[ALBUM] 3rd "AMARANTHUS" and 4th "Hakkin no Yoake"

nemurenatta

Personally, old or new, I don't care. It just shows MCZ has variety that they can make sound good. A big difference I've seen with them as opposed to other idol groups and the majority of single-genre American groups is that they are not limited to a single genre, they have covered a great number of different genres in their songs, and it shows they are not afraid to be different. They never have been. Their unique style and differences from other groups were what made them successful in the first place. They aren't just stuck with their old, they're also good at what they do recently. Of course, that's my opinion, but to say they were only good until what came after Battle and Romance just shows a really narrow and closed-minded mindset. With their own changes the girls go through, other things have to change too. With Hyadain back, hopefully we'll see some tracks reminiscent of the old, and maybe they'll put out new stuff that sounds good too, satisfying both types of fans.

In the end, I love Momoclo for Momoclo, I don't care what direction they take. I will support them no matter what. And I can say that about many other people too.

cinnamonpie

arinyasu said:
Am I the only one worried about these albums sales? I'm kinda nervous...

I'm a bit worried, because I think the success of the albums could be a pretty big factor in Momoclo's future. However, I trust everyone involved to do a good job on it, because I'm sure they also feel that the stakes are pretty high. Also, their best recent songs imo are album ones, so I'm hoping for something as interesting as Neo Stargate and Birth O Birth again.

As for people not liking when they take a new direction, I think a fair bit of the criticism is not so much just because they are changing, but because some feel that their newer output is not be as creative as the older stuff. I agree to some extent, but I don't find it too surprising - a lot of musicians' material gets a bit less inspired after the early work, which usually benefited from a big buildup of ideas gathered over a long time. I've felt all along though that the potential is there for something else that's really inspired, so I'm optimistic about what will come out with such a large collection of songs at once.

Invader

I think they might be a bit worried about sales too because it's been so long since they released an album. The first thing that came to my mind when they said the 3rd and 4th albums were going to come out at the same time was that it was a stunt to sell more. Who knows, two albums might go either way: sell more or sell less because people only by one.

As for criticism of their music I do that a lot :)) but not because I think they should go this or that direction, it's just based on whether I think the song is awesome, good, average or bad, just like any other group. I can't lie to myself and say a mediocre song of theirs is awesome because it's Momoclo, I want them to do better.

I've got a feeling that if the albums have different concepts I'm going to like one way more than the other, but that's just a hunch.

Flowercreek

Invader said:

I've got a feeling that if the albums have different concepts I'm going to like one way more than the other, but that's just a hunch.

That sounds reasonable, and it might be something they've thought of as well. That could let them reach a broader audience, since they'll cater to people with different tastes.

stansfield123

honkey5 said:
"Their last good song was Rodou sanka" "Bring back Hyadain"

Well, sorry, but yeah. Their best songs (Roudou sanka, Mugen no Ai, and Saraba) were written by the best songwriters they worked with. Ian Parton is a great indie musician, Tomoyasu Hotei is on the soundtracks of Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas and Kill Bill, and Hyadain wrote an amazing song for them.

Not exactly unreasonable to say that they're probably not gonna get the same quality of songwriting from other people. So, if possible, they should try to work with songwriters they worked with before, again. The reason why people say "bring back Hyadain" out of those three is because he's the most likely to actually be willing to write for them again. I'm amazed the other two even did it once...and, unlike Paul Stanley, gave them two masterpieces.

Of course, they have also worked with other really good songwriters. Those three are nowhere near the only good songs they have. So Hyadain isn't the only one who should be brought back...but he's the most notable, out of the ones that can realistically be brought back.

P.S. I will say this about their early songs: they're ridiculously over-produced. They've done a much better job refraining from doing that, lately.

honkey5

Invader said:

As for criticism of their music I do that a lot :)) but not because I think they should go this or that direction, it's just based on whether I think the song is awesome, good, average or bad, just like any other group. I can't lie to myself and say a mediocre song of theirs is awesome because it's Momoclo, I want them to do better.

I agree that being a mononofu doesnt mean you are going to put EVERYTHING they do on a pedestal just because is MCZ. I myself wasnt crazy with the Sailor Moon thing, the stage clothes sometimes are so over the top (im thinking of those balloon-like things on the dresses of the second day of Touhjinsai 2014). I criticize a lot the Osaretai thing that management keeps ongoing with renichan and Momokachan.

Opinions are valid, what i dont agree is on the use of actually bothering to following a group if as a fan one doesnt feel the same excitement. If one doesnt feel the same emotion for something, then he/she should move on, and find another thing that catches your eyes and ears. I was a big AKB fan, but around Flying Get i lost interest. Im not crazy with the stuff they put out after Heavy Rotation, but i dont see why i should go to the AKB boards to criticize every single/MV. Let the AKB fans have fun.

stansfield123 said:

Not exactly unreasonable to say that they're probably not gonna get the same quality of songwriting from other people. So, if possible, they should try to work with songwriters they worked with before, again.

Well, yeah. But they have worked with other people after Hyadain left and they have gotten great songs. "Itsuka Kimi wa" was a great song, it sounds like something they could have recorded during the indie days. "LINK LINK" was a great song - should have been a single- . "Chai Maxx Zero" was too good - another song that should have been a single.. They still have NARASAKI, I liked "Z no Chikai" a lot - this song would have been even bigger if it havent been associated with DBZ which i believe was a put off for people that are alergic to anime (lol)

As for the albums, i think at this point this is what MCZ needs to prove their relevance: a collection of songs that are pure MCZ on their own, without being tied to Anime/Apps/KI$$.
A lot of people agree that "Naitemo.." was a great single, and i think it a lot has to be with the fact that people dont think of it as the OP/ED for an Anime or a similar thing ( It was the theme song for the Akumuchan Movie, but that movie it seems was pretty much forgettable ).

dj_mischief

While I am looking forward to the releases as well, I am a little nervous for them as well. Is it just me or have they lost some momentum over the past year? Hopefully this will revitalize them.

