This is an Asian artist who is making her debut in the West this year with her first English album. It’s been spoken about some time but this year it finally happens. For many, she will be complete unknown, but for the thousands of BoA fans around the world, it will be a gift.
Having heard previous English versions of some of her Korean/Japanese songs, we had hopes for this. Sadly though, those hopes have been dashed.
The first single [Eat You Up] had no lastability. It was irritable with the digitalisation of BoA great voice and almost monosyllabic lyrics. The melody itself was great. Just everything else that ruined it. At Youtube Live this year she performed this and another song from the album [Look Who’s Talking] and without all the digitalisation, the songs sounded alright. Maybe there’s hope yet….
We were wrong. The next song to be released as a clip was I Did It For Love feat Sean Garrett. Again, the melody’s good, but there’s still the very digitalisation of the voice. Are they trying to hide something? This time around, the video is actually watchable (at least from what has been released so far).
So now the albums upon us. Is it any better?
In short, not really. If the digitalisation of BoA’s voice was not part of the song, then we think we’d have a winner and feel this is what really drags the album down. Opening tracks I Did It For Love and Energetic do nothing for the start of the album and could have been done by any artist out there today. Track 3 [Did Ya] Do our ears deceive us? No digitalisation! Yes, we finally hear BoA own voice and by god is it good. Her English is much improved (if compared with earlier English versions of her Korean/Japanese songs) Very upbeat and dancey. Has the album just been saved? Looking Who’s Talking next. Still sounds as good as the night she performed it on Youtube LIVE in Tokyo…Did we mention that a certain Miss B. Spears wrote this track? Eat You Up’s next, think we’ve said enough about that one already. Track 6 [Obsessed]…it was nearly alright, but it’s back with a vengence. A digitalised voice! NO!!
Touched’s up next. This doesn’t sound too bad. Love the music box sounding parts of it. And lyrically it’s fine too. Another winner! Scream is a cover of a song done by German group Monrose. Knowing the original, this is as bad as we thought it was going to be. Considering that original is sang by three, this still sounds good with BoA singing solo. Another tick. Girls on Top is a translated version from her Korean album of the same name. Slight digitalisation, but it actually fits with the song. Another tick. Track 11 [Dress Off]. For some reason, we’re reminded of early Megadrive soundtracks listening to this. Can’t really describe this one. Filler track comes to mind at the moment. Last track Hypnotic Dancefloor. Listening to this make us quite queasy and we don’t know why. We can’t decide whether it’s the vocals, the melody or the whole thing. And it finishes…where’s the next track? Hmmm….seems a little unfinished.
Looking at the album, there’s nothing there’s nothing special to it. It could have been produced by anyone currently in the market. There’s nothing that catches the attention and makes you want to check out the rest of the album. For a debut album into one of the hardest markets, we don’t think that it’s got the strength to standout on it’s own. We feel it’s going to be one of those albums that will just stay in the open because of the fans. Other than that, it’s just going to slip under the radar.
Rating: 2/5
I would say this is one of the best dance albums that has come out for a long time, you could play this entire album non-stop in a club and people would be able to dance to every song, which is fairly rare.
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