The FACE (album)
Artist: BoA
Released: 27.02.08
Track list
01. AGGRESSIVE
02. Sweet Impact
03. My Way, Your Way feat. WISE
04. be with you.
05. LOSE YOUR MIND feat. Yutaka Furukawa from DOPING PANDA
06. Girl In The Mirror
07. Happy Birthday
08. Diamond Heart
09. LOVE LETTER
10. BRAVE
11. Gyappu ni yarareta
12. Style
13. Smile again
14. Beautiful Flowers
15. Best Friend
16. Hey Boy, Hey Girl feat. BoA - by Seamo (Only the limited edition)

My Thoughts
I think, so far this has got to be BoA’s best album, but that’s what I said about MADE IN TWENTY. This album seems very… pretty and dance-ish I guess. This album doesn’t have many ballads and has a similar theme like MIT.

Okaiiz, the album starts off with AGGRESSION. Very VERY trance like beginning. I LOVED that, and then it throws in BoA’s usual style; nice beat, catchy and that little techno voice, which brings back the trance theme again. Ending was okay, her English is DEFINITELY improving though.

I actually never really really liked Sweet Impact; I got over it pretty quickly. Its good, kept me entertained, and has a nice beat. I just think this song is a little too low for her voice in the verses, which sort of wrecked it. The chorus however really makes up for it. “Tell me what, Tell me ‘bout”??? I just don’t get that and I don’t like the slang used for about. The song just didn’t sound right after that ending.

My Way, Your Way (feat. WISE) was very R‘n’B –ish. I really liked how she put the call and response (sorry about the music jargon) where she does the English to Japanese thing in the verse; it sounded very nice. I have this thing about rapping though. Whoever it is, it just doesn’t suit BoA’s image, so I don’t like WISE in this song. But it’s cute and nice to listen to.

be with you. I heard the first bit and I’m starting to think what happened to BoA’s ballads? I really loved winter love (learning on piano!!), but this just isn’t as good. The clip isn’t great either. I know it was for a movie but I don’t like it. Too… plain. But the chorus was really good. I seriously thought about cutting it up so that I could listen to the chorus only. It’s okay; worth a listen.

LOSE YOUR MIND feat. Yutaka Furukawa from DOPING PANDA is a very upbeat song. This song WILL make you dance, or at least sing along. It reminded me a lot about dakishimeru. I loved everything about the PV, except the dancing on the chair and her pink outfit with the bob wig. The chair thing was just too much, and the outfit looked bad. The black and white to colour clothes change really matches this song. Very very catchy song. One of my personal favourites. Furukawa just made this song sound a lot better, with his guitar solo. A MUST listen.

I’m not a major fan of Girl in the Mirror, it moves the album further to the hip hop stage after LOSE YOUR MIND. I’m not really used to this style, but it’s good for a dance. My favourite part is definitely “Rock Star, sniper, celebrities?, Whatever you want”. Very catchy and a cool beat. I also like the technolized voice in the verses.

Happy Birthday is such a really good song. I enjoyed this a lot, and reminded me of Koda Kumi’s Birthday Eve. Although I think the track transition was a bit awkward. It is a very very candy pop BoA song. I love this side of her, although it may seem naive and too innocent for her age now. It’s a really cute, bright and happy song. I’m playing this one at my birthday! Definitely a good listen.

Diamond Heart has another weird transition, and after the last song, most people would be jumping up and down from its cuteness. It has a lot of pop but has a strong backbeat to move the song forward. It’s nice, but by this stage would be ignored because it was included in the Love Letter single.

Love Letter was really nice and should have gone before Diamond Heart, to keep in the pop theme. I really loved this song. I think it’s a really heartfelt song and that it’s really trying to get a message across. Pretty song, really pretty.

Brave is my favourite song in this whole album. It’s really cool and has a nice pop-ish side and really strong vocals throughout the whole song. It is extremely addictive and written by the company I want to go to for work exp! (EMI). A very touching song with beautiful lyrics. There will be no say in this matter. You WILL listen to this song. I love the “yume dake wo shinjite” (believe in your dreams)

Gyappu Ni Yarareta (still unknown exact meaning) is a really poppy song. Nice for a little spin. The chorus this time is the one I didn’t really like. The verses were a lot better. It has a really nice upbeat tempo and catchy rhythm. It’s okay and worth a try.

Style is a really hip hop –ish song. Really really good. A lot of attitude and edge was put in this song. Written by the same composer of OUTGROW ~Ready Butterfly~ and Lady Galaxy, it has the same bouncy style and strong backbeat. “Oh baby I believe MY Style” that line just made the song sound so much better. A must try track.

Smile Again is my least favourite song on this album. Maybe it’s just too slow? There’s not much to say about this song. It’s kind of…boring? I don’t know how to describe this song. I think it’s better to ignore it altogether. The chorus is okay and just proves again that BoA’s vocals are really good. Written by BoA herself.

Beautiful Flowers is another upbeat, poppy song that was also included in the love letter single. It’s a nice song for a karaoke but that’s about it. Wasn’t a stand out song for me. Bright and colourful, but not my thing really. The verse outshone the chorus this time too. The chorus was good but the random English words really stood out and had no obvious connection with each other. “Beautiful flowers” and “Stand up” was all I could hear really.

Best Friend was another favourite and ended the album quite nicely. This song seemed quite finalising. I just thought this was another cute Happy Birthday thing again, so naturally, I loved it. She sings with nice vocals and I just heart the part where she says “You are always my best friend” and “my only best friend”. Such a tactic. Makes you feel a part of the song. Oh well, it worked.

Hey Boy, Hey Girl feat. BoA - by Seamo was pretty good. I don’t like much of BoA’s featurings but this was actually quite interesting to listen to. It had a good beat but BoA’s voice seemed weak. But the chorus was just really nice. The bridge was a little awkward at the beginning all slow and everything but wasn’t shockingly bad.

Final Judgment
Overall, this album gets 4 out of 5 tofu’s (listen in 97.70 fm Thursday nights from 11pm-1am asian music all night + requests at alchemy sbs) yay! Recom. Songs are AGGRESSIVE, Happy Birthday, BRAVE, Style, Best Friend. Tracks to skip – smile again

Enjoy~ (sorry youtube!!!!)