Thoughts on Oh! My! Goodness!

[spsn]

The long awaited album from V6 after Ready? in 2010. On the way to their 20th anniversary, V6 seems to get stronger in the recent years and it shows in their songs. With this album, they show how the group has matured over the time without losing its personality. V6 is one of the most stable boyband group that I've encountered, from music wise. For all of their song, regardless of the genre, tune, tempo, you can tell, it's V6's, especially if you've been listening to their songs from the very beginning, Music for the People. You can identify V6's identify in them. And that's why I've adored V6 from their debut and never waver. Other boyband groups may come and go, but not V6. So, what's the strong point of V6?

I'd think V6 has finally re-affirmed their identity after their Sexy Honey Bunny single. As a group with strong vocals capabilities (minus Miyake's duck voice, off course, but I still love him regardless), V6 is capable of pulling of lots of different genre, from ballads, hip hop, R&B, even Broadway musical kind of songs. For the past few years, up to Ready, I'd think V6 kept experimenting on what defines V6. Some style works, some style not so. What fits the current market is also another factor to consider as V6 is still fall under the main stream idol group, and they have to appeal to broad general public to gain market share and compete with the rest of other groups. Granted V6 is not the best selling group despite of all the talents it has, but they survive. Being still existing and charting year by year is the prove of their survival.

With Sexy Honey Bunny, it seems V6 realized what works for them. First, the song must be catchy! It has to have catchy phrase, no matter how weird they are in the first place, but that few words will stuck in people's head. Take example, after Sexy Honey Bunny, all their title songs has catchy title, Bari Bari Buddy, Keep On, Rock Your Soul. They can yell out these catch phrase in the song, which gives a kick to the song itself, and it works! Then, the melody. Tonisen will always describe their song as 80's sound while Kamisen will come up with the more catchy description to describe their song personality. Yes, the core point of V6 songs is bold and full melodies plus retro sound. This not so much applied to their ballads, which also have their own way to identify that these are V6's ballads. Next point is the tune. No matter you spin them, V6 songs will always sound timeless. It'll fit just nicely in all their concerts. You can mix them up with their older songs and you see little gaps. That's why they always have the retro sounds for the dance numbers, happy cheery sounds for the likes of Bari Bari Buddy or Latin beat sounds for the likes of Chou. Then, you get the lyrics. V6 songs never ever have meaningless lyrics, never. Over time, they play a bit with the lyrics, hinting seduction to make it more sexy, but it always has meaning. And that leads to the strong point of their ballads. Besides beautiful tunes, their ballads has beautiful lyrics. And adding on Tonisen's beautiful vocals, and you have ballad songs pleasing to your ears.

And they compiled all these strong points, and package it in the Oh! My! Goodness! album. To make it even powerful, the members take one more step further by involving themselves in the production. The results? You can tell their personalities shine in the songs. Take for example, Otona Guyz. Miyake involved in this song and the result? A fun, colorful song and it'll remain as fave for lots of fans for a long time. Why? Because it has V6's signature all over the place. I personally think this song is the best song in the album :). To make your experience better in indulging yourself with this album, you have to listen to the tracks in order, don't shuffle. There's a reason why they arrange those songs in that order. I can't really describe it but as I listen to the tracks, I kept thinking 'ah, yeah, it makes sense'. The flow of these songs is so smooth, and you'll feel the maturity beneath all those fun songs. This album is really well thought off and neatly packaged that it's worthy for fans to wait that more than 2 years after Ready?. I can't even imagine how awesome the concert will be with this set of new songs, and unfortunately I won't be able to witness it live.

V6 is not just taking what works for them in Oh! My! Goodness! There are also some aspects of experiments in some songs, but with better judgement. They tweak what already works and add more personalities. For example, BING♂. They add tons of fun element in this songs. You can bet it'll fit nicely in John Travolta's 'Saturday Night' movie, so yeah, it's that retro. But, at the same time, it's so V6. You'll hear Tonisen jamming to the tune and Kamisen busy rapping away and they wrap it out with 'bing bing bing, bing bing bing, bing bing bing... GO' and that Go sounds are so playful that it's fun to listen to. Want something even more retro? Try 'D.I.S'. This song is so YMCA era, and by the time you finish listening, you'll be humming 'D.I.S shiyou, D.I.S shiyou.' I'd think no matter which generation you are from, you'll enjoy this song, just like how you'd enjoy the YMCA song. Or how about something more rocking but with retro sound? You can listen to 'Exotic Trip.' As you listen to it, you'll feel as if you're up there on the way to venture to a fun exciting adventure... exotic trip. The song suggest that you're to taste something new, therefore exotic. To change the mood, there's Senkou Hanabi... the only ballad in the album (yeah, this album pack with so much punch that V6 only need to rest with 1 song). Again, even the ballad is so V6. Beautiful vocalwise, the lingering lovely ballad, you'll never get enough of it. Not the best V6's ballad (especially if you compare it with the likes of WALK), but for this album, it flows nicely and works as a bridge. Another so-called ballad is 'May Be.' I don't consider this ballad though, it has more R&B feel and lots of autotune, but it works for this song and it's very kakkoii. I hope they perform this song in SCP someday, a glimpse of it in Music Lover is not enough. And let's not forget the flag song for this album, Supernova aka the sexy song. Only V6 can sing this song and I definitely can't imagine Sexy Zone singing this song (well, maybe 20 years later they are eligible to sing this song), or even Arashi. This song is really made for V6, and they rock every time they perform this song. My favorite part? Ken's! Gotta watch his face expression when he performs this song... the seduction level goes to a different level, haaa...

I always have high expectation when it comes to V6 and I'm very seldom disappointed with their releases and it's been like this for years. Unlike some Western bands who rarely come up with releases or worse, just a one time hit wonder, V6 has consistently coming up with releases and they maintain the quality, not just for the sake of releasing something.