Mitsuboshi [Regular Edition]

Koharu Kusumi, the sole 7th Gen member of Morning Musume, has had three full-length solo albums as of this writing, and the first one, "Mitsuboshi," remains, by far, the best. For at least six tracks of the ten-track album, she's allowed to sing sweet, beautiful songs without distorting her voice to match that Kirari anime character who dominates her next two albums. Tracks 3, 5, 8, 9, and 10 are the best and display Koharu's strengths as a singer. Track 4 isn't bad, either. Tracks 1 and 2 consist of her first two singles, "Balalaika" and "Koi Kana," bouncy, catchy songs from her anime series that are nowhere near as annoying as her later singles would get. Tracks 6 and 7, "Spaghetti" and "Love da Yo Darling," are the ones that bothered me most here, the ones most like her later, insufferable anime songs. However, upon re-listening to them after listening to her later albums over again, I realize that she's not bad at all in these songs. It's the musical arrangement that's annoying, using all kinds of abrasive synth instrumentation to play up the "kiddie" aspect of the songs. In fact, the synth arrangements are annoying in most of the songs in this album, although not enough to ruin Koharu's singing in the better tracks. Only one song, track 10, "Sugao-flavor," had the kind of careful, low-key arrangement the song required. I believe Koharu has a lot of undeveloped potential as a singer and a star and I hope the Hello! Project management team allows her to grow up as a performer this year. (She'll be 17 in July!) Tsunku, are you listening? Is there anything YOU can do? Or have you forgotten all about the "Miracle Girl" already?