alan – Swear (a J!-ENT World Groove CD Single Review)

Although alan is identified more for her beautiful ballads, “Swear” features two well-done upbeat tracks but can fans accept the upbeat, pop-side of alan?  I suppose time will tell but overall, I felt that “Swear” was a solid pop single!

ARTIST: alan

CD SINGLE: Swear

LABEL: avex trax

CATALOG #: AVCD-31737

DURATION: 18:13

RELEASE DATE: November 4, 2009

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Alan has had a successful 2009 with having two successful ballads “Kuon no Kawa” (which made her the first Chinese artist in Japan to achieve a #1 ranking on the Oricon Daily Charts) and with “Ballad (Namonaki Koi no Uta)”, alan returns with her 11th CD single titled “Swear”.

The track is written by Aico and Yuka Miyagawa and produced by Kazuhito Kikuchi and features two upbeat tracks “Swear” and “Beauty”.  The former is used as a theme song for Bourbon’s Blanchul Mini Series commercial and the latter isused for Yomeishu’s  Re:on Nutrition Drink Product”.

My first impression with this single was that alan was going to need an upbeat pop single.  Known for her beautiful vocals and each ballad being quite enjoyable (and it’s important to note that I love her ballads), as an avex trax artist, you kind of expect to see a pop track but I’ve asked myself the question many times of “how would her pop music be differentiated from the many female vocalists on the label?”.

And sure enough, “Swear” is a perfect answer to that question.  The track is fun, upbeat and catchy.  No bump and grind R&B music, this is straight up pop music with a cool beat and works well with her style and vocals.  The coupling track “Beauty” is also an upbeat track and features a wonderful acoustic guitar arrangement and strong beats.   Both tracks are solid!

The remaining two tracks are the instrumental versions of both vocal tracks.

As for the CD insert, it’s a standard bi-fold with lyrics and production credits.  There is also a CD+DVD version available.

Overall, “Swear” is a very good upbeat track and possibly my favorite alan pop release thus far.  If you are a fan of alan, definitely give “Swear” a chance!

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