Ongaku Gatas – Come Together

Come Together was Ongaku Gatas’ 3rd single. It was released September 9, 2008. It sold 9,740 copies in it’s first week, 12,004 overall and reached #12 on the charts.

Tracklist

1. Come Together

2. Aisaretai Aisaretai

3. Come Together (Instrumental)

Come Together begins with some electric guitar and the first chorus of the songl. First thing about this song, your either gonna hate or love the line distribution. The Eggs get ABSOLUTELY NO solo lines(only a group lines with just the Eggs) and only the senior members get a ton of solos to share(they do sound good however). This song is actually VERY standard, as in it’s the most generic song I’ve heard in a while instrumental wise. It’s H!P pop with some light electric guitar in the background. The verses were actually pretty enjoyable cause I get to hear Konno singing(even though she hasn’t got the best voice). The bridge to the chorus was nice as well but the chorus itself was only pretty average, though the solo parts did sound pretty nice. It’s different from their last two singles as it isn’t funky or anything which is a bad thing.

Aisaretai Aisaretai, however, while not being as good as the a-side, it’s one of the better b-side’s the group has released yet. The beginning has a Tsunku vocal heavy disco type instrumental which maintains throught the song. The verses are pretty bland and boring but it gets good when the chorus kicks in. It’s also nice to hear the Eggs singing for once, though it is EXTREMELY minimal.

Come Together was a disappointing release for me. I enjoyed their last two singles but this one just killed it for me. Come Together only manages to be the smallest bit memorable and the b-side is kinda boring. They should have stuck with the style they had going on in the last two singles.

♥Single Rating♥

Ongaku Gatas – 1st Goodsal

1st Goodsal was Ongaku Gatas’ 1st album. It was released February 6, 2008. It sold 7,506 copies in it’s first week, 8,695overall and reached #24 on the charts.

Tracklist

1. Dakishemete… Namida
2. Osaki ni Sunzurei
3. Narihajimeta Koi no BELL
4. Seishun no Custard
5. Kokoro no Tanima
6. Yattarouze!
7. Chikyuu to Tsuki Kare to Watashi
8. Kara Genki
9. Koi Uranai Doori ni wa Naranai wa
10. Kiss Shiyou

Starting up the album is the pretty funky trackDakishemete… Namida. Usually every album has a “best” new track and this song would be the case for this album. It as an enjoyable disco like instrumental similar to their first single and a strong chorus. This song even sounds pretty sexy at times with the way the girls sing, it’s also pretty Tsunku heavy. I enjoyed the piano as well.

Osaki ni Sunzurei begins with some clapping and drum beating, I guess their taking the whole futsal thing pretty seriously. The song has a nice light rock instrumental and fun verses with a brass filled chorus. The vocals were also fun sounding and matched well with the easy going instrumental of the track. A nice new song.

Up next is Narihajimeta Koi no BELL, the first single of this era. It still sounds as good and fresh as it did in the single and matches the style of the album well, though it would have flowed a bit more if it followed the first track instead of the second.

Beginning with Seishun no Custard, the songs begin to be sang in groups of members, instead of Ongaku Gatas as a whole. This song is sung by Yossie and Satoda Mai. I wasn’t sure what to predict with that song name but Seishun no Custard is actually a brass heavy aggressive track with a really funky beat. The duo’s vocals sound great as their just a tad bit fast paced and fit perfectly with the song. It manages to maintain the funky theme of the album, which I was glad to see.

Sung by another duo, Kokoro no Tanima is sung by Mano Erina and Noto Arisa, a.k.a., the more popular Eggs. I was excited to see those two get to sing a song together, it’s just too bad the song reeks of boredom. The song itself is really slow paced with a pop genre. The girl’s vocals are REALLY high pitched and cutesy sounding which I didn’t really enjoy. Honestly, this song didn’t catch my attention at all.

Fortunately, the awesomeness that is Yattarouze! comes in to save the day from what was the failure of the last track. I wish Tsunku would have placed the singles better as this one seemed even more out of place than the last one, or maybe it was Kokoro no Tanima that was out of place…

Two eggs and two seniors(Rika Ishikawa, Asami Konno, Minami Sengoku, and Yuri Sawada) are brought together to sing Chikyuu to Tsuki Kare to Watashi. I kind of got a Christmas vibe at first but that went away once the first verse began and unveiled the thumping instrumental. This is a pretty standard pop song but I did enjoy the vocals.

