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Tracklisting
1) We Can Work It Out
2) You Don’t Know What You’re Sorry For
3) In a Heartbeat
4) With a Love Like You
5) Everything is Nothing
6) Crash Landed
7) Everything’s Gonna Be Alright
8) Blue Angel
9) Magic
10) Everybody Come Out In the Sunshine
11) These Dayz
12) More Than You’ll Ever Know
13) When Will It Be Me
14) Come Home to You
15) Love Forgets
16) Everything’s Gonna Be Alright (Yasutaka Nakata (capsule) Remix)
The Next Generation is the seventh album for the German-originated (And popular in Asia only, for some reason, and none of their vocalists have been German…) pop group Sweetbox. It is also the first full-length studio album after the most popular vocalist in the groups history, Jade Villalon, left the group to start her solo career under the moniker Jade Valerie, and eventually join the group Eternity ∞. Instead, the role of vocalist has been taken over by American singer, song-writer and model, Jamie Pineda. The album had one single before release, We Can Work It Out, with the capsule remix of Everything’s Gonna Be Alright remix also getting airplay in Japan. The album was released on the 10th of June, 2009.
Sweetbox has recently been, more than anything, a pop group with classical influences in their music. Now that Jade has left the group, the direction was up in the air for a while, and now that it’s out, I can safely say… A lot has changed. Jamie has a radically different voice, and sounds a lot like your typical American R&B singer, while the group has a more R&B-influenced sound to match her voice. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your musical preference, but either way, this is the new sound for Sweetbox, so it’s worth checking out how they did anyway.
While R&B has become the dominant sound in the album, it’s still a crossover-styled effort. It’s not all fantastic, but there are a few times where they have managed to top even some of Jade’s old Sweetbox tracks. These tracks usually end up being closer to the older sound than the rest, but Jamie’s voice works well with them. These Dayz and Crash Landed are definitely the stand-outs here: These Dayz is more of a brighter pop-R&B song with an incredibly catchy melody and surprisingly good vocals from Jamie, with a few slighter classical influences backing the music up. Crash Landed, however, is a bit of an odd-ball. I can’t place the name to the sample, but it sounds rather Phanom of the Opera-ish with that piano and all. I’d say that’s where it’s from, actually. It’s a darker track, while still keeping that light, fun sound to it, and it has a much more distinct sound to it compared to a lot of the album tracks, which is always a plus.
Beyond this, there is a nice amount of good songs that I can certainly see myself listening to a lot. We Can Work It Out, the main promotional track, is one of these. 
It uses a piece of the same sample as in Eternity’s song I Will (The Spring section from The Four Seasons by Vivaldi), and has a nice, brighter semi-ballad pop sound to it. It’s not what I would have expected them to use as the promotional track, but it’s a nice, uplifting song. Love Forgets, the final original song on the album, is another interesting listen, being much more of a dance song than R&B, which was nice to see, and the strings do have a rather prominent place in the arrangement this time. Everything is Nothing is another upbeat, albeit mid-tempo track that you can’t help but smile at.
Musically, a lot of this album is actually brilliant. It’s not full of hits, and it tends to sound rather generic at times, too. More Than You’ll Ever Know, Coming Home To You and You Don’t Know What You’re Sorry For are prime examples of this, although Coming Home To You does have its good moments. To be honest, the main flaw I can see here is Jamie, and even that isn’t a huge problem. She actually has a very strong voice, and she may actually do well in the US if she tried to. That’s part of the issue. She has a rather generic R&B voice, all power aside, which radically changes this album compared to everything Sweetbox has ever done since Tina Harris was in charge of the vocals back for the groups first, self-named album. It’s nice to hear the crossover element stick, but it may be hard for you Jade fans to get into this straight away.
One last note: I’m not very happy with how the new version of Everything’s Gonna Be Alright turned out. I know it’s a Sweetbox staple, but as a whole, I would have been much happier if they had left it alone. Nakata should’ve stayed away, too: Honestly, I hated his remix to death after the initial fangasm wore off. It’s just that bad a remix.
Album Score
B
Favorite Tracks
1) These Dayz
2) Crash Landed
3) Everything is Nothing
4) We Can Work It Out
5) Love Forgets
As I said, hardcore Jade fans may have some trouble getting into this album. Take the time to listen it through, and don’t just dismiss Jamie straight away because she’s joined at a bad time for the group. She actually really is a good singer, despite a few reservations I have with her vocal style. A smaller focus on generic R&B tracks would be nice, but it was a pretty good first effort for new vocalist Jamie and first-time Sweetbox producer, Derek Bramble. Hopefully they learnt from this album and will improve in the future. (NOTE: These aren’t necessarily album scans, but they all kind of match to the cover, so they’ve been put here to make the review look pretty.)
