I guess we're lucky. Morning Musume's third album is here already. It's not a best collection! (Like most of the stuff I've been reviewing lately.) The group has changed a lot since they last released an album. Their second album, "Second Morning" was released right after Asuka had left the group. I feel that Morning Musume has undergone a lot of innovations since Asuka (who was really the leader in spirit) left the group. And I'm not sure if these innovations were all for the better, though they did seem to earn the group higher spots on the single charts. The songs (beginning with LOVE MACHINE) have been much more goofy, yet just as cute, if not more cute. That leaves the question, does "3rd ~LOVE Paradise~" live up to the past albums musically? The album begins with "ohayou", a bore track that we could do without. It's just one of those introductory 2 minute things with some voices from the girls in it. The second track is probably what everyone wants to hear. It's their single, LOVE MACHINE, the song that they're probably best known for these days. The song has remained on the charts for months through the turn of the new millenium, and still plays annoyingly on the radio all the time. Yes, quite an exciting single indeed. And this song, I feel, truly marks the group's change into a more humorous and perhaps campy musical style. The group got a new member for this single, bringing them back up to eight, replacing Asuka (and of course a big deal was made out of it - that becomes apparent in the opening for the LOVE MACHINE promotion video). But on to some new stuff now. Track 3 is "aisha LOAN de". I'd have to say that overall the first couple times I listened to the album I was bored with it and wasn't interested in any of the new music. I almost gave this album a low 5 for a rating, until I listened to it some more and these new songs grew on me. I like "aisha LOAN de". It's really catchy rhythmically and melodically. The song isn't so campy. Track 4 is "kuchizuke no sono ato". I like this song as well. What I really like about it is that it sounds much more like something that would have come from their second album. In case you didn't figure it out, I love Morning Musume's second album. Like most of my favorite songs from them, it's upbeat and beautiful sounding. Their harmony blends perfectly. Next is "koi no DANCE SITE", the single that followed LOVE MACHINE. In my review of "koi no DANCE SITE" I pronounced it the weirdest Morning Musume song to date and I really wasn't kidding about that. It is a pretty good song, though really wacky (weird chatting, lyrics, egyptian sounds). Read the review of that single. After that, comes a bad track, "Lunchtime". This track is not a song. It may have music, but it is mostly just talking. There's an annoying guy and annoying talk from the girls. This is a really annoying track, to say the least. "DANCE suru no da!" is probably one of the most initially addictive and striking tracks on the album. It was probably the first new one I liked. The lyrics are extremely simple ("X X suru no da"). "omoide" is one of their less happy sounding songs. It's nothing new for the group, but it's not bad. Unfortunately, I found "harujuku 6:00 shuugou" to be about the most annoying new song on the album. There's nothing I like about it. It's repetitive, and the only musical classification I can think of that it falls into is 'annoying'. "WHY" is one of their slow and quiet songs. I found nothing special about the track, except perhaps that each member takes turns with the melody, which makes it less repetitive. Unfortunately there seems to be a build-up of pretty bad tracks toward the end of the album, which caused me to lower the rating. It's great that the album has so many brand new tracks, rather than reused stuff from the singles, but some of these new tracks I really just don't like. "...suki dayo" is interesting. It has some of the neatest use of stereo sound I've ever heard. There's nothing extremely creative about it, it's just that they've put half the song on the right side and the other half on the left. If you turn off the right channel, you can hear just the instrumentation with half of the vocals. If you turn off the left channel you can hear just the percussion with half the vocals. It's pretty neat and it's a nice change of pace. But you can tell why stereo mixers don't do this for every song - it would get really annoying. This stereo situation causes the music to sound less full and perhaps farther away from the listener. Still, it is refreshing. Also it should be noted that there was a very interesting stereo track on Morning Musume's second album as well. "otome no shinrigaku" from "Second Morning" had the vocalists switching off between the left and right sides. This worked really well with Morning Musume's style of harmony. Of course you won't be able to observe the stereo sound of "...suki dayo" with the monoraul sample below. And "oyasumi" is the really boring closing track where all the members take turns saying "oyasumi". Overall, I guess I was impressed with the album. I didn't like it at first, but after listening to it some more I did enjoy it. The amount of new tracks on this album is commendable. It's really refreshing after hearing many of the other albums these days that reuse practically every song from the singles. So I'll leave the final decision up to you. If you're a fan of Morning Musume, then you'll be happy with this album. Otherwise just listen to the sound samples.
Buy it here.
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