Epic thread revival time!
Epic because it took me a while from my first entry into the world of H!P to realize just how epic this song actually was (and in a way still is), and a look back at history shows just how this song really changed the game for Morning Musume. Case in point: the singles prior to this song. After scoring a couple of #1 hits and the sudden departure of Asuka Fukuda, the group quickly became the "Nacchi & Friends show", with Abe taking prominence in "Manatsu no Kosen" and especially "Furusato", and despite the Utaban hosts claiming increased ratings thanks to Momusu, the sales of those singles were indicating a decline for the group (though in retrospect they still sold in the six figures, impressive considering the current lineup has yet to come close). Even the PVs for those songs were just more of the same: simple shots of the girls in random locales doing basic movements to the music, as they had always done up to that point. Morning Musume was indeed a success and could've still stayed that way had nothing changed, but it can be said that the initial honeymoon was almost over.
Enter "Love Machine". Not only was there the hype built by Asayan over the group's new "ace" member and the crafting of the song, but there was the song itself. Right from the opening notes was the first sign of the group's transition from the smooth-but-subdued harmonies of the past to the intense, upbeat energy that they would stick with from then on. The PV had UFA going balls out this round, eschewing the basic settings and visuals of the past in favor of full choreographed dances, random CG backgrounds and special effects galore, depicting the girls as literal giants while the success of the song turned them into figurative giants in the entertainment world. The seriousness of the early singles had been replaced by frantic insanity, and to say this was a break from earlier songs is a bit of an understatement...it was a declaration to Japan that the fledging-at-the-time Momusu will fledge no more, and the rest is history.
The song didn't just become a karaoke favorite...you also have:
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And of course there's that RIKI version posted by Avex bringing the song back to the silly spirit of its original form. I admit being kinda shocked upon seeing that when it first showed up.
Even the cover of the single left a legacy, successfully predicting the order (top right to bottom left, by the way) in which the featured members of the time would leave the group in the future.
I'm not sure if I myself could have been "recruited" into the H!P world by this song, as my first impressions were positive yet unremarkable coupled with feelings of derivativeness (the same title as a well-known Miracles song, and a main groove that sounds too similar to Shocking Blue's "Venus"
). But after having been "recruited", absorbing the context of the song's legacy, and simply having it grow on me with each successive listen, I can finally say that this is indeed one hell of a track.