The Queen is back and this time, she's holding all the reins. SM Entertainment's first superstar, BoA, is back with her eighth album and celebrating her 15th year in the industry.
Fans and non-fans alike are so used to seeing the soloist cranking out hard choreography and fast-paced music, that everyone was taken aback when this album finally dropped. Kiss My Lips, which is also the title track off this 12-track album, shows us another side of BoA. The track is smooth, sensual and sultry, her voice deepening to entice you by singing "baby, come and kiss my lips". The song shows us BoA enjoying and embracing her sensuality and womanhood.
The album itself consists of a wide variety of genres, all of which are composed and penned by BoA herself. Who Are You is reminiscent of her Japanese tracks that I, admittedly, am a very big fan of. Gaeko's rap just adds to the J-Pop feel of this song, and showcases off her wide vocal range. The lyrics are also as playful as the backing track: Who are you, stranger? / Can't stop thinking of you.
The bass in Smash is something uncommon in K-Pop (the last time I heard a bass line like that was in TVXQ's Moonlight Fantasy), while Shattered plays with the synthesizers and sort of reminds me of Lana Del Rey's Born to Die. Fox is mid-tempo funk song and we hear the Niles Rodgers-esque guitar tunes at the chorus.
Double Jack is an R&B track that is so distinctly K-Pop but also so distinctly BoA, I fall in love with it every time I hear it; not to mention Eddy Kim's special appearance in the track. Their voices blended together like coffee and cream, and the lyrics were something light and fun that you can't help but smile.
Home is a ballad that reminds me of songs played in wine bars I frequent when life gets a little too much and I want some peace and quiet, but have no plans of leaving the hustle and bustle of the city. Dare I say it also reminds me of scenes from Korean dramas where the lead finds himself or herself contemplating life in a wine bar as well?
Clockwork is personally one of my favourite tracks off the album, particularly because it mixes synthesisers with pianos and violins. It reminds me of ARASHI's Kokoro no Sora, but that's a review for another time. It's something that would be fun to dance to, which I believe BoA would do, and the lyrics are catchy in the sense that she basically says what people in their 20s are saying at the moment: I have no idea / I have no way to go.
I am personally not as fond of ballads as the others, so I almost skipped out on Love and Hate because not only was it a ballad, it was a guitar ballad. I managed to finish it, however, and I could feel so much more emotion in it than Home. And the lyrics were generic sad love song, almost to the point of cliché, which just works for the whole track.
Green Light and Hello have almost the same beginning sequence that I almost thought my album was broken, but they were also quite distinct, with the former playing with the guitar and the latter playing with the piano. And Blah was the best ender, reinforcing the thought that she's taking the reins from here on out.
My Verdict: A-
For an album written completely by BoA, this took me by happy surprise. While I did not doubt her strengths in songwriting, I was also cautious because she was not just composing one or two tracks this time a la Only One; she was composing a whole album.
I liked most of her tracks, having been a fan of the genres that she went with. I also liked that some of her J-Pop sounds were subtly influencing some of her songs, such as Green Light and Clockwork. I was, however, a little confused about the sequencing she did for her album. Other than that, it was fine nonetheless.
Double Jack is an R&B track that is so distinctly K-Pop but also so distinctly BoA, I fall in love with it every time I hear it; not to mention Eddy Kim's special appearance in the track. Their voices blended together like coffee and cream, and the lyrics were something light and fun that you can't help but smile.
Home is a ballad that reminds me of songs played in wine bars I frequent when life gets a little too much and I want some peace and quiet, but have no plans of leaving the hustle and bustle of the city. Dare I say it also reminds me of scenes from Korean dramas where the lead finds himself or herself contemplating life in a wine bar as well?
Clockwork is personally one of my favourite tracks off the album, particularly because it mixes synthesisers with pianos and violins. It reminds me of ARASHI's Kokoro no Sora, but that's a review for another time. It's something that would be fun to dance to, which I believe BoA would do, and the lyrics are catchy in the sense that she basically says what people in their 20s are saying at the moment: I have no idea / I have no way to go.
I am personally not as fond of ballads as the others, so I almost skipped out on Love and Hate because not only was it a ballad, it was a guitar ballad. I managed to finish it, however, and I could feel so much more emotion in it than Home. And the lyrics were generic sad love song, almost to the point of cliché, which just works for the whole track.
Green Light and Hello have almost the same beginning sequence that I almost thought my album was broken, but they were also quite distinct, with the former playing with the guitar and the latter playing with the piano. And Blah was the best ender, reinforcing the thought that she's taking the reins from here on out.
My Verdict: A-
For an album written completely by BoA, this took me by happy surprise. While I did not doubt her strengths in songwriting, I was also cautious because she was not just composing one or two tracks this time a la Only One; she was composing a whole album.
I liked most of her tracks, having been a fan of the genres that she went with. I also liked that some of her J-Pop sounds were subtly influencing some of her songs, such as Green Light and Clockwork. I was, however, a little confused about the sequencing she did for her album. Other than that, it was fine nonetheless.
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