Top 10 Current Idol Vocalists.

WHOAH! SHE CAN SING!

Who are your favourite idols? Well forget about them. This is about the best singers in idol groups. Current and active only. I may also make a former idols best vocalist's list as well, but that will be a lot harder than this one. I am not including any vocalists who are being promoted as serious singers, even former idols who are now artists are being excluded (eg: Maki Goto).

Here they are! The top 10 current idol vocalists! (In my opinion xD)


10. Risa Niigaki (Morning Musume)- Now the longest serving member of Morning Musume, she's always had a deeper voice than most, but can also hit falsetto notes with a beautiful flowing sound. Her voice is now carrying Morning Musume though, as she is by a very long shot better than their next best vocalist. Reina Tanaka.


9. Yuko Oshima (AKB48 Team K) - I remember her being a lot better than they give her credit for now, maybe because she is constantly trying to make herself sound cute, but her voice is actually very good. Listen to 'Kinjirareta Futari' - it's delicate, it's husky, and she sounds very good hitting either high or low notes. They need to give her more ballads to sing as she is very good at conveying emotion.


8. Ayano Konishi (Tokyo Girls Style)- This girl has some serious pipes on her. Sounding better than idols twice her age, she was born to sing and perform. Apparently her nickname is 'perfect voice' - I can see why. Tokyo Girls' Style as a group are ridiculously talented in both singing and dancing, and I'd eventually love to see some solo careers come out of them. Especially Ayano.


7. Miyabi Natsuyaki (Berryz Koubou and Buono!) - Always, since she was very young, being one of the best Hello! Project vocalists, she has a very unique sounding voice that you can always spot, being a tad on the nasal side in the high register, yet when in the low register, she sounds fantastic. Always a front girl since the very first Berryz single, I have a feeling she will be one of the (few) girls who will succeed after Hello! Project disbands.


6. Sayaka Akimoto (AKB48 Team K) - Extremely underrated as a vocalist, her deep and husky voice is perfect for rock songs like Blue Rose, DiVA is the most vocally powerful sub group in AKB48 and her voice is often dominating of other members because of it's power. She can also handle ballads and different styles of music. She has proven herself so many times and yet she still doesn't get the promotion she really deserves. Media Senbatsu for next year! Sayaka! I will vote for you!


5. Sayaka Yamamoto (NMB48 Team N) - WOW. Was my first thought when I heard the clearness and clarity of this beauty's voice. Her version of Bird is incredible, and it seems like this is really the vocalists AKB song, as Sayanee, Yuka, and Takamina have all gotten it as their lead songs. She will be the Takamina of NMB, whether she stays as popular as she is, or it goes up and down, she will probably always carry their songs with her great voice that can hit a varied range of notes.


4. Airi Suzuki (C-ute and Buono!) - Another H!P vocalist carrying the franchise. Although oddly, she sounded better when she was younger (anyone remember Aa!?) her voice is usually is quite high, and she is arguably one of the best, if not the best vocalist in current Hello! Project. Most of the H!P kids turned into very good talents, singers and dancers bar a few who never seemed to improve, but Airi was very good right off the bat. Her audition song was BoA's 'Kimochi wa Tsutawaru' and she was about 9 years old. Incredible.


3. Yuka Masuda (AKB48 Team B)- Originally from Team K and smashing most of the other girls vocals from AKB (especially from Team B)out of the park, Yuka continually proves her worth by doing beautifully strong versions of songs. The duet on the revised stages of 'Anata to Christmas Eve' with Sayaka Akimoto was fantastic.


2. Reiko Nishikunihara (SDN48) - While not the prettiest idol, and definitely one of the oldest in the idol industry right now. Her voice is incredible, it is a shame she doesn't get into any of the SDN A-sides, as she is the best vocalist in SDN48. Hands down. Hopefully for their last single all the girls get to shine. I'd like to see her get an enka or classical music career after SDN.


1. Minami Takahashi (AKB48 Team A) - Nobody can really dispute this. (Well, feel free too though!) She is the queen of AKB48 and supports many, many songs with her strong and deep vocals. She gives everything she sings such a depth and emotion. I hope that eventually she gets her own solo career, as even though she may not be as popular as Acchan or Yukirin, she is infinitely more talented.

How about you? Who do you think has the best voice? Or has potential to one day have a great career?

Buono! Partenza! Awesome!

Buono! New Mini-Album 'Partenza' Review.










Credit to SayuNii for the picture.

It's going to sound mean but I wasn't expecting much from this, as Hello! Project's releases have been lacking lately in style, structure and flair, but this is a perfect mini-album in a lot of ways. Including the singles 'Zassou no Uta' and 'Natsu Dakara!' and one of the B-sides for Zassou - 'JUICY HE@RT' - which were all great songs, so it's a good start. The filler tracks are very high standard for current H!P and fit Momoko, Miyabi and Airi's voices very well.




