BoA - THE FACE (a J!-ENT World Groove album review)
- 25th June , 2008 by KNDY in WORLD GROOVE: MUSIC REVIEWS
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“Featuring her CD single releases from 2007 and 2008, ‘THE FACE’ is an album that features a good balance of pop songs and beautiful ballads”
BAND: BoA
ALBUM: THE FACE
LABEL: avex trax
CATALOG #: AVCD-23498/B
DURATION: 1:02:20
RELEASE DATE: February 27, 2008
- AGGRESSIVE
- Sweet Impact
- My Way, Your Way
- be with you.
- LOSE YOUR MIND
- Girl In the Mirror
- Happy Birthday
- Diamond Heart
- LOVE LETTER
- BRAVE
- ギャップにやられた!
- Style
- Smile again
- Beautiful Flowers
- Best Friend
DVD: Region 2, 4:3, 19 minutes
- Sweet Impact
- LOVE LETTER
- LOSE YOUR MIND feat. Yutaka Furukawa from DOPING PANDA
- be with you. (Original Verison)
BoA’s fifth album “THE FACE” features another cool R&B/pop album by the Korean/J-Pop artist.
I really find it amazing how focused BoA has been towards her career especially how she’s maintaining her music career in two countries for so long and she shows no sign of slowing down as the past two years, following her as a young teen to now an adult, I’m always discovering something new.
Similar to her SMTown label friends Tohoshinki, “The Face” has three different versions available to the public. The normal version, a second version with a single DVD (which I’m reviewing) and a third album version which comes with a second DVD that includes several live performances.
The album features her 22nd through 25th CD singles: “Sweet Impact”, “Love Letter” and “Lose Your Mind” which were her CD singles released in 2007 and “be with you.” released in Feb. 2008.
I was actually surprised to find out that she only had three CD singles released in 2007 but with her also pursuing more and more Korean activities, it’s not like she has an empty plate. She’s a definitely busy music artist.
The first track “AGGRESSIVE” features a more upbeat, club style of track. More synth-based with music by Daniel Pandher and Tommy La Verdi who have created a good number of music tracks for SM artists.
The second track “Sweet Impact” is BoA’s 22nd CD single and a track that is more reminiscent to her past releases. So, for those who enjoy the happy, pop style of BoA’s music, there are several tracks such as “Happy Birthday”, “Diamond Heart”, “Gap ni Yarareta” (a track written by BoA) and “Beautiful Flowers”.
The third track “My Way, Your Way” features a collaboration with J-hip-hop artist WISE. I actually enjoyed this track. Similar to when BoA collaborates with m-flo, similar style. Very smooth, free flowing and the addition to WISE rapping on the track definitely made it more lively.
The fourth track “be with you.” is the 25th CD single and BoA’s first CD single of 2008 which is a beautiful Spring ballad and for those who enjoy BoA’s Christmas/Winter songs, will definitely enjoy this track. The other beautiful ballad on this track is the piano-influenced track “Smile again”.
The fifth track and BoA’s 24th CD single “LOSE YOUR MIND” feat. Furukawa Yutaka from DOPING PANDA. For this track, Furukawa plays guitar in this track.
The ninth track “LOVE LETTER” is BoA’s 23rd CD single which is a ballad but more upbeat compared to her other ballads.
As for coupling songs from her CD singles that are featured on this album are “Beautiful Flowers”, which is from her “Love Letter” CD single (was also used a theme for the baseball team Yokohama BayStars for 2007) and the ballad “Smile again” was from her “Lose Your Mind” CD single and a track written by Boa.
As for the DVD, featured are the music videos for the four CD singles.
“SWEET IMPACT” features BoA dancing with her background dancers combined with CGI scenes of BoA riding in a futuristic cycle and going to a holodeck-style of room and featuring her in a suit and and hat that kind of reminds me of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal”.
“LOVE LETTER” features BoA sitting in a restaurant setting and holding her cell phone and walking around Tokyo reading a letter.
“LOSE YOUR MIND” is definitely a sexy video featuring BoA walking on a runway (wearing several outfits) and dancing with her dancers. This video is vintage BoA which features cool dancing and actually a very enjoyable video.
Where the last three videos were directed by Hamashima Yu, for “be with you. (original version)”, this video is directed by Inoue Tetsuo (who directed her awesome slow jam “Merikuri”). I think that Inoue has always been a director that has worked well with BoA and the same goes for this music video. A Spring video with BoA riding in a boat through a river and playing with her dog in a park. Very Spring-like and I wish more videos featured BoA outdoors. A very cool music video!
The CD insert booklet features the lyrics and production credits and also several photos of BoA. Also, a promotional mini-flyer for BoA’s Spring Ballad CD single “be with you.”.
All in all, “THE FACE” is a good album and does feature a good balance of pop songs and two cool ballads but since her album “Outgrow” (her 2006 album which I really enjoyed), this album was pretty cool but not great.
It seems that with this album and even the last (Made in Twenty), I feel like I gravitate mostly towards the singles released and her ballads on “FACE” (I typically tend to not focus so much on CD single tracks so much on an album when reviewing) and possibly a few upbeat songs such as “AGGRESSIVE” and “My Way, Your Way” but the other non-single tracks were good, just not great.
But all in all, a cool but average album from BoA.
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Tags: BoA, THE FACE
