As regular readers of this blog would know, I’m currently going through and reviewing every Morning Musume album in honor of their anniversary. While I’m currently working on 4th Ikimasshoi, arguably my favorite Morning Musume album, I’ve been listening to a lot of album songs in advance. I’m having a lot of fun doing this, but one thing I find interesting are finding the patterns within the albums. One pattern I’ve noticed is that almost every Morning Musume album starts with a big, splashy, energetic song. Moonlight Night, SONGS, Night of Tokyo City, etc.

However, one that I feel gets sadly overlooked is Genki+ from Sexy 8 Beat, which is an interesting album in itself. 2006-2008 is an interesting time for Morning Musume, in that it only has a few tenuous connections to the original/golden eras of the group (Yoshizawa Miki, 5th generation was there near the end of it), but isn’t quite the Platinum era which feels very distinct. So Sexy 8 Beat is in many ways the last hurrah of the old guard before the new Platinum Era. That being said, Genki + is great. The echoed “yasashii koe ga kikoeru” lines are very memorable, the melody is great, it has a great serious feel to it. It’s just a bummer this isn’t as well remembered.