MADE IN TWENTY (20) / BoA

11 March 2007

BoA
MADE IN TWENTY (20)

17.1.07
5th album
AVCD-23153/B

tracklisting
CD
1 Lady Galaxy
2 七色の明日~brand new beat~
3 Winter Love
4 STILL.
5 SO REAL
6 KEY OF HEART
7 OUR LOVE ~to my parents~
8 no more make me sick
9 Revolution-CODE 1986-1105 Feat.RAH-D
10 Your Color
11 Prayers
12 Candle Lights
13 Gracious Days
Bonus Track
14 LAST CHRISTMAS
DVD
video clip
1 七色の明日~brand new beat~
2 KEY OF HEART
3 Winter Love
THE LIVE
4 LISTEN TO MY HEART
5 VALENTI
6 soundscape
7 Ain't no sunshine
8 make a secret
9 Moon & Sunrise
10 Winter Love
11 メリクリ
12 七色の明日~brand new beat~
13 Everlasting

purchase date 16.2.07

review
Approximately a year after her ultra successful 4th album "OUTGROW", BoA returns with her 5th original Japanese album "MADE IN TWENTY (20)". I only really start to like BoA after she did an excellent collaboration with m-flo in "the Love Bug" and her greatest single of all time "DO THE MOTION". These works shows great vocal improvement by BoA, who was infamous for her hit-or-miss pitching, uncontrolled yelling, unstable coarse vocal and random switching between register in some of her earlier works (e.g. "VALENTI", "Rock With You").

In contrast to the strong singles and c/w included in "OUTGROW", the 3 singles released prior to this album are considerably weaker. "MADE IN TWENTY (20)" begins with a new song "Lady Galaxy" that reminds me of Gwen Stefani and Fergie. Several other songs in this album like "Revolution-CODE 1986-1105" and "Prayers" share the same problem. It's not that this style is not good, just that it is not original.

Despite changing into a new mature image and music style since "DO THE MOTION", BoA somewhat revert to her old happy-go-lucky style with "七色の明日~brand new beat~", in which the music style is similar to "Shine We Are!". But interestingly, her new visual image and fashion sense were retained in the pv and cover art of the single. "Winter Love" was BoA's winter single released after the mega hit "メリクリ". It is a decent ballad, but not as great as "メリクリ". This song somehow reminds me of Mika's 2003 winter classic "雪の華". Especially for the video of "Winter Love", which shares the same theme and colour scheme as "雪の華".

"STILL.", "SO REAL" and "no more make me sick" are BoA's typical R&B common in her earlier album particularly "VALENTI", but obviously with better vocal. BoA's vocal is substantially better than her earlier days and she did a decent job for these songs. In fact, these tracks are the 3 best songs in this album.

"KEY OF HEART" is in my opinion, BoA's worst single release of 2006; it might even be her worst single to date. Like the previous single "七色の明日~brand new beat~", "KEY OF HEART" again features music style of her earlier career. However, this kind of music and whacky dance moves just does not suits her new image and vocal style anymore.

"OUR LOVE ~to my parents~" is a R&B ballad similar in style to "キミのとなりで". The Japanese lyrics were penned by BoA herself, which serves as a tribute to her parents. "Your Color" and "Candle Lights" are medium R&B ballad common in her recent works. BoA's vocal performance has tremendously improved over the years to handle these emotional ballads easily. She performed relatively well for both songs by delivering stable high notes of the correct pitch. "Gracious Days" is a joyful R&B ballad very suitable as an ending for an album and is my favourite track in this album. The bonus track is an English cover of x'mas classic "LAST CHRISTMAS".

Like other avex album, "MADE IN TWENTY (20)" comes with a CD+DVD edition containing video clips of the 3 singles and live footage from her latest tour "BoA THE LIVE". Unlike other live performance, BoA did not dance to her tune, focusing only on her vocal. The arrangement of the songs are also dramatically changed to suits the performance, giving these songs a new jazz sound. However, the live footage only features part of the tour and the complete performance is only available on a separate live video release "BoA THE LIVE 裏ボア...聴かせ系"; another good marketing strategy from avex.

Overall, this album is of very good quality. I like all the new songs recorded for this album. In fact, the worse tracks are the included singles, which "KEY OF HEART" is the worst song in this album. "MADE IN TWENTY (20)" is slightly better than "OUTGROW" and definitely better than any of her earlier albums. However, there is still some room for improvement for BoA's vocal.

recommending #13 Gracious Days, #8 no more make me sick, #5 SO REAL
rating 9/10 very good

Buy it here:
Made In Twenty (20) [CD+DVD] / BoA

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