Kara Genki is sung by the four senior members(Yossie, Rika, Konno and Mai). This song reminded me of Morning Musume’s Iroppoi Jirettai single due to the heavy hand clapping and Spanish sounding guitar. It’s a solid track though I thought it was missing some power to it.

Koi Uranai Doori ni wa Naranai wa is an Egg only song and I was surprised to hear the rock heavy opening instrumental. The verses are mid paced and have only the piano and vocals until the song begins moving toward the chorus where the rock elements kick back in. Unfortunately, that’s all thats interesting about this song. Unless you REALLY like rock music, this song is forgettable for it’s lack of any kind of hook or memorable melody.

Closing up the album is Kiss Shiyou, sung by all the members. It’s a slow paced rock/pop song with some bad sounding vocals. The instrumentals are bland and the vocals just sound plain weird.

1st Goodsal was such a strange listen to me. I was expecting it to be a bad album but upon listening to the first 4 tracks I was REALLY impressed, until the album made a HUGE u-turn and got completely generic and boring. I would have liked it if it kept the funky/disco theme along the entire album but that wasn’t the case. Even though it had more or less 2 memorable tracks, not even the awesome singles could save this album.

♣Album Rating♣

Ongaku Gatas – Yattarouze!

Yattarouze! was Ongaku Gatas’ 2nd single. It was released December 5, 2007. It sold 7,199 copies in it’s first week, 9,042 overall and reached #21 on the charts.

Tracklist

1. Yattarouze!

2. Sakaero Habatake Gatas Brilhantes H.P.

3. Yattarouze! (Instrumental)

DANCE☆MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!! This is actually the first single he’s participated in for years within H!P and I’m glad to know it’s Ongaku Gatas he’s chosen to work with. Like all of his other work, you can expect this song to sound really good and REALLY catchy. Yattarouze! starts away with the repetitive chorus in a strong array of instruments, it sounds great. The verse is pretty simple but even than it has a great melody. The chorus is fun and throughout the entire song the girls scream out things like “Wow!” or “Whoa Whoa!”. The line distribution is also okay, with Yossie and Rika getting their own solo lines after the instrumental break. This is a really great song and even better than their first a-side.

Don’t forget however, this is H!P. For every good there is a bad and for every Yattarouze! there is a Sakaero Habatake Gatas Brilhantes H.P.. This song is some kind of marching song, I guess, or some kind of inspirational song for the team. It’s actually really bad. Avoid this song if you can.

DANCE☆MAN couldn’t have made a better comeback song arrangement than he did with Ongaku Gata’s Yattarouze!(where the heck did he go anyway? One single and he disappears?). It really is one of the better H!P songs you’ll be hearing in a while, it’s just a shame the b-side sucked so much.

♠Single Rating♠

Ongaku Gatas – Narihajimeta Koi no BELL

Narihajimeta Koi no BELL was Ongaku Gatas’ 1st single. It was released September 12, 2007. It sold 11,903 copies in it’s first week, 14,527 overall and reached #10 on the charts. Narihajimeta Koi no BELL was a support song for Cirque du Soleil’s “Dralion”.

Tracklist

1. Narihajimeta Koi no BELL

2. DREAMIN’ ~Gatas Brilhantes H.P. no Ouenka~

3. Narihajimeta Koi no BELL (Instrumental)

Narihajimeta Koi no BELL begins with some funky sounding instrumental including lot’s of brass and keyboard. The verses sound pretty nice and aren’t at all boring, especially with the “Ah”’s spread around the song. The bridge to the chorus sounds great in the piano department and gives lots of the girls a chance at singing(though the senior members are the ones who get the most lines) . The entire song never lets up in it’s fun, fast paced jazzy style and reminds me of the older H!P work done during the DANCE☆MAN days. This is a great song and is filled with tons of energy.

I was expecting DREAMIN’ ~Gatas Brilhantes H.P. no Ouenka~ to be extremely bad, because usually in H!P, when you have a great a-side, you have a crappy b-side. The song is actually a pop/rock song that does sound like a typical b-side but it actually has a memorable melody and feels more like an album song than a b-side. It’s not near as good as the a-side but does sound good, especially in that all the girls always sing as a group and not with solo lines.

Ongaku Gatas debut single actually proved to be a really good listen. Both the a and b-side were of nice quality for their respective expectations. I’m hoping the group will continue to release music of the a-sides genre, it’s what I miss in H!P right now.

♠Single Rating♠