BoA – Eien/Universe feat. Crystal Kay & Verbal (m-flo) / Believe in Love feat. BoA (a J!-ENT World Groove CD Single Review)

May 4, 2009 by Dennis Amith 

“BoA’s 27th Japanese CD single is very addictive.  Featuring a solid pop single with “Eien”, an awesome collaboration with Crystal Kay and m-flo’s verbal for ‘UNIVERSE’ and the acoustic of her ravex track ‘Believe in LOVE’.  Overall, a very solid CD single!”

ARTIST: BoA

CD SINGLE: Eien/Universe feat. Crystal Kay & Verbal (m-flo) / Believe in Love feat. BoA

LABEL: avex trax

CATALOG #: AVCD-31597

DURATION: 22:18

RELEASE DATE: February 18, 2009

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1. 永遠 (Eien)
2. UNIVERSE feat. Crystal Kay & VERBAL (m-flo)
3. Believe in LOVE feat. BoA (Acoustic Version)
4. 永遠 (Instrumental)
5. UNIVERSE feat. Crystal Kay & VERBAL (m-flo) (Instrumental)

CD EXTRA: DURATION 2:50

1. Introduction of “BEST&USA”
   

Music artist BoA has had a busy six months trying to balance her musical career in Korea, Japan and now the United States.

With her Korean label SM Entertainment focusing her career primarily in the United States for now, it doesn’t mean that her Japanese music will stop as the 22-year-old is still able to release a CD single in Japan with “Eien”, “UNIVERSE” feat. Crystal Kay and VERBAL (m-flo) and an acoustic version of her ravex CD single “Believe in LOVE”.

The first track “Eien” (forever) features an addictive, mid-tempo pop track written by Narumi Yamamoto and music and arrangement by Daisuke “D.I.” Imai.  I have to admit that it’s been a long while now since I listened to a BoA single that has caught my attention and where the CD would stay in my rotation for more than a half hour.  But I’ve had this single playing for nearly a week now and I’ve listed to “Eien” many times.  Cool grooves but a track that manages to capture the enjoyable and fun side of BoA and nothing saccharine sweet.  Just cool, up-front J-Pop.

The second track “UNIVERSE” features a collaboration with music artist Crystal Kay and VERBAL of m-flo.    The track is produced by Bloodshy and Avant & Henrick Jonback.  Bloodshy has contributed really addictive and catchy tracks for her English album “BoA” and the Swedish team return for another kick ass track with “UNIVERSE”.

Featuring a mixture of English and Japanese lyrics (courtesy of KOMU), Crystal Kay also lends her vocal support in the English lyrics and VERBAL is like the will.i.am or timberland of Japan by sprucing up the already cool track with his fluid delivery of hip hop rhymes but carefully throwing in his “1.2.1.2.1.2″ during the track.  Overall, an awesome track!

The third CD single is “Believe in LOVE feat. BoA (Acoustic Version)” which is a an acoustic guitar version of her ravex track (the second single) but without the electronic ravex accompaniment.  This time all music is replaced by guitar and arrangement by Shigeharu Sasago.   I wasn’t really crazy about the original track but this acoustic guitar version is actually quite nice.

The last two tracks are the instrumental versions of “Eien” and “UNIVERSE”.

The CD single comes with a CD-EXTRA featuring an Introduction to her latest best album “BEST&USA”.  A near three minute promotional for the album with short video clips of past hits and newer songs that appear on the album.

As for the CD Single tri-fold, included are the lyrics and production credits and two photos of BoA on the reverse side.

Overall, I can tell you that this BoA CD single is one that I really enjoyed.  You get two addictive tracks with “Eien” and “Universe” and a smooth, relaxing version of “Believe in LOVE”.  Definitely a CD single worth checking out!

*  Note:  There is also a CD+DVD version which includes the same tracks on this CD single but comes with a DVD with a music video of “Eien” and instead of a CD-Extra, the Introduction of “BEST&USA” is included on the DVD.

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