Help me!! Radio Preview

Set to release on January 23rd, 2013, Help me!! is the 52nd single for Morning Musume, and the debut of sole 11th generation member Oda Sakura. With Morning Musume's sudden revival thanks to the Reborn Era, the girls seem to continue tackling the sound of auto-tune, taking on a more mature and cool appearance along with it, but will everyone like this sound as much as they liked One Two Three or Wakuteka Take a Chane? Who knows, but here are our thoughts on the song itself, and what we expect from it!

Pon-Chii:

I'm a part of the very small, very much disliked, minority who hated One Two Three with a passion. Even now I still strongly dislike it, but it's bearable... so when people began to claim that the short preview of this song sounded like One Two Three, I was deeply worried that I would once again hate a song by Morning Musume. Luckily the full radio rip came out before I could fully dwell on the thought of hating this single for all it was worth, and, luckily enough, I don't hate it. But I don't love it, either.

It sounds good; better than One Two Three, but not as good as Wakuteka Take a Chance. I actually like Help me!! the more I listen to it, but I still can't get over the fact that Riho sounds terrible in it, and Reina isn't far off from sounding horrible, either. The saving point of this song has to be the dynamic sound and the refreshing impact Sakura's voice has in the song; really, I have never been so refreshed by a voice like hers, because it's this sudden change of tone. She doesn't shriek like Riho or squeak like Reina, and her voice isn't high or grating on my ears. It's just different, a bit nasally at some parts, but different thanks to the lower tone and the fact that Sakura can handle a song like this, whilst Riho clearly can't and Reina just sounds the same.

Listening to this song, it's pretty clear that it's a Reina-Riho-Sakura lead, which isn't totally unexpected, but that doesn't mean that it's wanted, either. Honestly, I would have loved someone else leading, maybe Sakura and Mizuki with a bit of Reina and Sayu on the side, heck even Ayumi would be good in all her shout-y glory, because Riho's voice just gets worse with every song she sings. Sadly, the domination of Re/Ri is obvious from the get-go, and quite frankly, I wince when I hear Riho's voice. Some people love it, though, but I certainly don't, and I won't sugarcoat how I feel towards the song just because I quite like it. Thank goodness Sakura is a saving factor, though honestly her voice isn't anything stellar in this song either.

My mood to bash is rising...

From what I can hear, Sayu gets a few minor lines and Fukumura gets some speaking lines, which actually brings me to what I think this song sounds like; it reminds me of C-ute's Tokkaiko Junjou, especially with the speaking lines. It has that similar vibe and feel. Also, there seems to be a little bit of As for One Day thrown in there and some elements of One Two Three. Considering two out of these three songs are songs that I strongly dislike, they actually mix to make a pretty decent song which I find enjoyable to listen to.

Help me!! is looking to be a pretty promising single in my opinion. Regardless of the hookerish, trampy looking costumes, it seems like it'll be pretty decent - let's just hope that the music video setup is going to be good and minus the stupid amount of useless sparkles. I would wish that this song was based outside, but sadly this song has 'studio PV' written all over it. Well, I can dream, can't I?

And you know what? I was really hoping that this song would be a lovely Sakura-themed spring ballad, one with Yukata's and flowers in their hair or some poncy prettiness like that. Alas, the auto-tune has affected their brains and only allows us to experience Riho's terrible shrieks in high songs, and some okay, but quite trashy, costumes.

Let's hope that the PV's amusing, eh?

Nerupon:

My predictions were close, I was expecting more information on the 52nd single around Christmas.. Yeah let's say I was close even if I weren't. I was so excited to hear Sakura-chan's debut single! How would it sound? Will it be as awesome as Wakuteka Take a chance? And that's where it went wrong. I was too excited, thinking this would be an awesome dubstup-autotune song . And yes it has autotune and dubstep, but less then I actually want. It's not bad either, so I guess I'm okay with it.

