[2019.11.27] BEYOOOOONDS - BEYOOOOOND1St

[WonderBuono]

Yeah I recognized Take On Me but that’s it.

[TheParuProject]

Preview for "Koi no O-swing".
 
It's apparently led by Rika and Minami in the guise of their "Megane no Otokonoko" characters.
 
This album continues to snatch all of my wigs. I love it.

[JPope]

Preview for "Kinoko Take no Ko Daisenki"
 
This is a Twitter video. The next tweet in the thread is the second part of the song. This is some crazy shit, lol!

[JPope]

Also, here's an extended radio rip of Bungee Jump. I need a full, high-res version of this already.

[JPope]

And here's Honoka Kobayashi cutting the piano tracks for "Atsui".
 
She has to be the most gifted musician in H!P history, right? She's legitimately really good. I love the "was it good?" faces she makes at the end of each take, and the ones right after she fucks up on the first and third takes are adorable. I gotta say, I'm really loving Hello! Project more than I have in years right now. 

[AquaChan]

I gave this album a first listen (If you are one of the 5 persons like me that have Apple Music, it's on it!). It's full of bangers.

My personnal favorites are We need a name! (it's like a vintage SeraMyu song from 1998) and Gannen Bungee Jump.
 
They are playing a lot again on the Megane theme again, but I won't complain.
But still no Go Waist! audio on there :/

[Shoujo Q]

I ordered the album. Mainly because I want Go Waist. But from what I’ve listened to thus far via Apple Music, it’s pretty good. Not a bad first album.

[JPope]

I just "acquired" the album, and checked out Bungee Jump right away. Goddammit, this is good stuff. That instrumental break channels Michael Jackson so good, and I'm not gonna be able to turn this off for the next week or so.

[JPope]

BTW, they got number 2 daily on Oricon with 19,744 sold. I don't think that's to bad for a new act with only one single to their name.

[TheParuProject]

[quote="JPope"]
BTW, they got number 2 daily on Oricon with 19,744 sold. I don't think that's to bad for a new act with only one single to their name.
[/quote]
Definitely. That's a little better than the first day sales of Morning Musume's 2017 album. Not to mention higher than the first WEEK sales of Tsubaki Factory's album and Kobushi Factory's recent album.

[JPope]

Up to 28,633 after three days. According to J-Pop Project, this is the highest selling non-MM H!P album in 14 years. 
 
I'm really happy for the girls, because this album is really goddamn good. H!P is on a roll with really good albums the last two years -- not one of them is bad -- and this is the best of the lot. It's the least characteristically "H!P" sounding album the company has ever released, and I have no problem with that. I have a few days off of work due to an injury, so I might do a long-form review tomorrow. TL;DR version: go get it because it fucking rules.

[Mukuro]

I agree with JPope it's a really fun album. Beyooooonds has reignited my interest in H!P because they're just so different from the regular format we've seen for years. It's very refreshing.

[TheParuProject]

Live performance of Gannen Bungee Jump, from the opening act of Juice=Juice's 12/4 concert.

[JPope]

The main singers on this sound really good. Up Front seems to be making a conscious effort to improve the level of talent throughout H!P, and it's about time. I'm way more stoked about Beyooooonds going forward than I thought I'd be before the album came out. Next year will be huge for them if they can build on their strong debuts of 2019, because they're different than any other H!P group past or present, and might be able to draw interest from outside of the established H!P fan base. 

[JPope]

Hello! Station dropped this little Christmas gift today: BEYOOOOONDS live "Gannen Bungee Jump".
 
This group is really trying to make me make them my favorites.

[JPope]

New Upcoming (#169) features Minami Okamura and Rika Shimakura recording "O-Swing". As with most members of BEYOOOOONDS, they're really good. I think of the 12 members, no more than three are not at least decent, most of the rest are above idol-average. I want to wait until they have a longer track record before anointing them my favorite H!P group, but I don't know if I can hold out much longer.

