BoA / Sweet Impact / April 25, 2007
♫ 01. Sweet Impact / 02. Bad Drive
Spring is once again upon us. Long gone are the marshmallow coats and boots caked with snow, the winter ballads, the slow and serene ambient-jazz-pop, the terrible and disappointing releases from The Arcade Fire and Bloc Party and Linkin Park and pretty much everything else released in 2007 besides Hellogoodbye (!) and Hilary Duff (!!!). However, I am honestly ready for cheesy pop music, in fact, I welcome it, if only because it means I don’t have to steer my automobile through two feet of snow and two inch visibility.
I’ve never been a huge BoA fan and I’m still not. Any reviews I’ve done of her music in the past have been filled with disappointment and disinterest; so why I keep sampling her new releases, I have no idea. Maybe in hopes that I’ll find another “Girls on Top” (the song, not the album). Well, I definetly did not find it in her latest single. “Sweet Impact” is a typical Japanese pop song complete with a retro-ish vibe and plenty of synth keyboard effects. Nothing catches my interest in this song. The c/w track however, is actually…good. Not excellent, not astounding, not another “Girls on Top,” but it is significantly more catchy and original than the title song. If I could be disappointed in anything about it, it would be that it was not chosen as the title track. With a larger funky sound and less full instrumentation, it’s a song lighter on the ears with smoother transitions and techno influence perfect for cruising.
But bottom line: it basically impressed me because it wasn’t completely awful. This is truly a step-up for BoA. You know, until her next single.
appears 