[2024.08.14] Morning Musume '24 - Nandaka Sentimental na Toki no Uta / SaiKIYOU

[Solarblade]

Announced at their Budokan Final today, the group is releasing their next single "Nandaka Sentimental na Toki no Uta / SaiKIYOU" (なんだかセンチメンタルな時の歌/最KIYOU)

Not certain if this is Ayumi's graduation single though

http://www.helloproject.com/news/17478/

[JPope]

Based on the current H!P release schedule of one single per year it's almost certainly her last, although it's pretty far removed from her actual graduation day. Who knows, maybe they've got MM's 17th album in the works for a November release that more closely coincides with Ayu's grad.

[JPope]

Live clip of "SaiKIYOU"

Lyrics: Kodama Akeko
Composition: Okubo Kaoru
Arrangement: Okubo Kaoru

[Shoujo Q]

Well that’s… not going to show up on my playlist very often. But I commend them for line distribution. The best part was the ending and then it was over.

They are going to have another single at the end of the year. This is only a double a-side? They can throw in another single this year with a song and a graduation song for Ayumi and call it a day and then next year start with an album to give them time to work on the next few upcoming graduation singles to come.

[Zoe]

Unless this was a surprise graduation to management, I think we'll get another one. They can even release it post-graduation in December if needed.

[Shoujo Q]

I let this sit for a minute and I listened to the other song on this single and I’ve decided they wanted this single for Rairii, Ako and Geta to have themselves a single that wasn’t attached to a graduation. It’s sort of seems like a throw away single. Which I wish they didn’t do. There is nothing inspiring or new about this other than it’s giving us a taste of a post Mizuki era. Neat! But I’m not feeling it. This will need to simmer. And I hate simmering songs. They take me so long to find the charm in them. With so few releases now it’s not helpful to the group to be releasing lackluster stuff.

I’m hoping once the actual singles are released there’s some better compositions going on. I know they are still working on those. They need a little tweaking.

[DonJuan]

Also pretty sure that they won't send off Ayumi without a solo. So hoping for another MM single this year, maybe we get lucky.

SaiKIYOU sounds pretty early album track, and I don't hate it, but it's not catchy at all. However, I think the girls sound really good here. You can really feel that they added decent singers the last few generations.

[JPope]

So it seems a concert is going on right now and I'm missing it lol!

Anyway, I'm impressed with vocals in this performance. Lots of actual solo lines, which is awesome -- and the audience clearly loves it, too -- and almost all are sung really well. KitaRio's bit at the modulation probably should've gone to Mei, but other than that, even she sounds better than ever.

[Shoujo Q]

Here is the other song.

[DonJuan]

Oof. I appreciate that it's different and it's interesting. But I'm pretty sure I'll be skipping the song a lot.

[JPope]

Man, I love the music to Nandaka so much -- the speed vocals, not so much. I haven't checked the reaction of gaijin harowota Twitter yet, but they mostly hated Chu Chu Chu, so you'd think they'd feel similarly towards this. It's pretty out there, but I'm not gonna lie, I dig that they get experimental occasionally even if they miss the mark at times. Misses are harder to take when there are way fewer releases, though, but I'm not even sure this is a miss for me. I need to hear the studio version a few times to really know.

In other news, Gettaa and Haruka have learned a thing or two about a thing or two, no? This is the first I've seen them where they look like they completely belong. Gettaa caught on fairly quickly, tbf, but Haruka finally looks capable and confident.

I pieced the clips from the tweet together and upped it to my YT:



EDIT: This video is gonna get taken down by Hulu, lol.

[DonJuan]

I am generally impressed that they sound decent. This is their first performance of the songs and it's already okay. In fact, they are kind of stealing the show from their senpai that are not Miki nor Sakura.

[sadude]

All links above taken down by copyright claims. Any others?

[JPope]

That's wild. I've never seen something like this pulled from Twitter before. I'll try to up them to my DM account later tonight. Gotta walk the dog first.

EDIT: Couldn't get into my DM for some reason, so I made a Rumble account, which can't be posted inline here. You'll have to click the links below like a Luddite Boomer.

SaiKiYOU
Morning Musume '24 - Nanda ka Sentimental na Toki no Uta

[sadude]

Sweet, thanks!

I'm surprised they do the full songs this many months in advance of release. Much better than the old days of crappy radio previews!

The music for SaiKIYOU was harder to hear and therefore appreciate, so waiting for the official release on that. It'll probably simmer for me before catching on, as PQ said.

I figured Nanda ka would be a straight-up ballad based on the title. I tend to like R&B-leaning H!P songs with BPM changes ('sup, Dokusenyoku), so I like what I heard and am looking forward to the full quality on the official release.

I was curious about the arranger for Nanda ka, Kamiya Rei, since the name didn't sound familiar. H!P-wise, they had previously only done LoVendoЯ's Cinderella Time♪, Kenshuusei's Bukatsu Owari ni Atarashii Jersey ni Kigaeru Otomegokoro, and Mizuki's Neverending Shine from last MM single.