1. Welcome to S☆G Show!! II. Another weird intro song from Avex. Marching boots, like Rammstein or something, then snares, then random overture music. With bad English dialogue. Like a parody of AKB's intro or something. Thankfully short and not too much in the way. 4/10
2. 女子力←パラダイス. Dat bassline. It's like what I said last time is holding out to be true. Super Girls have inherited the Momusu Golden Age's decent bassline shtick. The intro melody is awesome. Verse vocals aren't amazing, prechorus has some interesting bits, but the chorus is where it all comes together. If it weren't for the slappy bassline this would fall apart in an instant, but as it's there it's nice. Copy/paste for second time around, so it's following the "formula" like everything else. The mid-8 is pretty enough, buildup chorus has bongos. And lead guitar, briefly. Not a bad song, but it's not blowing me away either. 7/10
3. 絶対自分前進宣言！ Too many kanji in this title. Starts off cute enough with the chorus, then builds into a bass-heavy pop number with minimal rock instrumentation. Verse sounds like it could be an AKB song. Has that kind of vocal melody. Prechorus on the other hand, is much more inventive, bringing us nicely into the chorus again. Second verse has a nice little deconstruction on the chord progression at the start. Nothing more to note in the prechorus or chorus. Mid-8 has a nice little key change, then a guitar solo which is pretty if not technically amazing. Back to prechorus and then a buildup chorus, then back into main chorus for the end. Not bad. 7/10
4. がんばって 青春. A bit more rock this time, nice riff to start and then some fast paced singing in the chorus with decent bassline again. Then poppy keyboard riff. Verse has some nicely palm muted guitar powerchords and break riffs. Vocal melody is decent. Prechorus is okay. Then back to the chorus. In under a minute. This is some breakneck stuff. Post-chorus is nice enough. Copy/paste again for the next bit. Mid-8 has some sexy riffs, very sexy. Then "yaaaaay" and more riff. Could have done with a thrashy solo. Buildup chorus is only slightly more minimal than main chorus. Still, good. 8/10
5. メガ★トゥインクル. What a title. Some vocoded intro stuff sounds more like Sakugaku than Super Girls, bassline aside. Some ska guitar in the verse with decent vocal melody. Prechorus continues in the same vein. Chorus is cute but not musically amazing. Shame the bass this time is synthbass. Still, that aside the second runthrough is the same as the first. Mid-8 has some more vocodes and what I suppose just barely passes as a guitar solo, if a terrible one. Weakest proper song on this album so far. 5/10
6. シェルターなんかいらない. This song got on my list for prog songs, just for the crazy instrumentation and interesting verse melodies. Sounds like porn music, the verses. Very loungy. Prechorus is bass heavy and nice. Chorus has a key change and sounds pretty sexy. Guitar wanking is nice throughout. Not to mention dat brass riff. Copypasta yet again for second time around. Someone needs to introduce SG's producer to the concept of evolution. Mid-8 has some random shit going on, which is cool as fuck. Buildup chorus has some horribly synthesised acoustic guitar. Luckily it's over quickly. Still, best so far. 9/10
7. 夕焼け空に、また明日。 Music box-esque start, into ballad with organs. Vocals are quite nice, melodies work well. Acoustic guitar comes in, along with some strings and a minimal drumbeat in a sexy buildup into chorus, which has an interesting beat and decent vocal melodies. Shame it's unison instead of harmonies though. Fades back out to only guitar, organ, drums and vox for second verse, then prechorus bring the string back in slowly and we're back into the chorus. Mid-8 has a nice solo part with nice melodies. Buildup chorus is pretty, but main chorus comes in too soon. Needed more of a slow buildup. Then there's some lalalalalala stuff. And at the end it's music box again. Pretty song, but not amazing. 8/10
8. My dream. Some urban Spanish guitar and synth bass there. Wow, it's an actual avex-esque song. Suppose there had to be one. Vocals are actually good, shame about the instrumentation. That synth bass is pounding my ears, percussions does nothing useful. Spanish guitar melodies are shit, considering they're synthesised. Chorus has a nice enough melody and the bass isn't as annoying, but the percussion just sits too high in the mix and pisses me off. This doesn't have a great deal of musical worth. Mid-8 has some "aaaaah"-ing but nothing interesting. Buildup chorus with piano is the most worthy part of the song. Still, worst yet. 4/10
