LISA - ready to disco (J!-ENT World Groove Album Review)

May 14, 2008 by Dennis Amith

“LISA’s latest mini-album only features six songs but the awesome incentive to get this album is the inclusion of the ‘Lisa Live Premium 2007 The God Sista‘ concert on DVD”

ARTIST: LISA

ALBUM: ready to disco

LABEL: rhythm zone

CATALOG #: RZCD-45812/B

DURATION: 28:26

RELEASE DATE: February 20, 2008

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

SEND MY HEART
crave
BAD MEN!
Summer Story
love song
BE THE MAN

DVD: Region 2, 16:9LB, DURATION: 68 minutes

I’Rhythm
It’s on
Peace in Love
-Medley- “Time After Time, Eternal Flame - Our Story”
Ienakutemo-
Relisten feat. LISA/Ryohei
I’m all you
Superstar
move on
tomorrow

ENCORE:

11. TRIPOD BABY / m-flo loves LISA

12. come again

13. Babylon no Kiseki

Ever since LISA (Elisabeth Sakura Narita), a Japanese-Columbian singer came onto the scene back in 1999 with partners VERBAL and TAKU and took Japan by storm with their group, m-flo, I’ve always enjoyed her LISA’s smooth vocals and always rooted them on as m-flo was a group with some ethnic flavor with LISA’s Columbian roots and VERBAL’s Korean roots and all three came together and everything just fit.

But when she left the group in 2002, I was a bit surprised because she was part of something spectacular and she went on to do her own thing.

Flash forward five years later to 2008 and LISA has released “ready to disco”, the first part of a three mini-album series.

For the album, we get a lot of good collaborations and LISA showcasing tracks with different pop styles starting with the first track “SEND MY HEART” which was programmed and arranged by Shinnosuke of SOUL’d OUT and is a sugary pop track.

The second track “crave”, the song features a more dance club Euro style to it.

The third track “BAD MEN!” has a Gwen Stefani “Holla Back Girl” pop feel to it and is a collaboration with m-flo who produced and wrote the track.

The fourth track “Summer Story” feat. BUTCHER is sung like a 50’s be-bop “Earth Angel” (originally sung by the Penguins) feel but has a modern beat and of course, includes the hip-hop sing-song style of BUTCHER.

The fifth track “love song” is the cool R&B ballad and is smooth and overall beautiful.

The sixth track “BE THE MAN” is a cover (in English) of the song originally sung by Celine Dion and originally written by David Foster and Junior Miles. For those not familiar with the song, the song was originally released in Japan as a CD single and featured on the Japanese version of her album “Let’s Talk About Love”. And was a theme song for the drama “EVE - Santa Claus Dreaming” back in 1997. The single featured the song in English and Japanese.

So, all six songs show a different side of her music and gives the listener a taste of her vocals and her ability to embrace and adjust to various musical styles.

As one may think, this mini-album is too short, don’t fret because the actual gem in this release is the actual concert DVD for “Lisa Live Premium 2007 The God Sista” event which was held on July 6, 2007 at Shibuya O-East.

I’ve seen LISA perform as part of music event or on television but never for a full concert and it’s great so see the fans really get into the performance, cheering and waving their hands during the upbeat songs and most of all, to hear LISA sing live.

During her fast songs, she was totally upbeat and interacting with the crowd and during her ballads, she was graceful. Especially singing the Cyndi Lauper hit “Time after Time” and the Bangle’s slow jam “Eternal Flame”.

Her duet with Ryohei was awesome to see as these two awesome vocalists together on stage jamming together was great to see.

But of course, to see the crowd go crazy during encore when she and m-flo came out was awesome and I was just so stoked to see them perform “TRIPOD BABY” was so sweet but to add to the excitement is for them to sing some m-flo classics such as their 2001 hit (their 9th CD single) “come again” and to hear the crowd singing along. That was awesome!

And she ends the performance with her rock/ska song “Babylon no Kiseki” (her third CD single) which got the fans going crazy and singing along.

As for camera angles, you get several close ups, one behind the crowd, one from the stage area and the editing is well done and the concert is featured in 16:9LB. Editing was fine. Timing on the focus on LISA was well done and transitions were not dizziying. The inclusion of the camera on the fans in the front row which was pretty cool to see and it’s just great to see the fans totally into this concert.

The CD insert fold out features lyrics and production tracks on one side and the other features photos of LISA. Also, a rhythm zone flyer is included featuring the releases of Feb. 2008.

All in all, “ready to disco” is a really good collection for people interested in LISA to jump in. The min-album features a good balance of songs showcasing LISA’s beautiful vocals and her ability to adapt to various musical styles.

And of course, the addition of the concert DVD is very cool and giving us an insight to how she performs live, if how she sounds on CD is the same live (and yes, she can sing just as smooth live) and of course, to see the fans contributing to the excitement of the overall concert.

All in all, you can’t go wrong with this mini-album if you are a LISA fan. The DVD alone makes this mini-album worth owning.

BUY THIS ALBUM