The album tracks are really good and varied, and the balance of hyper songs to slower songs (although not slow enough to call them ballads) is perfect. The quality of this mini-album is the highest I have heard from a H!P release since 10 My Me, and since 2007, quality has been slowly declining in H!P as any fan who has been around for a while would recognize.




The songs that have been released by Buono! S/mileage, Berryz and to a lesser extent C-ute (whose songs this year haven't been very good, bar 'Kiss me Aishiteru' which was fantastic) have been better than Morning Musume's releases by leaps and bounds. Whether this means Tsunku is trying to push MM back or re-assign someone else as the main draw for H!P, I'm not sure, but it is probably a good thing, as many H!P fans see MM as a bit old hat and they have been declining in popularity for a while.




I'll be buying this mini-album with my next pay as I think it really deserves our support with the quality it has. Which again, absolutely surprised me in a very good way.




Track by Track Breakdown:

1. Partenza ~ Lets Go!!! - A synthpop song complete with autotune and a starting that reminds me a little of the first few bars of MM's 'Only You' - A really interesting way to start the album, it's a different and upbeat track. The whole thing is autotuned though, so it will be interesting to hear how this sounds live. Miyabi's voice is quite suited to this. B-U-O-N-O Lets Go! A mini radio rip is here: LINK

2. Zassou no Uta - A recent single by Buono! With really interesting and different lyrics, and an uplifiting message (check out the translation on projecthello.com http://projecthello.com/buono/zassou.html) Airi sounds great in this, and it's a fun PV too. With a quite rock-like sound, Buono are getting back to basics here. It sounds fantastic, and it continues the trend of Buono! pretty much only getting very good songs, I don't think I've disliked a song of theirs so far. Official PV Here: LINK

3. FrankincenseΨ - This is a great song, with an awesome repetitive guitar riff the whole way through that keeps the cool beat of the song. Again, individual and unlike any other H!P song I have heard, this is good enough to be a single. There is still a bit of autotune, but it works here and it's only done in specific spots, and not the entire track. Miyabi sounds excellent here! For this album it's almost as if they were given extra vocal training, as they sound better than even a year or two ago. LINK

4. My Alright Sky - an Airi Suzuki solo song, the English at the start is not by her, it is by the composer of the track (credit to mm-bbs for this information). Airi's voice is often forced into high pitches that makes it squeak slightly and doesn't suit. This song is in a lower range, and it is just beautiful. A slow, ethereal sounding song that's a perfect halfway mark for this standout album. Airi's voice just keeps getting better. She does attempt some English in this and it sounds very cute. Mp3 Tube here: LINK

5. Natsu Dakara! - Buono's most recent single! A great summer song. A slightly slower song than recent releases, but a very good one nonetheless. I don't like the talking in the middle though, talking in a song usually weakens it (like a lot of No Sleeves's releases, if you want to compare..stop talking!). This isn't really a song you can dance to, but it is definitely one you could nod and sing along with. It's not my favourite single release from Buono! though. Official PV Here: LINK

6. Kia ora. Gracious. Arigatou - This is a great upbeat song that picks the album up again. This is Momoko's lead song, and she sounds fantastic. A high-pitched, fast moving track that works with Momoko's voice. This isn't as good as some of the other upbeat songs on the album, and it's a little generic, but it still works, and it's another song that I think would be good live.

7. JUICY HE@RT - A B-side to Zassou no Uta, an awesome rock-like song with hard riffs (I say rock like, as it's still quite poppy, and their vices are still pop...it IS H!P..) there is still a great rustic guitar feel with this, mixed with some synthpop overlay, but not enough to take away from the great old-school rock-pop feel of the track. They are wearing Union Jack jumpers in the PV...COME TO ENGLAND BUONO! Stop teasing us! Official PV Here: LINK

8. 1/3 no Junjou na Kanjou - A lower-range song, which I am always thankful for, as I think H!P is a bit of a squeakfest at times. This is a cover of a song by Siam Shade, which I will include the original here. It is an interesting cover for a girl group to do but it really shows their vocal range, I'd love to hear them do more songs in this range. It sounds fantastic. Which is not something I would expect from Momoko, Airi and Miyabi, who all have higher ranges, but their voices are so much better than we usually give them credit for, and this song shows it. The ORIGINAL by Siam Shade here: LINK - The Buono version is not available on youtube yet, but I am sure it will be soon so keep searching!




This is a great, great album, that any H!P fan would love, I have not heard any bad reviews so far. Hopefully, if H!P releases can start going back up to this kind of quality for regular singles and albums, it will bring a lot of disollusioned fans back, and new fans in. But, I don't know if it is just years of being let down, but I doubt that MM's new album or single will be anything like the quality put into this. Prove me wrong H!P! Prove me wrong!