Strangely enough, I was a little let down by the album photo shoot. Although it may/may not reflect the album content, I was hoping for something a little more edgy. I kinda liked the skull illustration dude.

atmospherium

dj_mischief said:
While I am looking forward to the releases as well, I am a little nervous for them as well. Is it just me or have they lost some momentum over the past year?

It's not just you. I too hope the new albums blow me away like Battle & Romance did, and like 5th Dimension didn't so much. I think they have lost momentum; it's visible even to a fan like myself that doesn't follow them nearly as closely as I used to.

stansfield123

dj_mischief said:
While I am looking forward to the releases as well, I am a little nervous for them as well. Is it just me or have they lost some momentum over the past year? Hopefully this will revitalize them.

They've lost some of the "oh my God, idols have never done this before, this is amazing" effect. When they released Ikuze..., and then when they generated all that buzz about their live performances, culminating with the National Stadium concerts, that was a unique thing that they won't repeat. At the time, they were very young girls, getting a pass for their shortcomings because, for their age, they were creating and achieving amazing things.

So that's gone. But, at the same time, they've gotten very relaxed on camera (I've never seen idols, or for that matter any Japanese entertainer below the age of 30, be that relaxed and comfortable in their own skin), and their management team also seems to trust them a lot more. They stopped over-producing their singles, they're giving them a lot more freedom when it comes to live recordings, and trusting them with a lot more when it comes to live TV (both singing and variety). As the excitement factor subsides, they've been improving the product they're releasing.

Let's just put it this way: if today's Momoclo was transported back in time five years, people would be blown away a lot more than they were back then. Just because the excitement level died down, doesn't mean they haven't improved. A lot.

So I'm not really nervous. I don't think this album will be a repeat of their breakout releases and concerts, but I'm confident it, and the live tour, will do well enough to continue to sustain them as high level entertainers. They've certainly put in the work to make that happen.

nemurenatta

Hakkin no Yoake (it's the title song on the album, I suppose) music video has been released.

Also, mczalbum.com is having some sort of countdown, but for what, no word has been said.

Paco

http-s://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIMNVlde4nw

Damn, too slow. ;-)

dj_mischief

New Years Eve show and a new video released on the same day. Wow. Today is a good day.

stansfield123

nemurenatta said:
Hakkin no Yoake (it's the title song on the album, I suppose) music video has been released.

Also, mczalbum.com is having some sort of countdown, but for what, no word has been said.

I wouldn't call that the "music video". It's just a montage of old footage, that they edited together for the countdown show.

olorosooso

According to the Facebook group, seems like people are getting different countdown timers!

nemurenatta

Yeah, mines at about 3 hours and 15 minutes right now... Weird!

Edit: It has to do with device time zone.
My phone is set for three hours later than my PC (since it's auto on my phone and I'm too lazy to do it on my computer while I'm out of the country lol) and the timer is three hours shorter as a result.

MizukiChan

Figured it out.
There's most likely a bug in the system or how the timer was programmed. I changed my time zone to Japan to see how it looks for them and it says it will be released by 9pm JPN time, meaning it should be released by then rather than what the timer tells you (9pm on January 1st of your time zone).
I'm pretty sure staff didn't even check to see how it looked overseas and went with the result they got which led to this confusion. Besides, why on earth would they put a restriction on something and then at every hour, take off the restrictions for specific time zones? It makes no sense whatsoever and waste of effort.

Just letting the word out. If I end up being wrong, I apologize

stansfield123

MizukiChan said:
Figured it out.
There's most likely a bug in the system or how the timer was programmed. I changed my time zone to Japan to see how it looks for them and it says it will be released by 9pm JPN time, meaning it should be released by then rather than what the timer tells you (9pm on January 1st of your time zone).
I'm pretty sure staff didn't even check to see how it looked overseas and went with the result they got which led to this confusion. Besides, why on earth would they put a restriction on something and then at every hour, take off the restrictions for specific time zones? It makes no sense whatsoever and waste of effort.

Just letting the word out. If I end up being wrong, I apologize

You're not wrong, the guy who made that page sucks at programming. Doesn't matter though. The announcement will be at 1st of January, 9pm Japan time.

nemurenatta

Yeah, the timer just reset, as it should have for everyone who passed it by now.
This is a pretty significant programming error, and have they not realised it? Nothing's being done about it, but at least it's clear exactly when it will be revealed anyway.

stansfield123

nemurenatta said:
Yeah, the timer just reset, as it should have for everyone who passed it by now.
This is a pretty significant programming error, and have they not realised it? Nothing's being done about it, but at least it's clear exactly when it will be revealed anyway.

Bugs like this are hard to find, because you'd have to be looking at the site from a computer that has the wrong time set on it. It's the programmer who should've realized that it's wrong to use client side scripting to set a timer.

MizukiChan

Let's not forget how staff doesn't really pay heed to what happens overseas. But I'm just glad people pointed out the weird timer until someone realizes what kind of error occurred to create such a confusion. Hopefully we'll know what will happen even though staff won't fix it. A lot of native fans are trying to figure out what will happen whether it would be a reveal of all title songs, a PV or releasing audio only of Amaranthus, etc. Some fans just accept the video as is while others think it's countng down to how long we have until taken down. Until then, we just have to wait and see

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