The song starts of with Mizuki and Sayumi doing a talking part, with a lot of autotune effects, echo's and robotic sounds. On the background you can hear the dubstep sounds. Neru has a dubstepgasm. The dubstep continues with some violin thrown in, and a few "ah's" being repeated for the whole time, not sure who's doing these but I could guess Sayumi and Mizuki because these sound similar to the ones in One Two Three. The song continues with some Reina lines, Riho lines and suprisingly I think I heard a Masaki line. Then the music gets tuned down a bit with only a drum sound for Sakura's solo, which I find kinda out of place. The song suddenly goes from awesome dubstep to the old style from Momusu in my opinion. I don't hate it, but in this song it kinda seems out of place. But after all I'm sure they did that to show off her voice since this is her first single within Momusu. After Sakura's solo, the screaming squirrel Riho sings a part and some rapping shows up. The refrain has a more upbeat sound and it's sung pretty high. The whole thing gets repeated again and then there's the talking part back with violion sounds on the background. One last refrain and it ends again with the dubstep.

As for the song I'm pretty satisfied. Not like 100% satisfied, but I'll say 80%. Lines distribution? I'll say bad until the PV lets me show it's better then I thought. Sakura got the lines she deserved, nothing less or more and I'm happy for that. But what happened to the at-least-one-solo-for-everyone concept? Seriously, after this happened in two singles I was so satisfied this process would keep on for every single. Why have I been so naive again? And to be honest, even Sayumi just got the talking parts and some add autotune lines. I did hear a big non-autotuned Mizuki line so I'm happy for her. And Masaki got two autotuned lines I think, but no Ayumi solo's?! Really?! Are you like.. serious? No that can't be.. I'm sure she got one solo or more, I probably can't tell without a PV. Or did she have no solo's because of Sakura.. I might think they replaced Ayumi with Sakura now, as she's a better singer and can lead Momusu better. This is a "Bish, your time is over!" situation. Awch. Daishi replaced.. It might be that.. But for Daishi I hope it's not. Couldn't they just give this Riho lines to Ayumi she's a better singer than her after all! Tsunku you didn't had to leave Ayumi out of the leads, poor girl!

Overall, this single might be interesting! I would recommend it for Oda Sakura fans of course, and if you liked Wakuteka Take a chance you might like this too. I'm having a few points on cdjapan left, so I might buy it.

Neru's rating: 7,5/10 (I was going to give it an 8, but the lines distribution made the ratings lower..)

Asupon

I was so excited to first hear that the Radio Rip of the new single was out. I didn't know what to expect really...but all that was running in my mind at that time was I hope it will be something a little different or at least will still catch me like their previous releases. Well? I actually got hook right away in the first listen! I mean it appeared again that Morning Musume is still in the same phase of music. But I can't complaint about that because I'm huge fan of Electropop which got me the first time and plus this single was "So Sick!" (Forgive me for the lingo but that was first words that came out my mouth.) What I loved about this release is the monolog at the beginning which starts with Mizuki then mixture with Sayumi and another person. Well I love the concept behind it then the music began. I have a funny thought that pop into my mind it did sound like Tsunku just mixed their past three instrumentals into one but it did sound pretty interesting. Now I know most people are going to talk about the use of effects and autotune used. But I found the use of it not bad at all. If you think about it that gave the song a little of a pop, yet not taking to much from the medley. As for the line distribution at first I didn't think most of the girls will get ever a solo line but after numerous of listens I know each girl at least gets one solo part in the song or can be heard a little clearly in duet parts. (But we gotta wait until the music video will be release.) Which I'm do look forward to! Can I add that outfits is Asupon approved? Animal print and pink? Heck yes! (Yes I love both things but lets get back on topic here.) If I can give Tsunku a message about one thing which is thank you for picking Sakura Oda. Seriously, I really enjoyed hearing her sing and how great she powered everyone vocals as well. This new girl definitely got my support and also I know she will have a bright future to come.

All and All, I give this song 8.5/10.

So this ends another roundpon review! I hope you all enjoy reading and until next time thank you for reading. Also what do you guys think of this release?