"AMARANTHUS" (left) and "Hakkin no Yoake" (right)
Today
is a big day for any Momoiro Clover Z (ももいろクローバーZ) fan out there, as the girls are releasing their 3th and
4th albums, “AMARANTHUS” and “Hakkin no Yoake”, simultaneously.
I’ve
already listened to both albums a couple of times, and, as anything in life,
they have both positive and negative things. The main aspect that kept me
thinking, though, was how the new Momoclo isn’t that wild and crazy Momoclo we
were used to around 2012. Nowadays, their sound is more standard aidoru-pop than ever.
Yeah,
Momoclo’s unpredictable energy cooled down a little bit, and, in all honesty,
I don’t find it a bad thing. Sure, they have less stellar songs like “Mouretsu Uchuu...” (猛烈宇宙交響曲・第七楽章「無限の愛」) or “Saraba, Itoshiki Kanashimi-tachi yo” (サラバ、愛しき悲しみたちよ), but, at the same time, awkward
experimentalisms such as “Neo STARGATE” and “BIRTH BIRTH” (BIRTH Ø BIRTH) are
not in our way anymore.
The
thing is, the girls have achieved an important, but questionable, balance in
the long run, which is the ability to maintain a reasonable level of quality...
to the prejudice of more experimental or unusual sounds, of course. In other
words, they started recording fun pop songs without the attention-grabbing
elements they were known in the past. Or they sold their souls, if you prefer.
Now, for the music, I
wanted to highlight three songs that are somehow being used to promote the
albums. They all have official music videos, but, unfortunately, two of them
are just short versions (I hate short versions, but it became a thing in Japan
since 2014. It’s funny how conservative and obtuse the Japanese music industry
is towards YouTube).
“Maholo
Vacation” (マホロバケーション) is easily my favorite song from both
albums (it can be found in “Hakkin no Yoake”), and it’s not hard to understand
why: the song is funky and the fat bassline is just perfetct. To crown it, I’m
in love with the catchy chorus.
This adds to my
thesis that Momoclo is keeping things simple, but fun. Also, it’s no mystery
how the vocals are one of the weakest points of the group, so songs like “Maholo
Vacation”, that don’t require high or overcomplicated notes, are just perfect
for them. If you take a look at past songs “Neo STARGATE” and “BIRTH BIRTH”,
you’ll easily notice how painfully annoying their voices could get at some
parts. Momoclo is an outstanding performance group with charismatic girls, but
they have to work properly with their weaknesses. To a world with more “Maholo
Vacation”!
“WE ARE BORN” was the first song from the new albums I listened to, besides
the singles, of course. As the lead song of “AMARANTHUS”, it instantly got me
pumped with the more pop-rock vibe, and is probably the nearest Momoclo gets to
their old selves with its quirky and silly nature. Also, the chorus has the
right ammount of drama, in a way “Neo STARGATE” and “BIRTH BIRTH” tried to
deliver in the past, but failed badly because of uncomfortable vocal choices.
Yeah,
“Hakkin no Yoake” is a ballad. Not only, it’s a ballad coming from Momoclo.
That said, it had all the elements to be a bad song, but it turned out quite
good.
“Hakkin
no Yoake” starts slow with minimal elements in the arrangement until it gets to the
emotive and melodic chorus. After that, the song becomes a little fuller with a proper beat and synth details in the background. The strings, which were
beautifully introduced in the first chorus, also continues to make appearances
through the song, which is always a good thing. Even the vocals are not that
bad (they still fail sometimes, I know), and, although it can sound like a
cheesy AKB48 ballad at times, I forgive Momoclo and congratulate them for such
effort. Also, the video is a gorgeous collection of phases from Momoclo’s
career, which, coupled with the song, probably softened my heart a little bit.
Now,
wrapping things up, I read the entire post and realised how I talked good about
the new songs and bashed both “Neo STARGATE” and “BIRTH BIRTH”, which,
coincidentally or not, were the promotional songs to Momoclo’s last album “5TH
DIMENSION”. The thing is, “Maholo Vacation”, “WE ARE BORN” and “Hakkin no Yoake”
are also promotional songs, so they’re exactly what the two aforementioned past
songs should have been back in 2013, but, in my opinion, failed. In other words, they were very ambitious songs that didn't work well with the girls' vocal limitations. This mistake was finally solved with the songs in "AMARANTHUS" and "Hakkin no Yoake", though. Momoclo has redeemed themselves.
Also, this
somewhat comparative work wasn’t my true intention when I started writing this
post, but, well... it just happened. With that in mind, let’s say the new
Momoiro Clover Z evolved in a dubious way: their singles have been lackluster,
but they compensated with fun and solid album songs that, even though far from
the group’s peak, are able to indicate a new horizon or path to them.
“AMARANTHUS”
and “Hakkin no Yoake” were released together in February 2016. Lyrics for “WE
ARE BORN” were written by Naoko Fujibayashi (藤林直子),
while music and arrangement were done by tatsuo. As for “Hakkin no Yoake”,
lyrics were written by Takahiro Maeda (前田たかひろ),
while music and arrangement were done by Katsu Yokoyama (横山克).
Finally, lyrics for were written by Sumiyo Mutsumi (六ツ見純代),
while music and arrangement were done by
invisible manners.
Hi Marcos.
ReplyDeleteYeah, "Maholo Vacation" sounds more conventional...kinda more along the lines of an AKB48 tune while "We Are Born" has got some of that old wild side from their earlier days. I like both of them so I hope that the group retains a combination of their current and old selves. Not quite sold on the ballad, however.
Thanks for the comment, J-Canuck.
DeleteTo be honest, I’d rather more insane songs from them, but we’ll probably only get them from Dempagumi.inc nowadays. However, I like the more down to earth approach as well, especially in the funky “Maholo Vacation”.
As for the ballad, well, you know I’m not a big ballad fan, but this one caught me off guard. I’m pretty satisfied with it.