Just yesterday me and my dad were discussing what 3 albums we would take to a desert island. I think in the end we both decided to take The Beatles' Abbey Road before realising that we were putting ourselves through unnecessary pain. We then changed the subject.
However, today I will list the three Hello! Project albums that would be my 3 Desert Island H!P discs!
First up is Morning Musume's 10 MY ME.
This is the first Hello! Project album that I bought (albeit from itunes) and really listened to. The album is almost perfect, the only track that isn't terribly good is the 8th generation's song Osaka Umainen. The 8th gen girls really are hard done by aren't they? On the more positive side the album contains 4 great singles and many brilliant album tracks such as the weirdly wonderful 'Moonlight Night (Tsukiyo no ban da yo)' and the now concert staple 'Namidacchi'. The greatness is topped of with a lovely chinese version of 'Ame no Furanai Hoshi de was Aisenai Darou' lead by Junjun and Linlin.
The cd can be bought here:
10 MY ME [Regular Edition] / Morning Musume
Next up is Maki Goto's final album with Hello! Project 'How to Use Sexy'
I have never been a big Maki fan. To me it seems that she never found her niche as an idol and only found it with this album, by which time she was more of an artist. Anyway, lets not dwell. This album is flawless, there is honestly not a bad song on it at all. 'How to use Sexy' is rather R&B orientated and ranges from up-tempo numbers such as 'Glass no Pumps' and 'Give me Love' to ballads such as 'Life' and the slightly jazzy sounding 'Daybreak'. R&B has never really been my style but this album is great, a real must have. The music video for 'Some Boys! Touch' still makes me cringe though. That is so not how you use sexy!
Maki's wonderful 4th album can be purchased here:
How to use Sexy [Regular Edition] / Maki Goto
Last but not least is Tanpopo's first album 'Tanpopo 1' (how original).
This is one of the few Hello! Project albums that has really great instrumentation. From the drum solo is Aya's solo 'Wakatte Nai Janai' to the soprano sax on 'One Step' to the beautiful strings on the album version of Last Kiss. This is a brilliant mature sounding album for Morning Musume's first sub group. Infact this first album is so good that it took me a while to come around to the 2nd generation of the group. That didn't last long though. No-one can resist those beatlesque rhythms of 2nd gen Tanpopo. My (second hand) copy of All of Tanpopo is in the post!
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading!
