Songs of 2023 - Ranking!

[Solarblade]

It's that time of the year again! Time to rank up the songs that made up the year!

(NOTE: I'm not going to include the songs from Morning Musume and Juice=Juice's best album unless there was something totally different about them, for MM it's the cover songs and J=J it's the new arrangements. I feel like putting them all is really just if ya like Mizuki and Sakura for MM then the redone songs might be to your liking and for Juice=Juice it's really more about Akari, Ruru, Rei, Riai, and Yume for the remakes....so...yeah...

Morning Musume '23

- HEAVY GATE
- Nanzansho Souzansho
- Kanashimi Naru You na Rainy day
- Last Kiss (23 Ver.)
- Chokotto LOVE (23 Ver.)
- Suggoi FEVER!
- Wake-up Call ~Mezameru Toki~
- Neverending Shine

ANGERME

- Survive ~ Ikiteku Tame ni Yume wo Min da
- Bukkowashitai
- 23ji no Persona
- Nekkara Playboy
- Top!
- Sister Sister
- Maa, Ii ka!
- Forever Friend
- Ai no Kedamono
- Dousousei
- Ikanakucha
- RED LINE
- Life is Beautiful!

Juice=Juice

- Pride Bright
- FUNKY FLUSHIN'
- Romance no Tochuu (2023 10th Juice Ver.)
- Wonderful World (2023 10th Juice Ver.)
- Bon Voyage ~Omoi no Kiseki~

Tsubaki Factory

- Machigai ja nai Naitari Shitai
- Skip Skip Skip
- Kimi to Boku no Kizuna feat. KIKI
- Yuuki It's my Life!
- Mousou Dake Nara Freedom
- Demo...Ii yo

BEYOOOOONDS

- Motomeyo...Unmei no Tabibitozan
- Yume Sae Egakenai Yozora ni wa

OCHA NORMA

- Chotto Joucho Fuantei?...Natsu
- Ocha no Ma Maharoba Ikoinoba ~Showa to Reiwa wa mo Watchawacha~
- Shekenaare
- Yoridori ME DREAM

Other H!P Releases

- You're My Friend feat. KIKI / Kiki Asakura
- Kacchoii Uta / Riko Yamagishi
- BE / Yumeno Kishimoto

[JPope]

I was thinking of starting to work on this a couple of weeks ago, but other things got in the way. The pickings are kinda slim this year, although there are a few real bangers. I'm gonna have to sit down with them all, as I haven't really listened to a lot of the stuff from the 2nd half of the year, mainly due to the Detroit Lions being good for only the 2nd time in my life.

[DonJuan]

I feel like this was the year I've been the most detached from H!P releases since Platinum Era MM, so I don't know how to do the ranking. Well, I'll give it a try later.

Only two Biyo releases though. F*** UF.

[Shoujo Q]

Morning Musume '23
( Morning Musume has the ability to anger me and surprise me EVERY DAMN YEAR! I love them to death but the frustrate me to no end. )
- Wake-up Call ~Mezameru Toki~
- Suggoi FEVER!
- HEAVY GATE
- Last Kiss (23 Ver.)
- Nanzansho Souzansho
- Chokotto LOVE (23 Ver.)
- Neverending Shine
- Kanashimi Naru You na Rainy day

ANGERME

I can't rank this. I honestly wasn't paying enough attention to ANGERME this year. I might later, listen to the songs from this year, if I find the time.

Juice=Juice (I REALLY loved the Best of Album this year. It was so good!)

- Pride Bright
- Romance no Tochuu (2023 10th Juice Ver.)
- FUNKY FLUSHIN'
- Bon Voyage ~Omoi no Kiseki~
- Wonderful World (2023 10th Juice Ver.)

Tsubaki Factory

- Mousou Dake Nara Freedom
- Machigai ja nai Naitari Shitai
- Skip Skip Skip
- Kimi to Boku no Kizuna feat. KIKI
- Yuuki It's my Life!
- Demo...Ii yo

BEYOOOOONDS (What a SAD year to be a Beyooooonds fan. I hope next year picks up for them.)

- Yume Sae Egakenai Yozora ni wa
- Motomeyo...Unmei no Tabibitozan


OCHA NORMA

- Ocha no Ma Maharoba Ikoinoba ~Showa to Reiwa wa mo Watchawacha~
- Shekenaare
- Yoridori ME DREAM (This should have gone to Beyooooonds)
- Chotto Joucho Fuantei?...Natsu


I'll come back and rank the graduation solos once Mizuki graduates. And then do a final shuffle of all the groups to find my top 10 songs of the year.

[DonJuan]

You know the drill!
Like a lot - like - okay - don't care - go away

Morning Musume '23

Wake-up Call ~Mezameru Toki~
Suggoi FEVER!
HEAVY GATE
Chokotto LOVE (23 Ver.)
Nanzansho Souzansho
Kanashimi Naru You na Rainy day
Last Kiss (23 Ver.)*
Neverending Shine

I'm somewhat inbetween for Suggoi FEVER!. It's good disco, but it's just not hitting it right. I have grown to like Wake-up Call a lot though, despite it being really messy. My favourite MM song this year. Heavy Gate is a great album song, the other two are pretty boring but not offensive. Neverending Shine is a snoozefest but kinda cute.
*God. That Last Kiss. Last Kiss is an amazing song and while Yokoyan's voice didn't destroy it as much as I first thought it just really, really doesn't fit. I think I would have even liked Mizuki more in this group. This is a weird in-between colour because it is, after all, Last Kiss, and Maria and Rio did well. But Yokoyan...


