Berryz Koubou is a girl pop group formed in 2004 by the evil geniuses who brought you Morning Musume. I'm not sure whether they qualify as an idol group in their own right quite yet, but there's no denying that they're popular - singles regularly reaching the top 10 in the Oricon charts - as well as gaining footholds with international J-music fandom; they're slated to perform in America for the first time at Sakura Con in Seattle at the end of April. Those of you who aren't familiar with Berryz Koubou but are familiar with Morning Musume probably already have a pretty good idea of what this group sounds like; those of you who don't know either group can form a good approximation of their sound by imagining sweet Japanese girls in cute outfits with rainbows and sparkles and ponies flying out of their mouths as they sing.
As you can imagine, this isn't exactly my type of music. About a third of the album is saccharine to the point of inducing opening-the-Ark-of-the-Covenant-style face melting: should I ever listen to this album again, "Bomb Bomb Jump," "Girls Times," and "Onna no Power" are all getting the skip for this reason. Another third of the album tends toward the bland: "Maji Bomber!!" "Masshiroi Ano Kumo," and "Shining Power!" fit into that category easily, and will also get the skip if they ever cross my path again.
But the final third is actually pretty good. "Icchome Rock" (the opening) and "Magical Future!" (the ending) are catchy and fun with surprisingly good musical qualities for a girl group that relies more on sweet smiles and cute costumes than singing or dancing ability. And even better than these two are "Heroine ni Narou Ka!" and "Joshikai the Night," both of which I'd be happy to play again. "Heroine ni Narou Ka!" actually got a mini "squee" out of me when I first heard it: it has a bit of a retro electronic sound, kind of like the music you'd hear from a DDR machine, and the old school feeling expands into both the primary and backup vocals as well. The whole song feels like the opening song for a magical girl anime, and it's easily my favorite on the album. "Joshikai the Night" takes a close second with a similar electronic, anime opening-style sound. I don't know why I'm so attached to the songs that remind me of being a dumb kid whose biggest wish was to make out with Tuxedo Mask, but there you have it. Overall review: I doubt I'll be replaying the album again unless it's to pull out "Heronie ni Narou Ka!" and "Joshikai the Night." Both of which are likely to, embarrassingly, join regular playlist rotation.
*Point of interest: my husband, who (supposedly) likes bands like Korn, Slipknot, and Slayer, loved this entire album except for maybe one song. So, I guess the lesson here is that Berryz Koubou has the power to melt brains as well as faces. :\
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