I got into the Idol game with Morning Musume. They were my first (they were gentle), but we’ve grown apart. The Momusu of today isn’t really the Momusu I knew and fell in love with. But recently, we shared some old times together. We’re gonna take the jump together, and rekindle a lost love.
Earlier this year most of the graduated members of Morning Musume (sans the turtle and pandas, since they were seemingly asked to leave show business altogether) who still care to be celebrities were pushed together into a shiny new package and dubbed Dream Morning Musume. If you have a favorite who graduated, she’s probably there, (unless she signed with AVEX or is a chain smoker who can’t keep it in her pants around the old folks’ home…I still love you, Aibon). They mostly got together to promote random crap, do some lives, appear on TV and talk about the good ol’ days. But, they also hit the recording booth and did an album.
DREAMS 1 is mostly a cover album; Morning Musume covering…Morning Musume. Well, they cover songs that most of them didn’t appear on, which is a cool idea in my book. For years I talked about the newer Momusu girls covering older Momusu songs and putting out an album, I like that kind of shit. I’m not really going to talk about individual tracks that much, because they’re the same—just with new (old) voices. But, really that’s where the awesome comes in. These VOICES. Oh sweet fancy Moses how I’ve missed these voices. It makes me realize how…less than talented Morning Musume really is now. All of these old gals can freaking sing, man. For me, the most nostalgia inducing track is the girls’ new rendition of Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari (here dubbed the 2011 DREAMS Ver.). I always loved JKMs just for the cheese factor and getting to here all the girls actually get solo lines. This song though, jeez, it makes you long for the old days. Even the ones that aren’t that vocally strong (Oh, hi Rika and Yossi) make you wistful on this track. Then of course that so-called miracle decides to crap on the track and make you Yao Ming. But let’s forget about her (cus really, you had until I brought her up).
The girls cover some newer album tracks from RAINBOW 7 and PLATINUM 9 DISC as well. I’m actually curious as to Tsunku’s song selection. I get tracks like Mikan and even Sexy Boy (UE UE!), though I might raise my eyebrow at the latter. But, why in the hell would you have them cover P9D’s Ame no Furanai Hoshi de wa Aisenai Darou? I get it’s what I would call a ‘vocal prowess’ song, but the highlight of the track is JunJun and LinLin’s lines in Mandarin. When you heard them belt those lines, you rejoiced. But of course those lines are omitted from the Dream version, since these girls can barely order Chinese food. Also, another version of Morning Coffee? Really? Some of the covers are also merely relined since songs like Roman and and Sexy Boy featured at least half of these girls already. I would’ve preferred even newer tracks like Genki+, Resonant Blue, or 321 BREAKIN’ OUT! The original tracks on the album are alright, Tsunku hasn’t been putting out his best work lately, but it’s nothing horrible.
Overall, unbiased, I’d have to say the album is only so-so. So why do I like this album? I’m not really sure… It might just be that I miss these girls. And holy crap Fujimoto Miki. Listen to this album and weep when you realize Miki’s glorious voice isn’t making music anymore.
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Buy Dream Morning Musume’s DREAMS 1 here!