Tracklisting
1. Graceland
2. Addicted
3. Here Comes The Sun
4. Pride
5. Bold And Delicious
6. Every Step
7. Break Down
8. Dreams
9. Ladies Night
10. Vaya Con Dios
11. Beautiful Girl
12. Over And Over
13. Happy Tears
14. Million Miles
Addicted is the 6th studio album from Sweetbox, and the 5th overall to feature Jade Villalon on vocals. It was released on the 1st of March, 2006, and is probably best known for the songs that were given to Ayumi Hamasaki to work with: Bold And Delicious, Ladies Night, Pride, Beautiful Girl, Every Step and an old demo song, In The Corner (not on this album) were all given to Ayumi to work with, all with intact titles apart from Beautiful Girl (Changed to Beautiful Day) and Every Step (Rainy Day). Many songs on this album also sample classical pieces, which is common in Sweetbox works.
Graceland opens very mysteriously, relying entirely on a strings section, with Jade singing over it. It all gives the image of darkness, especailly when the synth comes in. It gets a lot more interesting at the chorus, where it gains a highly synthesised arrangement with the strings playing along in the background. It’s an interesting sound, and the strings and synth work perfectly together, with Jade’s voice accompanying them well. It tends to get a little worse when the additional synth comes in, as it gains a much grittier, electronic sound that kills the mood. So it averages out to be a pretty much general song.
We now come to the title track Addicted, which samples the classical song “Vivaldi”. This is also the only sample that I know, so, sorry guys. ANYWAY, I’m sure many of you will recognise these opening strings, which come from said song, which quickly lead into a highly R&B influenced arrangement that is composed of synth that tries to mimic the classical sound, complete with strings and what I can assume is an organ, before coming back to the chorus that features the same arrangement from the chorus mixed with the strings from Vivaldi that opened the song, which are now extended. Again, Jade’s voice fits perfectly, and this song lacks any overly sudden changes of mood that ruin it. It’s a great choice for the title track, really.
More opening strings, this time a happy medium between Graceland and Addicted, and they appropriately make you think of a sunrise, which you should hope for with a title like Here Comes The Sun. Like Graceland, the strings are present throughout all of the song, along with some synth, which is, again, R&B influenced, but with a large pop influence at the same time. I tend to lose interest halfway through this song, when it takes a higher tone and sounds a bit too awkward to be of any good. It does go back down, but by that point more of the same isn’t really enough. It’s a nice optimistic song, but it’s kinda boring.
And now we ditch the strings and get us some piano. Pride is the first song on the album to not begin with strings, and is also the first song that Ayumi was allowed to use from this album. It’s a slower song that sounds familiar, to the point that it could even be a cover. Confirmation on this would be great if you could provide it. Anyway, the chorus beings in some strings and drums, which all work really well. They last for the remainder of the song now, and it works well. It’s not too dark, but it’s not a happy song either, which can be heard in the lyrics; to sum it up, it’s a song about loss, but it may not necessarily be death. It’s open to some interpretation, really. But it works.
And we finally break the routine! Bold And Delicious is the first song to really break the mould on this album, and it ditches any classical pretences to give us a song with a much more modern sound to it. The song opens with adlibbing and finger snaps, along with some synth that resembles some sort of shaker instrument, possibly maracas. It has a heavier R&B sound to it, but it has an interesting twist: Every time she reaches the “Bold and Delicious” line, you’re treated to a breakdown that takes on a rock sound, with the heavy use of electric guitar that can also be heard slightly in the beginning and throughout. It’s also the most explicit song so far; Not that the lyrics are openly dirty, but it’s definitely about relations of some kind of intimate nature, winkwinknudgenudge. Heheh… Maybe.
The next song can either be very annoying or very touching. Every Step is a ballad, but not as grand as J-Pop ballads usually are. I say it’s touching, because it’s another song about loss, but this time it’s a lot more dramatic instead of vengeful. The lyrics and simple arrangement are beautiful, but there’s a huge flaw: THE FREAKING METRONOME! It’s there throughout the whole song, so it can get a bit grating after a while. It could also have some relation to the song, if it were, say, a clock or something. But it’s still unbearably grating sometimes. A large downside to a beautiful song. However, it isn’t really there for the second half of the song, but the drums mimic the metronome sound, so it can be a bit annoying. Also, at the same point in EVERY chorus, there’s this weird, strangled cry that fades in and out that gets sort of creepy, especially in this song.
