Review: Berryz Koubou - Dschinghis Khan

Dschinghis Khan limited edition

Release date: 2008/03/12

Tracklisting:

1. Dschinghis Khan (PV)
2. Darling I LOVE YOU
3. Dschinghis Khan (instrumental)

When I first heard Berryz Koubou's next single was going to be this song, I was very disappointed to say the least. You see, I, as a Finnish person, have an extreme prejudice against this song right from the get-go, to say the least. If you're Finnish, you will know what I'm talking about. But to sum it up, just so you know where I'm coming from, I've been hearing this song ever since I was little and any mention of it makes me think of the 80's, spandex and this guy's ugly face:

Ugly Frederik

So, I'm as surprised as you are as I now acknowledge that I'm quite enjoying this.

Smiling Risako

This does indeed sound like some older Momusu material, specifically Koi no Dance Site, but not in the nostalgic kind of way at all like Mikan, no; it sounds as if nothing has changed and the Golden Age was still going strong, perhaps because of DANCE MAN's usual excellent arrangement. Thankfully not much of the original, rather cheesy 80's disco sound is left intact, and it is made to sound much cooler with excellent electric guitar and a surprisingly big amount of DJ scratching sounds that are made use of. Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate me some good old disco at times too, I'd just rather only do it when under the influence of large amounts of alcohol...

A complaint I have often heard about this song is that it sounds like a bunch of chipmunks or that the vocals are too high-pitched. Personally I don't really get it. Sure, it can get a little high during the choruses but there are enough of those girls with not such high-pitched voices to balance it out, and I feel it's nothing compared to some Buono! songs where those three, especially little Momo, can literally hurt my ears from time to time.

Lovely Yurina

You don't have to take my word for this, but I do believe I'm pretty good at predicting if something will sell well or not. When Mikan came out, everyone was saying "OMG this is so like the good old days, this will sell a million copies!", but not me; I could just hear from the song how the general public would find it boring as hell, and it just so happened to turn out to be Momusu's lowest selling single. And I can't really blame them; honestly, I think it is a pretty poor song. But man, if this single doesn't sell, then I wonder... what in the HELL will?! ...But then I could just as well be way off here and this will do awfully in the charts... which has happened before, too; I thought Honto no Jibun would sell like a few thousand copies at best, but it just so turned out to be the highest selling Kids single at that point in time. But you win some and you lose some, right? Though to defend myself, I made the prediction before I learned to like that song. But yeah, even though you just never know about Japan, I have a good feeling about this song.

The second track, Darling I LOVE YOU, is also apparently a cover of someone because its marked as "Berryz Koubou ver." on the single. I don't know who, but it doesn't really matter. Unfortunately, I'm not really feeling this track and don't think it's all that special. So, standard b-side fare, I'm sorry to say. Quite enjoying the keyboard-work here at times though. The part starting at 03:07 is quite fun too.

Awesome Maasa

So overall, Dschinghis Khan is quite decent indeed. Enough so for me to give this a pretty good rating even if the b-side wasn't all that special. And really, seeing Maasa looking all cool with her tough cop-sunglasses, playing a Flying V electric guitar in the PV? Enough to make this the best thing ever, just for the pure metal credits. Momo doesn't look too bad either with her very 60's acoustic! Still there would've been a real simple way to make this even better, perhaps even worth giving a perfect 10 for: simply covering Moskau instead of Dschinghis Khan. Seriously, just look at this:

I wonder who would've played the part of the main guy. I'm thinking Maasa, I think she could've nicely pulled off that lifting yourself up from the floor and doing that thing with your legs thing he does. Chinami should be the guy with the sick moustache.

Rating: 8+ out of 10

"Rangers end up pissed in tar!"