ANGERME

Ai no Kedamono
Life is Beautiful!
Dousousei
Ikanakucha
RED LINE
Survive ~ Ikiteku Tame ni Yume wo Min da
23ji no Persona
Nekkara Playboy
Top!
Sister Sister
Maa, Ii ka!
Forever Friend
Bukkowashitai

Anju's album songs this year... sound a bit like Juice rejects mixed with Kpop. They can pull them off, but they don't pull me in.
I love RED LINE for it's spooky sounding parts. The chorus sucks though. I can't believe Anju forces me to like their ballads

Juice=Juice

Pride Bright
FUNKY FLUSHIN'
Wonderful World (2023 10th Juice Ver.)
Romance no Tochuu (2023 10th Juice Ver.)
Bon Voyage ~Omoi no Kiseki~

Thank the heavens for Juice this year. They might have lost the Avengers but they're still pretty damn great.
The new instrumental to Romance no Tochuu is great, but it doesn't have the punch of the original. But I like using an actual band this time.

Tsubaki Factory

Mousou Dake Nara Freedom
Machigai ja nai Naitari Shitai
Skip Skip Skip
Yuuki It's my Life!
Kimi to Boku no Kizuna feat. KIKI
Demo...Ii yo

Yuuki It's my Life sounds like a Mano Erina reject lol. And let's just say that Tsubaki's ballads are just incredibly boring, but maybe I'm just mean.
But to be fair, even though I didn't really like Tsubaki's releases this year, their MVs are among the best in H!P, if not *the* best.

Beyooooonds

Yume Sae Egakenai Yozora ni wa
Motomeyo...Unmei no Tabibitozan

I'm close to crying actual tears over this year's releases. They're good at least, but damn. They really leave Biyo hanging.
At least these were releases where I could immediately think of the song when reading the name...

OCHA NORMA

Chotto Joucho Fuantei?...Natsu
Shekenaare
Ocha no Ma Maharoba Ikoinoba ~Showa to Reiwa wa mo Watchawacha~
Yoridori ME DREAM

It's incredible how much OCHA misses my tastes. This is one the one hand the most generic idol stuff I've heard in some time, and then some of that is especially annoying. Can't wait for them to be dropped as soon as the new Kenshuusei Unit debuts.

Other H!P Releases

BE / Yumeno Kishimoto
Kacchoii Uta / Riko Yamagishi
You're My Friend feat. KIKI / Kiki Asakura

To be fair I've only heard the Riko and Kishimon songs in concert. But Kishimon's BE might be the best graduation song ever.

Overall, quite a bad year.

[JPope]

I saw this as a down year for H!P overall, but there were a few gems. My top 10 would rank pretty high any year, but it starts to slip after that. I expected Anju's album tracks to place higher, because I gave it a pretty good review, but I kept dropping them down during the sorting process. I suppose four in the top 20 ain't bad. Anyway, here's my Top 20.

1. Pride Bright - J=J: Aside from being my favorite song, it's recorded and mixed perfectly. The drums that push the groove are always up front, and the guitar is right in your face during the tasty riff, and only there. It's awesome.

2. Mousou Dake Nara Freedom - TF: This is a great rock/electronic hybrid that we used to get a lot more of in H!P. Kind of feels like a Biyo track. Speaking of which...

3. Motomeyo...Unmei no Tabibitozan - BIYO: I mean, how can you not like Grade-A Hoshibe funky 80s pop? I'm glad they got at least one great song this year, because they only got two and the flying whale song was a bust for me.

4. Skip Skip Skip - TF: Tsubaki is really good at this sort of upbeat pop. Great chord progression and so much 16-beat lol.

5. Kimi to Boku no Kizuna feat. KIKI - TF: I probably have this ranked higher than most, but it's almost like UF told Takui "give us a pretty ballad that JPope will gush over, and everyone else will roll their eyes at JPope for gushing over." It's another one that's recorded, mixed and arranged perfectly. The synth arpeggios over the first verse are so tasty, the chorus is beautiful and that key change going back into the verse kills me every time.

6. Wake-up Call ~Mezameru Toki~ - MM23: This is my favorite MM single track since K&K. I don't even mind the stark transitions, because they just... work. Harowota have been begging for MM to set the EDM aside in favor of fun, upbeat pop for so long that it might not have occurred that we could have both in the same song.

7. Bukkowashitai - ANJU: If you had money on Anju doing funky Florida swamp-rock, I suppose you cashed in pretty good odds, but stuff like this is why I love H!P so much. This is a fairly loose performance by current H!P standards, which is refreshing, and also necessary for everything to work. Really great vocals throughout, too.

8. RED LINE - ANJU: I had this a lot lower originally, but it crept up steadily with repeated listens and eventually cracked the single-digits. The drama feels slightly forced to me, but the verse B-sections and chorus won me over -- particularly the final Kawamuu/Wakana B-section.

9. Shekenaare - OCHA: The only real winner out of a quad-A side release. A lot of Harowota say that OCHA is the new Kobushi, but this sounds every bit like a Tsubaki album track to me, and there's nothing wrong with that.

10. Romance no Tochuu (2023 10th Juice Ver.) - J=J: I debated including this since it's a cover, but the acoustic arrangement is different enough -- and great enough -- that I decided, fuck it, why not? I did hedge a bit by slotting it this low, though. As much as I love the live analog performance, the slightly buried horns annoys me a bit.

11. Forever Friend - ANJU
12. Bon Voyage ~Omoi no Kiseki~ - J=J
13. Kanashimi Naru You na Rainy day - MM23
14. Nekkara Playboy - ANJU
15. Ai no Kedamono - ANJU
16. Machigai ja nai Naitari Shitai - TF
17. Sister Sister - ANJU
18. Ikanakucha - ANJU/Takeuchi
19. Demo...Ii yo - TF
20. FUNKY FLUSHIN' - J=J

Tsubaki Factory with three in my top 5 wins group of the year.