Ahh too bad. I see where you're coming from. The older songs are hard to top.
I kinda skipped the period in which they released:
Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou, Bingo!, Boku no Taiyou, Yuuhi wo Miteiruka? and Romance Irane..
But I like the direction AKB48 is going in. Especially Oogoe, which is probably one of my top #3 fav AKB songs. 10nen Sakura is kinda similar in some parts, so maybe that's why I kinda like it. In addition, they also seem to spend a lot of thought, time and effort in their PVs lately, which is cool.