2014 is almost gone and, like always, I started selecting my favourite songs from the year. Looking at my selection, I concluded that I reviewed a good portion of them here on KKP through the year, but also skept one or another important song. One of my skips was Morning Musume.’s (モーニング娘。) “Toki wo Koe Sora wo Koe”, which was released back in April.
Since 2012, Morning Musume. is investing really hard in this heavy electronic pop trend that suddenly became popular in the United States. They’ve done it in a aggressive and cool way, which earned them very good sales and more #1 singles on the Oricon charts to their long discography, but as a fan of the group’s “Golden Times”, it was impossible for me to truly enjoy the new changes.
As for “Toki wo Koe Sora wo Koe”, Tsunku (つんく♂) had the great idea of keeping the electronic elements while changing the mood a little bit. In this canse, instead of an aggressive electronic pop song, the group released a beautiful ballad with electronic interventions here and there, and also stuttering piano notes and strings in the arrangement. Add a touching chorus and we have Morning Musume.’s most interesting single in a while.
The video, although simple, is visually stunning. The nice blue dresses combined very well with the space thematic and the girls are absolutely gorgeous. Also, I always think of them as spatial fairies every time I watch the video.
“Toki wo Koe Sora wo Koe”, which was a double a-side single with “Password is 0”, reached #1 on the Oricon charts, selling 132,225 copies. Lyrics and music were done by Tsunku, while Kaoru Okubo (大久保薫) was responsible for the arrangement.
Hi, Marcos.
ReplyDeleteThis is a pretty interesting song with the technopop touch...and it does differ from the usual Perfume tune. Like you, I'm always going to appreciate MM during their disco-pop days at the turn of the century, but this is an intriguing direction for the current group.
It says something about how much time has flown by when Sayumi is retiring from the group as the leader. The last time I paid attention to Morning Musume was when she was still the giddy and goofy newbie.
Hi, J-Canuck.
DeleteAbout Sayumi, it's interesting to thing how one of the least talented singers of the group lasted more than ten years in the group. She surely is a charismatic and cute young lady, and I hope she continues in the show business as a tarento in variety shows (if she wants that, of course).
Last month, the group released the last single in which Sayu participated, a triple a-side single that, besides the main song, contained a cute solo song from Sayu (it's funny how she points her lack of singing talent in the lyrics) and a song sung by the other girls paying homage to her as a leader and an aidoru. In the end, it was quite nice to see how Tsunku decided to show some love to her (maybe because it was during her leadership that the group suddenly became popular again, although I think this is more due to the current aidoru boom than because of Sayu's talents as a leader).
Sayumi-chan is really cute!
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