Jpop Mix: Yasashiku Suru Yori Kiss O Shite -やさしくするよりキスをして

Welcome to the third Music Mix post! (Yeah, I'm doing a lot of these...I recently bought quite a lot of brand new CD's so I'm trying to review them all as quickly as possible). This time up is Miyuki Watanabe, who celebrated her solo debut in December of 2014. I decided to start off right away with the video for the song because I love the 80's super idol vibe she is channeling through her music video. Yeah, I'm a total fangirl, haha.  Miyuki is actually a member of NMB48, another of the sister groups of AKB48. Many soloists are produced from their ranks, but I don't generally follow them unless I really like the song. All in all, I think I have like 4-5 singles from their soloists, which is not that much considering they have quite a large number of them. Anyways, Miyuki is known for her flirtatious personality. While her singing is not the best, she is a very good dancer and is quite charismatic on stage. She currently claims the title of my favorite member in NMB, so it's not much of a surprise that I bought her first solo single. So, to get to the title song: Yasashiku Suru Yori Kiss O Shite translates into "Instead of being kind, kiss me." The lyrics are a pretty standard idol song, but what I really liked about this song was the 80's beat it has to it. It's ultimately what made me buy this single (apart from being a fan of course >.<). I felt the music video was quite cute, but it's nothing spectacular. Overall, after many listens, the song has fallen into a very "standard" song and I don't listen much to it. I kind of feel like

Cover of my copy of the single (regular edition)

the novelty wore off. So, it's a 3/5 for me. When I first bought it it was more of a 3.5/5. I like the melody, but the lyrics aren't all that great. Also, Miyuki's vocals faltered at times. Usually I can overlook a few vocal issues, but in this case, she really needed to be on point to deliver the song, and I found that she doesn't quite do that, either live or on the recorded version.   This single did come with one B-side: Harukaze Pianissimo 春風ピアニッシモ or Spring Wind Pianissimo. The song is actually not performed by Miyuki at all, but rather by other members of the 48Group family (meaning AKB48, SKE48, NMB48 and HKT48). It's a mixture of members from these four groups that sing the b-side track. The song is another pretty standard love song. It does have a very soothing melody which I have grown to like quite a lot. The music video is nothing that special either. Watching the full version, it's kind of funny but overall I was pretty "meh" about it. This song is a 2.5/5 for me. Not too bad, but a song I will forget about eventually.  So, taking both songs into account, this single is pretty much a 2.8/5. Not strong enough to reach that 3 and not that bad that I would place it at a 2.