9. MAX！乙女心. Some beach song. That bad-English speaker is back at the beginning. Intro isn't bad. Verse is cute, but the melodies aren't amazing. Second part of verse when the bass comes in is better. Prechorus is cool. Chorus is also cute, though again the melodies are lacking. Guitar shadowing the brass in the break before second verse is lol. Second verse is a mild variation, which is new. Guitar solo isn't much of one. Buildup chorus is pretty naff. Still, decent. 6/10
10. BELIEVER. Random title. Nice chord progression, but that synth lead is annoying as hell. Verse has some nice acoustic guitars and electric guitar twiddling. Vocal melodies are okay. Prechorus is okay. Chorus has some nice little vocal melodies with a quick little peak into head voice, and decent chord progression. Second time copy/paste yet again. Solo is the best on this album so far, not that that's hard to achieve. SHOCK HORROR there's a refrain post-solo before the buildup chorus. For Super Girls, that's a structural epiphany or something. Buildup chorus is okay. Then we're back again. Still, nice. 7/10
11. EveryBody JUMP!! Drums! Nice little guitar riff here, and bass again. Keychange before the verse, which has piano and interesting vocal melodies. Prechorus has lounge piano and nicer melodies and some space synth. Chorus sounds SKE-esque, which is good as SKE choruses are usually pretty cool. Then back into that riff and then key change again. Copy/paste again. Mid-8 has some interesting riff with girls lalala-ing the same thing over the top. Synth solo, interesting. Not bad. Another refrain. SHOCK HORROR again. Buildup chorus is nice. Good all told. 8/10
12. Dear～未来の地図～. Piano intro, urban beats, and ballad? Odd, but works a bit. Nice vocal melodies. Unison though. Prechorus is okay, bass makes its entrance. Guitars come in at the end, power ballad much? Chorus is nice. Then back to piano. Proper drumkit in the second verse. Guitars do the whole prechorus this time. Nice enough chorus again, and then a reaaaaaaaaaaaaaally sexy guitar solo. So much listenability it's a joke. I would have sex with that solo. Buildup chorus is just piano and vocals. Nice. Then final chorus and such. Then lalalalala, handclaps and ablibs. Idol adlibs? Shocking. I really like this song. 10/10
13. 笑顔の羽根. Final track intro has a terrible chord progression, but nice guitar sounds and epic brass riffs and piano. Verse has some ineresting chord prog and decent vocal melodies. That pianist must be hurting, whacking the same chord over and over like that. Prechorus is nice. Chorus is cool, melodies nice and the timbre is so diverse and full it's probably the most complete non-ballad on this album. Except that damn intro riff chord prog. Sounds like early 90s pop. Stop it. Again with the copypaste. Mid-8 is a dialogue heavy piano/urban beat bit which then gets some bass and synth strings syncopation, then guitar and drums get more urgent, then into final chorus. Interesting way of doing it. But yea, probably the best non-ballad on this album, dat riff aside. 10/10
Overall: Probably slightly better overall than the first album, though I do have some issues with it. Namely the structural format of nearly every song is:
-Intro
-Verse
-Prechorus
-Chorus
-Intro
-Verse
-Prechorus
-Chorus
-Mid8
-Buildup
-Chorus
-Intro/Outro
There are a few exceptions but this is only minor, such as the addition of an extra section after the mid8/solo as a refrain, the prechorus post-mid8 in one song, and two songs starting with the chorus before following the structure above anyway. Not gonna find any decent rhapsodies from this group.
On the other hand, they have sort of picked up the torch from older pre-2007 Momusu and ran with that idea. The basslines are mostly real (and good). Most songs are upbeat. It's nice.
7.1/10
Their main arranger is Daichi, who also arranged most songs from the Momusu era I think you're referring to, so it makes a lot of sense.
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