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Undeniably, BoA Kwon, simply known as BoA, has a strong track record in the Asian music industry, spanning more than 10 years. As an incredibly diverse performer/singer/dancer, she possesses a solid pop music style with different inflections – some of which may be jazzy or have R&B flares (Do the Motion), energetic (Be the One, Valenti, Listen to My Heart), dance (Moto, Girls on Top), and then a multitude of beautiful ballads (Every Heart).
Many anime fans may recognize her contribution to the series Inuyasha with the ending theme “Every Heart”, and I can honestly say that it was my introduction to her as well.
BoA started her music career at a very young age. A friend of mine and I just talked about this the other week and he was very surprised that at 15 years old, she recorded “Every Heart”. Considering she’s had a music career since the age of 12, that tells you something. It may surprise many that she’s releasing her 15th studio album overall (not counting compilations) and first English album with “The First Album”. She’s only 22 years old, and that’s quite impressive in its own right not simply for her age, but her range of releases including Korean, Mandarin, Japanese, and English formats. Go girl. :)
Over the years, I’ve kept up with her major album releases back and forth, but suffice to say, somewhere along the line I lost track of her release schedule, and since some of her singles didn’t quite latch on to me, I didn’t have much of an opportunity to see her due range. There are some stylistics in her music that I take more of an immediate impression toward while others don’t really move me. Thus, you can say I’m more neutral about her collective musical style, but I like and respect her as an artist. What made me jump back was the announcement that she would make her first official English debut, as it definitely piqued my curiosity.
I might have a different impression regarding this album versus a lot of people who may just be introduced to BoA’s style via this album, because I’ve followed her Japanese/Korean releases and have more of a bias to compare this album with her previous work. Having mentioned that, it’s worth saying that it’s a different experience in consideration, but those in the American market scheme who listen to artists like Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, or Madonna might find this familiar territory. It’s very much a dance album, and if I had to paint a brush of what to expect with this – quite a few of these songs equip a vocoder and largely synthesized/processed sound that tends to be repetitive. That’s probably a common criticism I’ll employ when I go through this album, so I’ll just say it for the record and leave it at that in my summary.
She works with some nice collaborators (Bloodshy & Avant and Sean Garrett to name a few). No doubt it’s infectious and catchy, but it was kind of the sound that I was afraid that she would be marketed within if making a transition to the U.S – and I don’t say that for the stylistic itself, but the possibility of it taking on redundant progressions. “Eat You Up”, the first single from the album, paints a fair picture of how this album comes across in spurts – no doubt, if you see her in a live performance, she’ll engage you visually and with a vigor that makes her hard not to love. The production is slick, sassy, and radiant, and her vocals mesh very well with the melody, but….and there is a “but” here – the lyricism doesn’t quite deliver and it easily becomes redundant. “So Yum Yum” is one of the bridging chorus lines here just as an example for the lyrical missteps for me, among a few on the album, but you can forgive it because there are parts where the fun/attitude comes across. I’ll admit I wasn’t crazy for the song when it first came out (unfortunately, I’m still not a fan of the song itself), but the complimenting MV (where she shows off her awesome choreography) made it worth the watch and listen.
Thankfully, there are some stronger songs offered, and overall, I have to say, for it’s respective genre, it’s executed well. BoA possesses a style I think is nicely noted, and the album came across a lot better than I thought it would. Would I recommend it? Well, you’ll have to find out below the cut.
Read my album impressions below the album cover and tracklisting.
BoA – “The First Album”
Release Date: March 17, 2009
Tracklisting:
1. I Did It For Love (Ft. Sean Garrett) (3:00)
2. Energetic (3:42)
3. Did Ya (3:01)
4. Look Who’s Talking (3:09)
5. Eat You Up (3:12)
6. Obsessed (3:47)
7. Touched (3:07)
8. Scream (3:16)
9. Girl On Top (3:37)
10. Dress Off (3:41)
11. Hypnotic Dancefloor (3:43)
I’m going to commence this review with just a straight run through of all the tracks on the album, since most of my impressions of the album actually
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