Bikkuri Project

I’ve looked at the future of the h!p kids, not it’s time to look at the past.That meansit’s Berryz Kobou’s turn to have me list their top 5 songs. Hora!

5.Anata Nashide wa Sekite Yukenai-

I have a very bad reason for picking this song for my list. I really really like the background music/vocals. The “what a night” parts, and especially the part between the verses and the bridge. That, “da dadada dadada dadada” part. That is an absolutely terrible description, and if anyone understands the part I’m trying to reference, you get a virtual Christmas cookie. Anyway, since this is Berryz first single, their inexperience shows in their vocals, and it does seem like an odd choice to have girls that young singing this kind of song as their debut, but every time I’m about to write off the song as a bad job, those background hooks pull me back in. Go Tsunku, I guess.

4.Kohaku Funsui no Hiroba

From Berryz first single to one of their most recent, and my how far they have come with their vocals. A ballad that gets stuck in my head. That’s something new. It needs more Chinami, but the style of the chorus, with the top 4 switching off at each line is particularly appealing. It almost sounds like a conversation going on between them with one girl asking something and the next one replying. Easily my favorite Berryz song of 2007.

3.Special Generation

SU-PE-SHA-RU GENERATION! Were you wondering where this one would show up? There’s a reason that we see this song over and over again at concerts. It plays really well to a live crowd with that opening, all of the “oi!”s, and its great dance beat. This song represented a big step up for the Berryz. In a similar manner to Cute’s latest single, one great song was all it took to make people start paying attention and taking them seriously as a group. With this single they announced, “We’re not just Morning Musume’s cute little backdancers anymore”. Speaking of dances, this song has an awesome one, and I love how that little swirly move at the very beginning as become iconic for the Berryz. As a final note, major props to LinLin for doing so well with Risako’s lines in this at the newcomers concert.

2.Koshi Teru Toshi Haitsumo

Here’s a first, a song’s A-side and B-side both making the list. It seems like all too often, if a single is great, it’s B side is probably going to suck. It’s like too much of Tsunku’s talent went into the A-side, and there just wasn’t any left for the coupling track. That’s not the case with Special Generation and its coupling track, Koshi Teru Toshi Haitsumo. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, I am a complete sucker for the younger girls doing super-high falsetto singing. Since this song is full of it, I was bound to love it. Also, you can really hear the feeling that the girls are putting into their voices, and there are a lot of lines from the girls we don’t hear from very much. I should point out that the quality of the song does not suffer as a result. This song is a fitting coupling track for Berryz defining single, further cementing that Berryz are not a novelty group, but a musical force to be reckoned with.

1.Munasawagi Scarlet

This song magically went from something I didn’t even like to my absolute favorite Berryz song. I think it took me a while to ‘get’ the style of it, but once I did, it was love. The guitar is awesome, the singing is awesome, the little curtsies in the dance are awesome, and yes, the Risako is awesome too. No one can do that, “mmm yes my love” hook like her with a perfect combination of child-like poutyness and saucy sexuality. I also really like the costumes because they’re pink and red and blue. Berry colors on the Berryz at last!

As a special bonus, here’s how I currently rank the h!p kids. I may get around to explaining this someday.

1. Momoko

2. Airi

3. Saki N.

4. Chisato

5. Chinami

6. Risako

7. Maimi

8. Yurina

9. Kanna

10. Saki S.

11. Mai

12. Maasa

13. Miyabi

14. Erika