Nope. I'm not grovving to Katy Perry but I'm feeling Hot N Cold. Literally. and I'm gonna blame it all the weather. So these couple of days i 'm in my tank top, since it's so damn hot in the day. but then, it'll be like all cold all of a sudden. and before you Know it, it'll be freakin' hot again. either my body system is all screwed up or our earth is.
Damn. I'm bored to hell at home. Meanwhile, i've been trying to find work but up till now, there's been no luck. Wow, i mean, i really did learn a lot just going through the process of job searching. I'm planning to do a full blog post just based on that only. But I think i'm only going to do after i've landed a job. And i've got a LOT to share, man. Meanwhile, a lot of stuff have happened these couple of days.
First things first, BoA's Debut English album came out on Tues, March 17. Yeshh!!!! I wanted to do a post immediately after listening to it on that day, a first-hand review, but procrastinated. but anyway, i'm going to do that later on. First, let me get to American Idol.
These week was Grand Ole Opry week. Ok, actually i learnt about this week's theme from rickey.org quite some time ago.... or was it votefortheworst.com... can't remember for the life of me. these two sites are so similar. Ok, my first reaction was WTF was "Grand Ole Opry"?!?! but then i looked at the songlist... Martina McBride... Carrie Underwood... Garth Brooks... and after reading some of the comments by visitors, i realised it was country, which in American Idol history, it hasn't come down too good many times before. However, surprising, the performance night wasn't too bad. No one did particularly bad, though there were a couple or so standouts, such Kris Allen's and Matt Giraud's. Matt's cover of Carrie Underwood's So Small was particularly memorable and emotion-invoking. His bluezy, smoky, rough coverage contrasted with Carrie's silky vocals. Whenever a performance cause the hair on my body to stand on ends, i would know that it's a great performance. and matt's So Small did just that.
Here is his Studio recording of So Small:
Now the frustrating part. Dirty Diana a.k.a Alexis Grace got the lowest votes for the rendition of Dolly Parton's Jolene. Now the EVEN MORE frustrating part: the Judges mentioned right before Alexis sang for her life, that she was the one (between her and Michael Sarver) the judges would consider saving using the Judge's Save. That got Alexis' hope and you could see while she sang, she was on the verge of tears, desperation, her voice was breaking. She really wanted it bad. And I thought she would deserve another chance. After all that, the judges REFUSED to save her, with Simon putting it simply: It was good, it just wasn't good enough, EFFECTIVELY dashing her dreams. WTF! ok, she had a bad performance (and it wasn't that bad actually) but i think she has one of the most promising potential among the top 11, and she didn't deserve to go home just yet. f*ck, she will not even get the chance to go on the AMI summer tour because she's not part of the top 10. WHAT?!?! first Joanna Pacitti got axed from the Top 36 and now Alexis Grace?! Man, i'm not watching this show anymore (the thought of seeing Danny Gokey every week turns me off)... ok, i'm just kidding.
Next, seeing how there isn't many reviews for BoA's new english debut out there, i'm going to do one.
Tracklist:
1) I Did it for Love (ft. Sean Garrett)
2) Energetic
3) Did Ya
4) Look who's talking
5) Eat you up
6) Obsessed
7) Touched
8) Scream
9) Girl on Top
10) Dress Off
11) Hypnotic Dancefloor
My First Listen Impression: Not Good. i would give it a 3/5 rating. BUT considering that i'm a HUGE BoA fan, i'm going to be srsly biased here. OK, on first listen, it just wasn't working for me, as an entire album packaging. sure, there were some standout tracks, but the entire album just doesn't cut it. I've been listening to American pop music for quite some time now and when i first considered the idea of the american public listening to this album and getting to know this artiste, BoA, just based on this one album, i don't think it's going to make any big impression on them. Furthermore, in comparison to some pretty strong recent American pop artistes i.e. Britney Spears, Rihanna, BoA would really pale out.
Now the Second Impressions: (after listening to it more)
1)I Did it for Love
I've loved this track right from the start that it was released. There's really nothing much to comment on this track really. Brilliant. Dance. Track. I still can't figure out whether this is the second single or Look Who's Talking is. But if i were to choose, this would definitely be a stronger second single.
2)Energetic
the title of this track caught my attention, considering how i like grovvy tracks and Lady GaGa's Just Dance and Poker Face immediately came to my mind. course, that was before i listened to it. really great as well.
4) Look Who's Talking
One of the standout tracks. Courtesy of Ms. Britney Bitch herself. she co-wrote this song. of course, it feels very britney-ish. especially in the chorus. think Circus or If U Seek Amy.
7) Touched
this isn't a standout nor is it one of my fave. in fact, i quite hate this song, due to the fact that BoA didn't actually really sing the chorus, if i'm not wrong. At first, i was shocked when i heard this song, because it didn't feel like BoA at all (after listening to her for 8 years now since her Jap debut, i would definitely know) I was positive she didn't sang that song. when i listened closely, i realised the chorus was sung by background singers (most probably) and BoA was doing all these vocal theatrics (as i would like to call it). So, in a way, the roles were switched and i didnt like it. This is one of the controversial songs for me, in a way.
8) Scream
Ok, by the time you reach this track, if you listened to it in chronological order, you would probably realise that she sounds slightly different on every single track (thx to the vocal tweaking), every single track FEELS (i'm not saying SOUND) the same and you can't really tell what the heck BoA's singing (hey, she's Korean, but really, who will care to listen to the words?). Although i have to give her credit for the tremendous improvement in her English. So in a way, what i'm trying to say is that Scream just feels like the other songs on this album, but nonetheless, i quite like this track.
9) Girls on Top
I was quite a fan of the Korean album with the same name, due to the fact at that time, BoA broke away from her squeaky clean image as this silky hair lass and following her My Name album, she continued to give this edgy, rock-ish, dancey look which reflected in her music as well. So i was particular glad to hear that this american version didn't butchered the original song. in fact, it sounded great and better, i would say. i was worried i would be a little squeamish to hear her sing one of her old songs in English, but it wasn't as bad as i initially thought it would be.
10) Dress Off
~ so all u wanna do is take my Dress Off ~ take my dress offfff ~ dress offff ~ offfff ~
one of my FAVE tracks in this entire album, mainly because of it's ADdictive, Catchy, Grovvy, Electrosynth sound. LUrves it. and considering that the lyrics are so flirty and dirrty, it's no surprise it's gonna be one of my faves.
My Final Verdict: 4/5
on my fourth or fifth run through the album, i can't believe that BoA actually just sang an ENTIRE album in English AND it actually sounds AWESOME. it's not like those previous English covers of her own songs, where u will get squeamish listening to how bad her English sounds. Ok, considering that I can get over how MUCH they tweaked Britney's voice in Circus, I am definitely lurving this album right here. Of course, the comparison is there, BoA has long been hailed as Asia's Britney. In the past, i couldn't see the similarities but now i Do. Hello? Bloodshy & Avant were one of the producers on Britney's Circus and by recruiting them to produce on THIS album, we couldn't make them sound more similar. In fact, BoA SOUNDS so much like Britney on this album on SO MANY tracks. But if it's a sure-formulae to success and they want to reproduce it on BoA, i certainly wish her the best. Depending on how the critics see it, they could churn out either very positive reviews or pan her down. (again, it's whether they will compare her to Britney's Circus) I've always liked BoA for her dance tracks, her energy in her dancing and her unique voice. So in this album, i'm getting only the first two. I don't really know whether to love or hate the vocoder in the album because it took away the voice that I lurved so much since ID; Peace B.
Remember to grab your copy. It's worth it.
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