Is This Really the Start of a Brand New Era? A Review of Morning Musume's 63rd Single!
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TRACK ONE ► BRAND NEW MORNING
Before even watching the music video, it was quite obvious that this was another marching-type of song which feels slightly reminiscent of previous songs such as Ai no Gundan, The Peace!, or even Berryz Koubou's Ai wo Itsumo Kimi no Naka de judging on the visuals for the song. Heck, they're all even wearing marching band-esque outfits. My initial thoughts was that, visually, they didn't look quite that bad. Although, I did not really have that much high expectations for them due to the disappointment that was their previous single. And then, the music video was released.
To be frank, the music video is really not that special since it follows the basic Hello! Project formula which consists of dance shot, close ups, and some other miscellaneous scenes that are either used as filler or helps enhances the mood of the song. Overall, it was a very clean and polished music video. It's not chaotic and it doesn't look messy, which is already decent enough in my opinion. This isn't my favorite music video from the group, but the way the production crew created it following the basic H!P formula was really well in my opinion. And I'll briefly explain why.
You have the generic dance (which I will touch upon in a moment) and close ups for your music video. All that's left afterwards are other additional scenes that are sometimes used for the sake of filler (especially when there's no specific storyline). In this case, there is no story line. However, the scenes helped enhanced the theme and mood of the song. They included scenes such as flag spinning which was quite interesting, and helps really bring out that marching/army-esque feeling. In their previous music video for Sou Janai, they had sepia tone scenes which were quite odd and felt out of place. However, since the overall color palette of the video was warm colors like reds and yellows, the sepia scenes of the girls marching individual in the center during the dance break just fits very nicely. My point is that there's smooth transitioning and no scene felt out of place.
Since this is the 13th Generation members' debut music video, it was expected that both Reina and Kaede would have a lot of screen time and they did. They were the first thing you see as the music video starts as they "unveiled" themselves by pulling the white covers off of them. They were up front and center when it came to dance at times. Both Reina and Kaede had a huge presence that could not ignored. However, their debut felt different compared to other debut videos. The reason is that they don't look that awkward, especially for someone like Reina who was only in Kenshuusei for less than a year. In my opinion, they were quite charming and knew how to work the camera. I was impressed, good job ladies.
Now I'll just talk about the dance briefly. I just want to point out that they started releasing the dance shot videos again - well not publicly like on YouTube but through their limited edition versions, which is something. However, the video hasn't been uploaded yet so I can't comment on it so much and I have to rely on live performances. Although the dance really follows the beat of the song well, it didn't particularly interested me that much. It felt like- I know they can dance better than this, but is this really all they can do for this song? It's not memorable, in my opinion. Although, it was nice seeing them trying to dabble back into formation dancing again. The closest they did was making an X/plus sign thing.
And now there's the outfits, which are basically marching band uniforms. Morning Musume must really likes the red/black color palette since they used it for previous single and concert outfits. Okay, they're not my favorite. They look flattering for some of the members, like Harunan who's always super pretty everyday, and they don't look that flattering for other members. I'm just very indifferent to the outfits. Nonetheless, this is your basic Hello! Project music video but they executed the basic formula really well. It's not favorite video but it's still quite nice. So now, let's talk about the song- whoo, boy. This song is quite something.
After listening to the song the first time, I was quite disappointed because it ended up being similar to Berryz Koubou's Ai wo Itsumo Kimi no Naka de but not in terms of sound though. Similar to Berryz Koubou's song, this song started out with a very strong and powerful beginning with the "We are Brand New Morning" and all. However, when they sang the middle verses and the chorus - it was just very weak compared to the beginning "We are Brand New Morning." It took quite some time but the song eventually grew onto me.
As the title implies, the song is one of motivation/encouragement/determination as the main theme is... oh great, I forgot what the specific line was. Basically, everyone knows the similar saying in which "it's a new day, a new start." That's what the main theme is. With the changing times, people struggle. The song addresses that slightly and replies with "It's a new morning, a new day, a new start. Don't let it get to you" and other positive sayings such as don't spread hate, spread love. The lyrics are nice, the vocals are a different story.
