru Beautiful Everyday”, that song’s electric 12-string guitars are substituted with piano and synthetic celeste instead. Indeed, this particular basic style of song may be one that Eri is comfortable with as a solo singer, although I would not mind hearing her tackle something radically different in a future feature track.

So, even though technically it should be their 10th album counting COVER YOU, the album’s title and chosen number says otherwise, so we’ll go with the official count. Was Platinum 9 DISC worth the wait after two years since the release of Sexy 8 Beat? Absolutely. The streak of solid Morning Musume albums continues.

HANGRY & ANGRY
Kill Me Kiss Me
(Gothuall [Japan]/JapanFiles.com [North America])
Available on CD, iTunes US and Japan, and through JapanFiles.com

Ooof.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when this EP came out, but since this album has pretty much been my regular car music for the past two months, apparently the formula didn’t miss: Take two 4th-gen MoMusu’s, give them some great rock/goth/punk  hybrid tunes, wrap them in a bizarre image inspired by a Japanese boutique’s mascots, issue on CD and mp3, and knock thousands of MoMusu/H!P fans on their asses. “GIZA GIZA” recalls Evanescence somewhat (not as closely as that album track on 1st Goodsal, though), but the rest of the five-song EP has a style all of its own. A bigger independent label like Matador or Merge could give this album a better shot at American success, but JapanFiles.com put their nuts on the line to make sure this album came out simutaneously with its Japanese counterpart and did a better job in that department than The End did with Dir en grey’s new album.

ONGAKU GATAS
1st  Goodsal
(Zetima)
Availablility: CD, iTunes Japan and US

Ongaku Gatas’ 1st album (and apparently their only full-length album, given the impending graduation of most of the senior members as well as Hitomi and Rika’s current involvement in Hangry&Angry) was an easily overlooked affair by some fans. This was definitely an unfair assessment of the CD, as the efforts of “Soccer Musume” on the long-player recalled everything from “Love Machine”-era MoMusu (“Dakishimete… Namida” and first single “Narihajimeta Koi no Bell”) to Evanescence (“Koi Uranai Douri niwa Naranai wa”). With the Elder Club graduation concerts happening at the beginning of 2009, plus Erina Mano’s solo career and the impending US live debut of Hangry&Angry, now is the best time for listeners to give a second chance to 1st Goodsal. The album simply seems to get better with every listen.

After watching Gen. Powell give his endorsement, I grabbed my laptop and started hitting up my usual news and political haunts to see the initial reactions, then started going to my usual other haunts to see what else was going on, to discover this statement from Tsunku:

I have important news to share.

All members of H!P Elder Club, namely Morning Musume OG (Nakazawa Yuko, Iida Kaori, Abe Natsumi, Yasuda Kei, Yaguchi Mari, Ishikawa Rika, Yoshizawa Hitomi, Tsuji Nozomi, Konno Asami, Ogawa Makoto, Fujimoto Miki), Inaba Atsuko, Satoda Mai(Country Musume), Melon Kinenbi, Maeda Yuki, Matsuura Aya, Miyoshi Erika, Okada Yui and Ongaku Gatas, will be graduating from Hello!Project on 31.3.2009.

Most of these girls have already graduated from Morning Musume and other groups. They have been appearing on stage since their teenage years.

After the 10th year anniversary had passed, they have realized that it is necessary to smash through the stereotypes they have built by now, and find courage to begin a new trip towards their future careers.

Personally, I have big expectations to see their future efforts, and I would like to announce my support for these girls.

I also hope you will keep supporting both current Hello!Project members and the members who are going to graduate.

(Translation from Hello! Online, grammar-nazied here by yours truly)

While there is some initial shock at reading of what seems like a mass purge, with the shock and bits of sadness comes the realization that this had to happen.

Most of these artists haven’t done much on the recording side of things in at least a year, so their forthcoming departures from the unit aren’t too surprising. Yuko Nakazawa hasn’t done a single since last year’s “Danna Sama” or released an album since 2004’s Dai 2 Shou ~Tsuyogari~. Natsumi Abe, although as of this writing has another single due to come out on December 12th, hasn’t released a single in over a year, and her last non-single-length release was the 25 ~Vingt-Cinq~ EP back in March of 2007.

