boa-cover2Tracklisting
1) I Did It For Love feat. Sean Garrett
2) Energetic
3) Did Ya
4) Look Who’s Talking
5) Eat You Up
6) Obsessed
7) Touched
8) Scream
9) Girls On Top
10) Dress Off
11) Hypnotic Dancefloor

BoA is the 19th album overall from Korean singer BoA, and her debut American album. It had only one promotional single before release, Eat You Up, with I Did It For Love being planned as either a recut single or the promotional song for the album. It was released on the 17th of March, 2009 in America, and the 18th of March, 2009 in Japan as the second half of the new package from BoA, BEST&USA, that includes this album and her latest best-of album.

boa-scan-2Fittingly, the first track on the album is I Did It For Love, the planned promotional track from the album. It’s a fairly repetitive song, relying on a simple synth line, with a bit of an echo and ethereal beeps in the background for atmosphere. BoA is under the vocoder here, and rather heavily at that, but it fits the song well. It’s not the best song to start with for new BoA fans, but it’s definitely a catchy tune, albeit not what we’re really used to with BoA. I’m not feeling Sean’s rap halfway through the song, but it could be worse.

Energetic follows a similar theme, relying on a dark synth with another rapper, though it isn’t a credited feature this time. However, Sean Garrett produced this song, too, so it’s definitely him here again.BoA’s first line is “report to the dancefloor”, which (when paired with a title like Energetic), should tell you it’s going to be an upbeat dance song. Instead, it’s a rather monotonous synth song. I’m not overly enthusiastic about it, but it isn’t too bad.

boa-scan-3Did Ya comes up next and changes things up. It’s got a rather innocent, high-pitched sound to its synth, with a few old-time brass knock-offs here and there, and an acoustic guitar playing along to the whole thing, backed up by clapping. Needless to say, it’s more upbeat than the past two songs, and I’m loving it. BoA’s voice is free of the vocoder, and her accent isn’t nearly as bad as it could be, which is a great sign. I’m loving how the playful sound actually works with the in-your-face, scolding lyrics, when it really shouldn’t. I KNEW this one was going to be good~

Now the original title track comes up, Look Who’s Talking. It starts with a strange, almost beeping synth before the drums and such come in. Now, this song screams Britney Spears, which it should, since she actually worked on the song. This has a real “in your face” sound that fits the lyrics well, since it’s about a break-up as well. The lyrics are rather obnoxious (Again, in classic Britney style), and the song feels a bit… Empty. It’s catchy, but it could have a bit more to it, I think.

boa-scan-5Looking at it as a whole, I really wouldn’t have chosen Eat You Up as a promotional single. It’s a deep R&B tune, which really doesn’t fit into the album, at least at this point. It’s still a great song, but it seems a bit misleading now.

Now HERE is a real gem. Obsessed is an aggressive, dark synth-based song that once again mixes synths and instruments to get the proper effect. The lyrics are actually a bit creepy, with BoA sounding quite a bit like a true-to-life stalker, but it fits the dark mood of the song well. The chorus is absolutely brilliant, and it makes the whole song sound a lot better than it already was. If you listen closely, a bit of an 80s influence can be detected in the arrangement, too. Otherwise, the way BoA extends the word Obsessed is a bit grating with the vocoder, but apart from that, I love it!

Erm… Touched is a bit strange, admittedly. It starts off with what sounds like a broken orgel and police sirens before bringing in more synth. It’s… A bit of a mess, and BoA doesn’t even sound like herself in the chorus. It screams Britney… In fact, give it to her, because BoA doesn’t do much for this song, unfortunately.

boa-scan-4Now, Scream has a rather interesting history. It was originally a b-side for the German girl group Monrose, and it was then covered and re-written a bit to make the song Daydream for the Korean promotional group AnyBand, which BoA was a part of. Now, BoA’s covered it for her debut. It’s another dark synth song, but this is probably moreso than all of the songs so far, save for Obsessed. I’m not a huge fan of it, because it sounds a bit too simple for my liking. It does have a pretty nice story to its lyrics.

Oh, HERE we go… We finally reach Girls On Top, the remake of BoA’s own title track from her last Korean album thus far. Thankfully, the arrangement is intact, meaning I still love it. Unfortunately, it has a rather corny meaning about BoA wanting to be herself, and the lyrics they wrote kind of… Killed it. It’s not like I won’t listen to it (It’s a great example of BoA’s Korean R&B, and I always loved the song), but I won’t enjoy it as much as the Korean version.

boa-scan-62Honestly, I can see why people don’t really like Dress Off. It’s a bit of a mess with its synths, so it does seem a bit unappealing. Especially those loud synth blares in the background during the chorus. I, however, think the song is great. I’m not at all used to BoA singing about having her dress off, but it’s rather hilarious that Asians think American music is all about getting naked and having sex. No offence to any Asian readers.

Closing off the album is another odd song. Hypnotic Dancefloor starts with some surprising blares of synth, with BoA singing a bit of the chorus over it, once again under the vocoder. It’s another “Britney Spears” song (She didn’t work on it, but she could be singing it), and the verses aren’t overly exciting. The chorus is a little better, but… I’m not really impressed. That robotic section three quarters through the song itself almost SOUNDS like Britney Spears under a large amount of vocoders at one stage, so who knows what to think of that.

boa-scan-1Album Score
A

Favorite Tracks
1) Obsessed
2) Did Ya
3) Dress Off
4) Girls On Top
5) Look Who’s Talking

Well! After the disappointment that was This Is The One, BoA comes in kicking and screaming, and I’ll say that it sounds ten times better than Utada’s album. I was surprised she took such a (I’ll say it again) “Britney Spears” approach to her sound, but it does suit her. I wish they wouldn’t hide her under the vocoder just because of her accent, but it can’t be helped. Bitch did good, and hopefully she does better on the charts than we all expected.

boa-scan-71

(All scans, including the cover, made by yours truly, from my very own copy of BoA that was included in my copy of BEST&USA. The 6th one is also a heavily altered version of the back cover, since I took the tracklisting off. If anyone is possessed in any form or way to use these scans, as long as you credit me and link back to this review, I have no issues. They’re crappy, though, so I’d be very surprised.)

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