(the) Road to the Deep East

Perfume's latest single love the world becomes #1 on Oricon Daily charts, today on July 9.


Now we know we are living in 'Perfume era' after idol ice age, and we had already experienced the platinum hit of 'Game', so it is not as amazing as one year ago, but it is still the first time that Perfume's sinlge was placed #1 on Oricon. (Baby cruising love was #3).

This single has already sold 21,000 copies on the first day, 1.8 times as many as #2 MaximumHormone, so it's 90% sure that this single will also become #1 on weekly charts.

And at #3, we can see the name of Berrys Kobou. I don't think Perfume's audience, especially the ones who listen to 'edge' will be interested in this group, but it seems thanks to Perfume's success, the idol pop industry as a whole revived a little. (* I admit this Ike 'Ike Monkey dance' is a kind of good one as old-school Hello-Pro song, though),

But wait. Where's Aoyama Thelma? This female singer sold 400,000 CD copies and 600,000 downloads with the hit of 'Sobani irune' also released her first single after the hit of 'Sobani irune' and the album, 'Diary.'

This single from Thelma, 'Nando Mo' was #8.

If we compared with her singles before the hit of 'Sobani irune', it can be still regarded as a hit, but when I bought the single at Tower Record Japan, this single was displayed and promoted as well as Perfume. And contrary to 'love the world', Thelma's new work was tied up with some TV commercial. So, for the staffs from Universal Music, this result must be a disappointing one. 'Nando Mo' can be translated, 'Again and Again', but it looks she couldn't repeat her miracle of ' Sobani irune' again and again.

But why?

Well, actually, I also bought this 'Nando Mo' and listened to this single yesterday.

1. Nando Mo
2. Love
3. I ☆ You (I star you)
4. Mirai yosouzu (cover of Dreams Come True)


My conclusion is... the songs were not good.

Both 'Nando Mo' and 'Love' are 6.5 kote songs to me, just unimpressive ballads, which people can never be irritated but also never excited with. And as for the cover of Dreams Come True, 'Mirai Yosouzu', the arrange is not startling and I felt as if I'm listening the karaoke of somebody.

The only good song included in this single is #3, ' I ☆You' . This song is from Makai who penned 'Garden of Love', and in the intro of this song, the arranged hook of 'Garden of Love' is used. It's like a sequel of Garden of Love, and I liked this song. (Rating: 8.5 kote).

But 'I ☆You' is just the second coupling of this single, so the audience who was disappointed at 'Nando Mo' and didn't buy this single couldn't notice the existence of this hidden masterpiece.

According to some sources, After the hit of 'Sobani irune', Thelma's mother worried that Thelma may become 'Ippatsu Ya(一発屋)', the artist who just ends up with only one smashing hit. Thelma laughed and said 'Can be.(かもね）' then, but it seems the percentage that Thelma becomes 'Ippatsu Ya' shoot up a little bit.

Maybe what she should do is to stop break up with 3rd Productions and stop singing ordinary ballads, and reorganize the succeeded tag team again. (Soulja, Douji-T, MAKAI.) and sing more characteristic song to identify her own music.