It sincerely feels weird not hearing Masaki sing in this song, and I'm still not used to it. /whacked; When it comes to vocals, I'm getting a whole bunch of stuff such as Erina actually having a solo line (oh my gooooooood). Reina and Kaede did a very good job when it comes to their solo lines. They are still quite lacking but with proper training, they can really become quite great vocalists. Sakura was great as always and Haruka's solo line at the end was amazing. However, I will admit that I'm not becoming much of a fan of Mizuki nowadays. She's a great vocalist but I'm not getting that passion, feeling from her. Hearing her after Haruka, I was like "..... Okay."
Overall, is this my most favorite song from the group? No. Is this more memorable than their previous atrocity of their 62nd single? Yes, absolutely. It's quite better than what I've been hearing from them nowadays.
TRACK TWO ► ジェラシー ジェラシー
In terms of visuals when it first came out, I honestly expected this to be better than the previous song. It just looked like it. With the promotional pictures, all the girls just looked stunning. Haruka looked absolutely stunning and yes, this is me being biased as always. /sorrynotsorry; After Haruka, Ayumi was also just as gorgeous. The visuals were white and pretty. Despite this, I still do not have that much expectations. At the most, I just thought that maybe the song would be catchier. I was wrong. I was completely wrong when it came to this song.
So let me just start off with the music video as always. It's not that special since it really does follow the basic H!P formula: dance shot + close ups + additional scenes. The production crew who created this music video, though following the generic formula, really created a generally nice video which was very clean and polished. I'll just say it out right now, this music video was much more aesthetically pleasing to me compared to Brand New Morning. It was a very aesthetic music video; however, aesthetic doesn't mean better. This video had its own flaws and coming from a slightly objective perspective, Brand New Morning had the better music video.
I love the setting very much. It's a box set but it had such nice black and white minimalist feel. The set where the girls were just sitting around and about with the divided room was my favorite. It was my favorite scenes because it really showed off the concept of jealousy very well. In the white room, you have the girls acting really happy and chippy as if nothing could bother them. Yet, when the enter the black room- they immediately show annoyance and irritation because they're jealous but they couldn't show it. Those were my favorite scenes. I also quite like the scenes when they were performing the more rap-like parts of the song since it really brought a splash of color. Yet...
This is just me being a brat but these are my personal opinions. I didn't like the close ups and the scenes with the red curtain. The red really didn't fit with the whole black and white color palette they had going on for a majority of time. Although the "rap" scenes were quite colorful, it still had a huge presence of white and black to go with theme. The red felt like an eyesore for me. And, there was a handful of filler scenes such as the girls just awkwardly standing and pointing at each other or them throwing water balloons as a sign with the word "jealousy" on it. These scenes just felt so out of place for me. They may seem like small thing but they really add it all up for me and just brings me down.
The dance was okay. That's all I could say really since I personally feel very indifferent towards it. It wasn't that memorable and (this is probably due to the camera angles and the slightly small set) - everyone's movements seemed a bit sloppy and messy at different times. However, if you can look past that, I guess you can considered the dance to be pretty nice. I'm just having that feeling where I know they could do better, but this is what they had to work with for the song. As for the outfits, 10/10. I love them. I love the white dresses. I love the colorful outfits. It flatters everyone. 'nough said.
Overall, it was a very aesthetically pleasing video. Jealousy Jealousy has a really nice video that had so much potential to become of the nicest music videos Morning Musume ever released. However, with all the weird filler scenes and the dance - it's the small things that really build up and just brings everything down. This is just what I feel and it kinda explains why Brand New Morning had the better video since the dance looks better and less messy, along with additional scenes that does not seem like filler. The music video wasn't that bad but oh boy... Here's the song.