[TicTacAnyone]

O Swing live.... wow... why is this so good. Gannen is good live but O Swing is on a whoooole other level <3 Also here's We Need A Name live as well--another good performance. Utano is definitely not a singer but honestly it doesn't bother me as much as it usually does, since she still puts her all into it.

[TheParuProject]

Miyo gives me such big dick energy LOL
 
Utano definitely doesn't bring down BEYOOOOONDS with her poor, poor vocals.. but it's pretty bad in such a small group. Yikes. Great performance though.

[Revangelis]

Yeah... Utano does not bother me in the songs that feature the whole group, but when it's just three people singing, her poor vocals really stand out in a bad way. Otherwise I enjoyed the performance, I like the energy.

[TheParuProject]

Obviously she was hired for her looks and dancing ability, but it's pretty fascinating that H!P hired a girl who is COMPLETELY not made for singing. Even her speaking voice sounds choked up. Could she possibly be the worst singer H!P has ever had?

[JPope]

I mean, she's really bad, but is she any worse than Ogata was? BEYOOOOONDS has so many good-to-great singers that they can carry a couple of vocal hacks that do other things well. 

[TicTacAnyone]

[quote="TheParuProject"]
Obviously she was hired for her looks and dancing ability, but it's pretty fascinating that H!P hired a girl who is COMPLETELY not made for singing. Even her speaking voice sounds choked up. Could she possibly be the worst singer H!P has ever had?
[/quote]
 
I dunno, I'd still save that for Hagiwara or Ogata H. (with Tanimoto following close behind.) If Utano is still this bad in 4 years then she can be considered for the title. At least she has energy to make up for it lol

[DonJuan]

The video has been deleted, but it's really hard to beat Oharu in the category for worst singer.

[TicTacAnyone]

[quote="DonJuan"]
The video has been deleted, but it's really hard to beat Oharu in the category for worst singer.
[/quote]
 
Utano is honestly really close, but the main reason I don't want to give her the title as "worst H!P singer ever" is because she has zero singing experience coming in. Sooo if she's still as bad as this in about 4 years (how long Oharu was in, half the time Hagiwara was in), then I'll consider her the worst.

[JPope]

Come on, Maimai was not as bad as these girls. I don't think she was even as bad as Sayu, Konno or Koharu, tbh. Mai was like a Rika Ishikawa who didn't improve quite as much by the time she left.

[TheParuProject]

[quote="JPope"]
Come on, Maimai was not as bad as these girls. I don't think she was even as bad as Sayu, Konno or Koharu, tbh. Mai was like a Rika Ishikawa who didn't improve quite as much by the time she left.
[/quote]

Mai started fine. But the last 4 years or so of C-ute were a STRUGGLE. Definitely worse than everyone else you mentioned by the time of their disbandment. Her voice would crack badly in every line, and you could really see in her face how bothered by it she was.

[DonJuan]

I do wonder if Mai had damaged her voice somehow. As far as I know she never rested for voice/throat problems but maybe that's because she wasn't a lead singer.

[Mugi]

[quote="DonJuan"]
I do wonder if Mai had damaged her voice somehow.
[/quote]
 
I feel like she must have. Everytime she would sing she would look like she was in pain. I don't understand how they never thought to address that for her.

[TicTacAnyone]

[quote="Mugi"]
 
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="DonJuan" data-cid="219560" data-time="1578479583">
<div>
I do wonder if Mai had damaged her voice somehow.
[/quote]
 
I feel like she must have. Everytime she would sing she would look like she was in pain. I don't understand how they never thought to address that for her.
 
</div>
</blockquote>
 
Obviously no offense to our in-house Hagi fan, Mugi. But yeah like the above people said--her last number of years were a definite low for her.... It hurt to hear her voice crack so often. She had to have some sort of issue, there's no way that was just the way her voice would be no matter what. 
 
I mean I'd take her out if we're not going to count having a straight-up damaged voice. If that were the case I'd say Ogata and Tanimoto.

[JPope]

I finally finished my album review for BEYOOOOOND1St.