Morning Musume - Kanashimi Twilight

The latest Morning Musume single has a lot to live up after Egao YES Nude and while this may not match the previous single, it is still a stylistic and enjoyable offering from the female supergroup.

Kanashimi Twilight has a real 80s stereotypical cop show rock feel and bears scary similarity to Daite Senorita with the standard 80s metal riffs it contains. Sassy with some sexy attitude, the girls voices are not particularly stretched although the vocals do sound rather more nasally than usual. Thankfully though, the guitars do not drown out the girls and the melody is tight. It is a solid and powerful offering overall.

Hand made CITY meanwhile is a fast paced, euro beat dance track with more of the 80s metal loitering around behind the electronica. The track contains a complex layering of sounds but the whole effect doesn't quite come together. The shouted responses to the lead vocalist in the verses are rather annoying and the chorus has a standard Morning Musume sound to it in terms of harmonies, tempo and the basic tune. Overall it is just an unremarkable b-side. The final track is an instrumental of Kanashimi Twilight

Kanashimi Twilight alone makes the single worth it, though since the b-side is really quite confusingly weak. If you liked Daite Senorita I recommend looking into this latest by Morning Musume.