Beat Laments The World

A metal-infused take on Asian music & other stuff

Guitar solos. You gotta love ‘em. I’ve nothing more to add, let’s go.

Lots of noteworthy runner-ups this time that were awesome but just not awesome enough to quite make the top 5:

(note that the mp3′s here only include the solo parts)

Michiyo Heike – GET:

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I like how even the very first song that came out of Hello! Project features an excellent guitar solo. Oh and yeah, it’s actually played by Hatake from Sharan Q so bonus points for that!

Morning Musume – Memory Seishun no Hikari:

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Acoustic solo goodness, a rarity in H!P music.

°C-ute – Massara Blue Jeans:

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Bass guitar solos count too! Bass solos are another rarity in H!P, not to mention ones that put to use the slapping technique. Awesome!

Berryz Koubou – Munasawagi Scarlet:

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Groovy.

Morning Musume – Kanashimi Twilight:

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Awesome, if a little generic.

5th: Yuko Nakazawa – Urara:

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Why hello there, David Gilmour! How the hell did Tsunku manage to hire YOU play a solo here?! I mean, bring the tempo down a little, raise the volume on the guitar some and it’s like the solo of Comfortably Numb all over again… almost.

Well alright, maybe it’s not quite Gilmour-level, but it is very tasteful, no frills, subdued and simple. It’s just right. A perfect, classic rock sounding solo.

4th: Tanpopo – Oujisama to Yuki no Yoru:

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A nice, tasty little solo. I might be going crazy but I think when you look past all the little technical stuff in there, it’s possible to hear a little George Harrison influence in the playing… maybe it’s just me though.

My only complaint is that I think it’s not quite ballsy enough, a rather common gripe I have with Hello! Project guitar solos. They shouldn’t be afraid to just raise the volume a little and really give the guitar a gnarly distortion to destroy our ear drums once in a while. Nevertheless, a very fitting little solo, this one is.

3rd: Buono! – Janakya Mottainai!:

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“HOLY SHIT!” was my reaction when I first heard this. Caught in a shred!

Blistering is the word I’d use to describe this guitar solo that actually sounds like two guitarists dueling. Nearly mindblowing shredding going on here and this time there’s no problem with the guitars not being gnarly enough or whatever like in my previous choice, they’re just right.

While I do love it, stuff like this just depresses me immensely, being the hopeless guitarist I am…

2nd: Michiyo Heike – Dakedo Aishisugite:

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Bitchin’. That’s all I have to say about it really. Bitchin’. I feel I have to use a swear word to properly express my love for this solo: it sounds fucking sweet. Real fucking sweet. Very, very tasteful, long notes, shitload of string bending… you can just imagine that whoever played this song on the record had a constant guitar solo face going on when doing it. You know exactly what face I’m talking about. The blissful, ecstatic face where it looks like the guitar player is actually having the most intense and fantastic but also the most painful orgasm of his or her entire life thus far. I’ll let a few people demonstrate.

Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) showing you how it’s done.

Jimi‘s orgasm

I’ve no idea who this is, but his guitar face is damn near impeccable.

1st: Morning Musume – Ambitious! Yashinteki de Ii Jan:

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“HOLY FUCKING.. OH JESUS! OH GOD WHAT THE HELL!” was the initial reaction to this one (as opposed to the “HOLY SHIT!” when hearing Janakya Mottainai… there’s a clear difference!). “Am I listening to Morning Musume or Dream Theater here?” is probably what fans of both Dream Theater and Morning Musume like me have asked themselves when listening to this song… it’s really becoming increasingly hard to tell.

Well, one can say or think many things about the musical wankery of Dream Theater, but the fact of the matter is that if one successfully manages to mix something like this into a J-pop song and make it work, then wow… pure genius, I say. Both technically proficient and quite inventive also, this solo is great and no doubt the winner of this ranking. Often times Tsunku has played around a little with nice guitar licks here and there, but for once he went all the way with this and just said to his guitarist; “Dude, give me all you’ve got, let ‘er rip and shred for me like a motherfucker! Just give me the craziest possible shit you’re capable of playing!” The result is something just absurdly over-the-top, yet incredibly nice sounding. This one nearly made it to the epic ranking JUST for this solo part, it’s that good.

I’ll continue with this theme next time when I’ll try to rank the top five judging by instrumentation only. Fun!

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