BoA – BoA (a J!-ENT World Groove Album Review)

March 18, 2009 by Dennis Amith 

“BoA’s first US album debut features major collaborations with the world’s top musical producers and giving her music a more energetic, catchy and upbeat musical  feel.  These collaborations tend to give BoA a Britney/Rihanna-ish style of musical feel to a few of her tracks but overall, I enjoyed the album!”

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ARTIST: BoA

ALBUM: BoA (Digital Version)

LABEL: SM USA

DURATION: 37:13

RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2009

1. I Did It For Love
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 (Best of Asia), known for her countless number of hits in Korea and Japan has her sights set on the US.  First, kicking off her first foray with her all English pop track “Eat You Up” and performing in various events in Los Angeles and New York and now following up with her first album in the US titled “BoA”.

I’ve written about my impressions of BoA’s announcement of her crossing over to the US and my best wishes to the marketing of her in the US and if there is one thing that has been done right is that she has been booked at events where other major artists and bands have performed at (non-Asian).  Whereas in the past, there was such a push of focusing on just the “Asian” accomplishments of a talented Asian artist for their US promotional campaign, I have to give credit so far to SM USA for at least being persistant and not giving up after a month and making sure they are sticking with it for now and developing her as an artist, bringing her back to her dance choreography style that we loved during her ID:Peace B years, having her focus on her speaking of the English language and the pronunciation and also bringing some major producers such as Bloodshy & Avant and Sean Garrett on this album.

As for “BoA”, the album is a mix bag of music that I found some tracks to be really enjoyable and some just average. If anything, you get a little taste of BoA experimenting with Rihanna, Britney Spears and even Gwen Stefani style of pop music.

The first two tracks “I Did It For Love” and “Energetic” are tracks produced by Sean Garrett (known for Usher’s “Yeah!”, Ciara’s “Goodies” and Chris Brown’s “Run It!”).  Musical arrangement are solid, urban and upbeat dance tracks.  “I Did It For Love” (her upcoming second single) showcases BoA’s willing to try out cool grooves and deep beats while “Energetic” is an enjoyable track that features quite a bit of the auto-tune.  These tracks I can picture receiving the remix treatment and hopefully get some club play.

My favorite track on the album is “Did Ya” which is produced by Bloodshy & Avant (Britney Spear’s “Toxic”) and in a way, has a similar type of vibe and enjoyability to “Toxic”. Overall, a solid pop track!

Another collaboration is with producer and musician Henrik Jonback who has major ties of working with Bloodshy & Avant and produces three of the tracks on the album.  Track four titled “Look Who’s Talking” is a track that Jonback wrote with Bloodshy & Avant, Michelle Lynn Bell and Britney Spears.  I figured this is one of the tracks that the team worked back in the 2004 years with Spears but never used.

Track five features BoA’s debut US song “Eat You Up” produced by Jonback but features writers Mikkel Johan Sigvardt and Thomas Troelsen.  I know there are those who have mixed feelings of the track but overall, after a few listens when it first came out, I was hooked.  If anything, after watching the music video, it was great to see BoA dancing and jamming again.

Track six”Obsessed” features a collaboration with producer Brian Kennedy (known for his work with Rihanna’s “Disturbia”, Chris Brown, Jennifer Hudson and more).  You definitely feel that Rihanna musical vibe on this track but that’s not a bad thing.  A catchy, upbeat dance track!

Track seven “Touched” features the second and final produced Bloodshy & Avant on the album.  Definitely different from “Did Ya”, “Touched” features a more R&B driven track.  Deep bass and really dig the musical arrangement to this song!

Track eight titled “Scream” is an cover track of a song produced by Adrian Newman originally performed by German girl band Monrose.  Adrian Newman has worked with BoA (and other J-Pop/K-Pop artists) previously.  A dance track that has a catchy groove but very different style of dance music  and vocal style compared to the other tracks on the album. The second Newman written/produced track is “Dress Off” (track 10), an upbeat, sexually charged dance track.

The ninth track “Girls on Top” is the sole track produced by BoA’s Korean label SM ala Korean producer Young Jin Yoo and is an English version of her Korean pop track.  Deep beats and an upbeat track.

The eleventh track “Hypnotic Dancefloor” features a Henrik Jonback upbeat, drum machine driven track.  Deep drums and an upbeat dance track.

The iTunes release of “BoA” features a twelfth track featuring a remix of “Eat You Up” by DJ Escape and Johnny Vicious.

“BoA” is actually a fun and enjoyable album but it’s a mix bag of sort.

First of all, for those who are expecting an extension of her Korean and Japanese pop music, you’re not going to find it on this album.  Personally, that’s a good thing because I think it was smart for SM USA to focus on collaborations with well-known producing talents Sean Garrett, Bloodshy & Avant, Henrik Johnback, Brian Kennedy, Adrian Newman and focusing on the dance pop music that can helpfully garner attention on the club circuit.

Because the album is produced by producers who bring something different, sometimes the changes are welcomed such as Bloodshy & Avant’s “Did Ya”, Garrett’s “I Did It For Love”, Johnback’s “Eat You Up”, etc.  But I can picture some of her hardcore fans not liking the fact that her US musical identity becomes more Britney-ish, more Rihanna-ish in audio presentation.  And then some fans who will like the variety in the music.

But I have to admit, for a pop artist to accomplish what BoA has in Asia and to come to the US and try out this new territory, there have been a good number of positive situations with these collaborations and have to admit, this one of the better album releases to come from an Asian pop diva compared to others who have tried to crossover to the US.

But with that being said, those who are passionate about BoA’s music overseas will miss the classic ballads that she’s known for, the Asian-driven pop style that they’ve been used to hearing in the past few years and now with this US release, some people are open to change and some are not.

For me, I actually enjoyed a good number of the songs on the album.  There were several solid tracks that have a good dose of energy, vitality and quite interesting to hear her utilized in the music from the talented producers that she worked with.

So, in a way, having reviewed so many of BoA’s Japanese albums and singles, listening to this album made me happy because it was different from the usual type of upbeat J-pop tracks that I have heard in the past few years.  And to be truthful, those tracks from her previous Japanese albums outside of the normally released CD singles really never caught my attention.  I felt that BoA’s music needed some synergy and possibly a new direction and thus, I enjoyed the fact that we get more club-inspired dance tracks produced by successful and talented producers.

Overall, an enjoyable, catchy and solid US album debut for BoA.  I just hope that America’s open for an Asian pop artist and hope BoA receives good promotion from her on in.