Judging from the visuals, I was expecting the song to be something reminiscent or have a similar feel to their previous songs such as Nanchatte Renai or Shouganai Yume Oibito or Onna ga Medatte Naze Ikenai- I was expecting a very pretty, classy sound from it. Everyone says that you should never judge a book by its cover and I was just so incredibly wrong about this song. There are a handful of fans who love this song- I don't. I don't particularly listen to this song at all outside of when I'm reviewing and have to refresh my memory.
After listening to the song, yes- the song really does feel like it came out of the Platinum Era. I can honestly imagine people like Reina and Ai singing in this. I really do think that this song is a bit overrated, it's not great. I don't find the song catchy at all. From the verses to the chorus, it sounded like a mess. It felt like there were many incomplete songs so the management just took what sounded best from those songs and forced them into this one big song, hoping it all would work out. It did not for me. The rap was good and quite catchy. However, it was not enough to save this song.
Overall, we have an okay music video but a really not-so-great song. I just don't like the song and I've tried to get used to it and let it grow onto me. But I can't. I really don't like it. This is what I get for having decent expectations for a song- I just end up being disappointed in the end.
TRACK THREE ► モーニングみそ汁
What is this? What is this? Morning Musume has B-sides again? /squeals; Although, this is probably only temporary and they'll just go back to releasing double/triple A-sides again with no B-sides. Either way, I'm very happy. It's been so long since any group from Hello! Project has released a single with a B-side. And I'll say this now, I'm very happy with this song. This is the Morning Coffee cover that we all needed.
Out of the all the music videos that came out of this single, Morning Misoshiru is my favorite music video. This video doesn't really follow the basic formula which usually consists of dance scenes, close up, the usual- I explained this earlier in the post. I don't really want to spend too much time talking about the music video, but I really do like it. It's has a very light-hearted, vibrant feeling. The music video really gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling. All the girls are in the great outdoors, just having fun at a very colorful campsite. They're around the campfire. It's just very simply, yet vibrant music video. It's not too generic like the music videos for the main A-sides. Also, if I must say- it felt really great seeing Masaki included in the video.
Throwback to their 2014 best of album in which they covered old Morning Musume but with EDM... This is how they should cover old songs. No EDM, no remixing, just a simple updated tune like this. Honestly, I will never get tired of listening to the song. In addition, I really love the vocals for this song. For once, I thought everyone sounded great in this. I really love Sakura's "I love you" part as it stuck out to me the most in the song. Overall, this was just a great way to cover an old classic and everything was just great in general. This is my favorite song from the single, overall.
TRACK FOUR ► GET YOU!
Ah, yes. And now we have this track in which for the first time- AKB48 and Morning Musume actually collaborated on a song. I just want to note that the version on Morning Musume's single is completely different from the version on AKB48's album as the latter shows more of Sashihara's vocals while this one focuses more on MoMusu's vocals. I just want to get that out there first before I actually started talking about the song, but then again... I don't really have much to say about this track in all truth.
I listened to the version from AKB48's album and I listened to the version on this single- and I don't like either of them. The song was really boring and forgettable. There was honestly nothing memorable about the song. When I first listened to the song, I was in a lecture for my class and - no joke - I just fell asleep from listening to the song a minute in. I'm not disliking the song just because they collaborated, please don't misunderstand me. I think the fact that AKB48 and Morning Musume collaborated is good because it shows that the groups are friends and fans of each other as well. It's just that this song is just not my cup of tea. I don't like it. I honestly thought it can grow onto me but after listening it repeatedly up until now.. I just still don't like it.
Overall, I just don't like the song. It's very generic and boring. There was nothing distinguishable about it for me. If you like the song, that's cool! I'm just gonna go sit in the corner like a loser and listen to other songs that I like. /whacked;
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So that's all really for my review of Morning Musume's 63rd single. Is this the start of a new era in Morning Musume? Maybe. It's hard to determined since the single was kinda wishy-washy for me. I like some aspects about it, I don't like some. I guess it really depends on what do they for the next two singles which will be Haruka's graduation single and the single after her departure respectively. So what are your thoughts on the single? Do you like it? Do you hate it? Let me know in the comments, I'd like to know. Until my next post, jyaa ne~
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