Uta Doki! - Pop Classics Vol.2

Uta Doki Pop Classics Vol. 2 represents an improvement over Vol. 1, in terms of song choices, but doesn't yet reach the heights achieved by Vols. 3, 4 & 5, the best in the entire 12-volume series. Still, among the 24 songs performed, there are a number of highlights worth singling out: Yuko Nakazawa and Kaori Iida perform "Machibuse," originally done by Hitomi Ishikawa. Yuko Nakazawa and Yuki Maeda, two of the finest voices in Hello! Project, do a duet of "Matsu Wa" by Amin, a song also covered by W (Nono and Aibon) in their first album. Ai Takahashi sings "Sailor Fuku to Kikanju" by Hiroko Yakushimaru (from the movie of the same name). Kaori Iida sings "Akai Sweet Pea" (Seiko Matsuda). Atsuko Inaba sings one of Anri's most memorable songs, "Kanashimi ga Tomaranai," the one with the refrain in English, "I can't stop the loneliness..." Maki Goto sings "Love is Over" (Ouyang FeiFei). Kei Yasuda sings "Aijin" (Teresa Teng). Nozomi Tsuji rocks out with "Roppongi Shinjuu" by Ann Lewis. Maki performs "Desire Jounetsu" (Akina Nakamori), accompanied by Sharan Q band members Hatake on guitar and Makoto on drums. Yuki sings "My Revolution" (Misato Watanabe). Ai sings "Cha Cha Cha" (Akemi Ishii). Thes original recordings of these songs all date from 1980-86. Many of the songs have English lines in them, which are a challenge for most of the girls. As it turns out, the two youngest, Ai-chan and Nono, boast the best English pronunciation. Mari Yaguchi again proves to be the weakest soloist here. She sings Lum's theme song from "Urusei Yatsura," and makes us wish for the original performance from the animated TV series. She also does a poor job with Hirofumi Banba's wonderful song, "Sachiko," which is, thankfully, redone in Vol. 12 by a duet of Yuko and Mr. Banba himself. I'm a fan of Mari and love her work with various groups (Morning Musume, Tanpopo, Minimoni, various shuffle units), but she's not the best soloist on these DVDs. Also present here are Natsumi Abe, Melon Kinenbi, and Country Musume. Missing in action are Aya Matsuura and Ayaka Kimura, who were in Vol. 1. (Ai Takahashi was not in Vol. 1.) The only male singer in this volume is Kenji Nagae, who performs "High School Lullaby" with MK. Taisei, the keyboardist from Sharan Q, accompanies the girls on nine of the songs. Hatake and Makoto appear only in the Maki number cited above. There are 8 min. of outtakes.