“Summer Night Town” is Morning Musume’s third single, and it looks like this is where they start to figure out what their identity is as a group.  The video is stylistically very different from the first two – I mentioned that they were very stiff, but in this video, they danced, were fluid, and interspersed semi-related shots with their dancing.  The dancing wasn’t particularly adventurous or choreographed, but hey.  All told, a very late 90s style video.

The song itself seemed to have some Mediterranean influences (something that I’m finding to be a little more common than I had expected in JPop).  The melody sounded like it would have been at home in a Spanish ballad.  I confess to not completely understanding what the words were trying to get across, but I think if I had to guess, it would be the conflicted mind of a young girl in love with an older man.  “I hate you I hate you I hate you I love you” seems to express that conflict quite well.  It has a very conflicted feel to it – she loves him, but doesn’t want to love him, and hates that he evokes those feelings in her.

It’s definitely coming into the well-known Morning Musume quality standards, but if I’m honest, not my favorite.  Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate it, but I’m not gonna be seeking it out.

Maybe a Lone Star rating is in order.

Links

Wikipedia – Hello Project Wiki – Lyrics