“10 MY ME” Album Review

Some background information about 10 MY ME

The studio album called 10 MY ME is the 10^th album by Japanese pop music group Morning Musume (now Morning Musume 23). When I heard their amazing 41^st single called Kimagure Princess, I knew I had to buy the album. The album was released on March 17, 2010. It has two members who are not Japanese. LinLin and JunJun are from China. They are the only non-Japanese members in the history of Morning Musume. The album’s strongest songs are in bold. To provide some interesting context here, the title of this album is actually a pun or a play on words. It literally means “tenth album.”

1. Moonlight Night
2. Kimagure Princess (note: the song is one of the singles from this album)
3. (Sparkling Energy)
4. Tears
5. Why Can’t Women Stand Out? (single #2)
6. Okii Hitomi (Wide Eyes)
7. I Want to Return to That Day
8. Fake Love (single #3)
9. Delicious Osaka
10. Loving You Forever
11. Helpless Dream Chaser (single #4)
12. We Can’t Love Each Other On a Planet Where No Rain Falls, Can We? (Chinese Version

Which Morning Musume members sing on the album?

Although seventh generation member Koharu Kusumi is not credited, she makes an appearance on the album. Other members singing on the album are Ai Takahashi, Risa Niigaki, Aika Mitsui, Reina Tanaka, Sayumi Michishige, and the very beautiful Eri Kamei.

 Brief Review of the album 10 MY ME

The album is a mixture of dance pop with some electronic elements mixed in. After the energetic opener Moonlight Night, the amazing song Kimagure Princess can dazzle and awe the listener. It is one of the first highlights of the album. Okii Hitomi (Wide Eyes) is another excellent song that has been one of my favorites.

Even if the spoken part in the beginning of the song Moonlight Night is a flaw, there really are not many other things to nitpick and complain about for this album. It is now more than 13 years since the release of this album. How has 10 MY ME stood up over time? It may still be Morning Musume’s best album of all the ones that I have heard so far. Moonlight Night and Kimagure Princess are two very solid songs to start off this album. Looking back on the album 10 MY ME, this is a good choice of an album to listen to if you are just getting familiar with this girl group.

After Kimagure Princess, the next song which is translated as Sparkling Energy is just that: a high energy song that is sure to raise your overall mood. 10 MY ME was my favorite Morning Musume album for a long time but those tastes may be changing even if they are slight. After three high energy songs in a row, we are treated to a slower, piano based song called Tears. This song is about not holding your emotions in check when you have to shed some tears. There is also another message in this song and it is that we should be gentle, forgive each other and do not drag along whatever is already finished. What’s done is done and in the past. As we get deeper and deeper into this album, there is not yet the electronic based sound that we would hear about on the album Chapter 14 Shou The Message. I Want to Go Back to That Day is a song about a woman that wants to go back to the way that things were because she was naïve enough to avoid the reality. She is really craving the love of her lover. Will she get him back? What has been a common theme for Morning Musume is to have several voices singing at the same time and this is especially the case in the song called Fake Love. Can fake love have plenty of meanings? Why would someone want to be a person that isn’t really genuinely in love? Some people are bored and they just want to be in love for the sake of being in love. Speaking of love, Loving You Forever is a song about precisely that. Through love, we can perhaps learn so much and understand the other person better. Hopeless Dream Chaser is the 11^th song on this album and lyrically it is about the fact that we love our partner so much even if they have dreams that are considered weird or hopeless kinds of goals. The ambitious person will have goals and dreams that will work out in the end.

10 MY ME for the longest time was my favorite Morning Musume album but now as we are in the middle stages of 2023, that’s a really tough choice to make. “Wide Eyes” was one of the reasons why with its melodic singing and rock style. The 4^th song Namidacchi also known as Tears at the most basic translation is a song that for many can seem like a somber, slow song but the song builds up as there is this good rap part. 10 MY ME has a decent combination of slow songs, a rap part and some entertaining things such as the high energy song Moonlight Light.

SEE ALSO: “Rainbow 7” Album Review