Much of the list hasn’t had much activity in recent years, at least not when it comes to studio recordings. Kaori Iida and Nozomi Tsuji haven’t done any recording in years – Kaori was strangely silent as a recording artist after releasing two post-Morning Musume albums in 2004, save for the MoMusu 10nen unit. Nono hasn’t been near a studio since W3:Faithful and its advance single were first sent to the mastering studio, only for the entire master tape to end up going the way of The Beach Boys’ original version of SMiLE. Their recent transition into motherhood and wedlock is barely a factor in their studio inactivity given that both became Morning MILFs only last year.

The presence of Yuki Maeda on the list sucks. I liked all of her singles (they frequently come up in rotation on an enka playlist I have in iTunes) and would have liked to see at least two full length albums or at least a singles collection from her by now. I hope she’ll have a long post-H!P career as an enka singer that can match Sayuri Ishikawa’s and Yuriko Futaba’s.

Melon Kinenbi’s inclusion on the list is also a shame, given that they’re the only Hello! Project unit that has never had a personnel change in its entire existence. So much for that distinction (unless they are able to keep the band name for a post-H!P career).

The presence of much of Ongaku Gatas on the list is a major shock – especially since Hitomi Yoshizawa and Rika Ishikawa are going to be part of the HANGRY&ANGRY project (unless that’s part of a transition for them already). It seems like yesterday that Asami Konno, after graduating from Hello! Project entirely in 2006, suddenly returned first in a cameo appearance at the graduation of Country Musume’s Asami Kimura and Minua Saitou, and then returned to H!P to participate in Gatas Brilliantes and Ongaku Gatas. I also wonder how Mai Satoda feels about this, given that Ongaku Gatas gave her a seemingly permanent home for her talents after the implosion of Country Musume.

I am of mixed feelings on Miki Fujimoto’s presence on the list. I liked her post-MoMusu solo single (I think I was one of the few, if not the only one, who wrote about it in the IW blogosphere) but its likely she seems more happy as an actress now. We’ll see.

I don’t think anyone expected Rika’s bandmates in the recently disbanded Viyuden, Erika Miyoshi and Yui Okada, to get the axe so soon after the band broke up. What the fuck, UFA, Erika and Yui were just two pairs of tits to you after Viyuden’s last tour ended?

At least all of the above were to see the inside of a recording studio. Mari Yaguchi should have also had a couple of solo albums out by now, but she has become more of a TV personality and has only done one recording (an appearance on the B-side of Berryz Koubou’s first 7nin single) since her sudden departure from Morning Musume in 2005. Kei Yasuda should have also been more active as a singer (her only post-MoMusu appearances as a singer on records were on the last Folk Songs album, and on “ALL FOR ONE & ONE FOR ALL” with H!P All Stars), but at least she’s been touring as part of Natsumi Abe’s live band in recent years as a saxophonist and keyboardist (those MoMusu OG bonds must run deep!). Makoto Ogawa didn’t even get to do anything ouside of a HaroMoni@ cameo since her return from college!

Aya Matsuura’s inclusion on the list is and isn’t surprising. While she has continued to record, in recent months (and years) she has been open about her desire to go in a different direction musically – as if her live-in-studio set Naked Songs, last year’s Double Rainbow and her recent solo singles from that period were not already an indication.

No doubt, many of these Elder Club members will continue to have careers after their departure from Hello! Project. Graduating from H!P does not necessarily mean a departure from Up-Front Works itself (keep Tsunku’s statement about smashing stereotypes in mind), since there are a slew of UFW artists that have never been part of Hello! Project. Some are already active, so I’m sure we will still hear from them. I look forward to seeing how they fare from April of 2009, although I have to admit that in a couple of cases I shouldn’t exactly hold my breath waiting for new music from a few of them. I’m sure Hello! Online will continue to follow news about these artists as they have already done with Ai Kago and Maki Goto’s post-H!P careers. And if this purge means a greater quality focus on Morning Musume, Berryz Koubou and C-ute in the immediate and distant future, so be it.

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: Apologies to Metallica for the paraphrase of their 1993 live album’s title… maybe. I’m still waiting for one from Metallica for the aptly-named Load and Re-Load albums, unless Death Magnetic is supposed to be one.)