Another song with a gimmick. However this time, it’s a music box, and it doesn’t last throughout. But it is an odd thing to open this song with. Break Down is another sadder song, but not on any level we’ve seen on this album. This song has a more R&B sound to it, with all the focus in the first verse being on the clapping and piano, with some minimal synth being added just before the chorus, which brings in a few more sounds, but nothing significant. It’s not a great song, it tends to be a bit too plain at times, when compared to what Sweetbox can do.
Again, a song with a similar emotional tone. Dreams annoys the hell out of me. The song consists of a piano that oddly sounds somewhat muffled, with some seemingly jibberish voice overs. They MAY be reversed, but I can’t be certain. The song keeps a similar R&B beat throughout, with almost NO changes, and while I don’t really mind said beat, it’s too simple to make it overly interesting, and those reoccuring voice overs get too annoying to warrant a real listen.
“Good morning, class!” Ladies Night has womans anthem written all over it. The song has one general theme: Bash men as much as possible within a 3:15 time limit. Ladies, listen to this song. It gives some great tips as to how to lose your boyfriend if he isn’t satisfying you. It has a more modern sound to it, and is pretty much borderline electronic. It sort of emasculates you when you listen to this song, so be warned. It’s a fun song, really, despite the sometimes alarming lyrics, and I can’t help but listen to it every time I have my iPod on.
The next song is odd. Vaya Con Dios has a foreign sort of sound to it. Mexican, to be exact. I dunno, that’s what it makes me think of. Anyway, it’s another upbeat song, that focuses on its clapping synth and eventually, the piano. It’s another fun song, but it sort of pales in its position after Ladies Night. It’s a fun song, but it seems sort of niche really, with its individual sort of sound.
Beautiful Girl has the whole 50s feeling to it, as it sounds like the sort of soft rock you’d hear in one of those 50s movies with the hesitant, preppy girls and the nerdy guys that love them. Anyway, it’s another empowerment song to women, as it’s basically questioning what it means to be beautiful. You can’t really pinpoint a mood to it, but that never means much. I really like the arrangement during the chorus, as it adds in the whole extended note synth to give it a fuller sound. Jade’s vocals, again, work well with this song.
Over And Over opens with a quick, skipping synth, before leading into a familiar clapping synth arrangement. The opening synth manages to sound different, which adds to the song, especially since the familiar synth sort of takes away from the song overall. The verses can be a bit boring, but this song has one of the better choruses on the album. I swear, whoever produces Sweetbox’s music is good at making music that fits Jade’s voice, because once again, it sounds great.
Happy Tears is a very quiet song, with the instruments taking a back seat to Jade this time, when the song opens. It’s a more dramatic song, with the uplifting atmosphere mixed with fitting lyrics. It mainly consists of one verse, one chorus, an instrumental, and another chorus. This makes it feel sort of lacking overall, which isn’t a real plus for this song, and her vocals actually sound a bit worse this time. It’s forgettable, really.
The final song on this album is completely acoustic. As such, Million Miles is a simple song, with a larger vocal focus. Jade’s voice actually sounds best in an acoustic song like this than it has on most of the album, and that’s saying something, when her voice has been great throughout. While this song is good, it’s SHORT. 2:22 seems sort of normal for an acoustic track like this, but you can’t help but wish it was longer.
Overall Score
A+
Favorite Song
Addicted, Ladies Night, Beautiful Girl, Million Miles
This is pretty much Sweetbox’s best album, and a great way to end their career as a group. Of course, Jade has gone on to perform solo now, but if they had kept going at this rate, they could have been much better as a group. Admittedly, this is a group I love to fawn over sometimes, but I feel that they really deserve it, especially when it comes to this album.
I will now be featuring… MEG.
I was hoping I’d never say those words on this blog, but I’ve had a large amount of requests for her, and after Jin requested that I review her after accepting a request of mine, I thought I may as well give in and just do it. So here she is.
I’ll start off by reviewing her single Amai Zeitaku from the BEAM era, as requested. So stay tuned.
Also, don’t forget my previous melody. review that I just posted!
EDIT: And now, I’ve decided to announce something else…
I will be featuring Sweetbox in my next special review!
I’ve been a pretty big fan of Sweetbox for a long time, ever since the release of Final Fantasy X-2, which featured their songs Real Emotion and 1000 Words.
As such, I think it’s a great idea to make them my feature , as they’re most popular in Asian countries as far as I can gather. Plus, special reviews don’t apply to the Japanese-only rule, as it’s not an era or discography being reviewed.
Anyway, I will be reviewing their album last album together, Addicted, very soon! Especially since I can’t review anything Asian. (Damnit, Wiki.Theppn…) Also, the “Good Morning, Class!” title will make sense after this review. xD;;
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