Buono!'s 2nd album "Buono! 2"

Buono!'s second album Buono! 2 is due for release this Wednesday.

Sadly, the album is just about as boring as the title and cover. I wasn't particularly impressed with Café Buono!, but after getting three really bad ass singles (and one quite mediocre one) from Buono! since then I was hoping for something good.

On the plus side, Momo looks really gorgeous on the covers. She's really maturing into a beautiful woman. On the limited edition cover she looks a lot like Mitsui Aika, and it makes me want a duet from the two of them. In general I really like Miyabi's new cut, but on this cover she looks like she's wearing a wig. Airi looks strangely like she did on the cover of Honto no Jibun, as if she has grown younger since "co・no・mi・chi" was released.

1. Early Bird (**---)
Boring boring boring. Sounds like they dug this out of the reject pile from Café Buono!. We've heard all these cutesy gimmicks a million times in other Buono! songs.

2. Kiss!Kiss!Kiss! (**---)
This is Buono!'s weakest single by far. I don't like harmonica, I don't like the "chu churu chu chu chuchu"s, and I don't like the repetitive chorus. I do like ". . . . jan" parts, but that's about it.

3. Kirakira (****-)
I'm really digging most of this track. It's got some nice modern-sounding instrumentals (including a splendid outro), the verse is other world-ly, and the tail end of the chorus has a sweet retro feel. The first half of the chorus really doesn't do anything for me though, which is a significant failure in my book. This title is really a bit baffling to me, as there's nothing "sparkly" about the song.

4. Shoushitsuten-Vanishing Point- (**---)
I don't even have anything to say about this. It's just blah.

5. Lotta Love Lotta Love (*****)
This song is perfection. Seriously, I don't know if anything this good has been released in Hello! Project ever. Let me see if I can begin to describe how amazing it is. The guitars couldn't rock any harder. The flute in the second verse is true retro perfection. The instrumental break is like some kind of drug that you can't overdose on. The climax is simply orgasmic. That's really the most articulate I can get when it comes to describing how mind-blowingly terrific this song is.

6. co・no・mi・chi (*****)
I've been taken with this song ever since it was released. It has a really beautiful rolling sound, both in the instrumentals and the girls' voices. The percussion is spot on, a rarity in H!P. It's really a perfect walking song.

7. Minna Daisuki (****-)
This song is good for what it is: the intro to a shoujo anime. I listened to it a lot while waiting for the bus home from work this summer, and it did a good job of re-energizing and cheering me up. I'm glad that they've got Eggs doing the intros now though because Buono! does well with a more mature sound.

8. I NEED YOU (***--)
This track is sort of ruined by the juvenile shouting in the chorus. Otherwise, it's a sweet little rock tune with good instrumentals.

9. Gachinko de Ikou! (****-)
What a fun song! It incorporates the normally gimmicky Buono! elements in a really natural and appealing way. Momo shines on this track.

10. You're My Friend (**---)
Meh. The "you're my friend"s in the verse are nice, but otherwise nothing there's nothing that catches my interest.

11. OVER THE RAINBOW (***--)
Woah, they apparently let the intern do the AutoTune on Airi at the beginning of the track. She sounds super unnatural. Otherwise the song is pretty and a little glam rock. I don't love it, but it's not a complete failure either.

12. Goal (*****)
Wow wow wow. What a track. Sounds like a song that an actual band would release. Really just striking and modern. I wasn't expecting much based on the title, but I couldn't ask for a better last track.

This album is a bizarre mix of gems and trash with very little in between. There's nothing totally worthless on it, but I think they can do better for Buono!