"LOVE & HONESTY" is BoA's third Japanese album. None of them have been especially spectacular, but her talent always shows through and she maintains a consistent quality, so you can be sure that each album, including this one, will be at least decent. The album begins with two recent singles in a row. As soon as you turn on this album you might think, "Didn't I just hear this?" as "Rock With You", her most recent single, immediately begins blaring its incessantly repeating hey-hey's on track 1. These days it seems like a lot of Jpop albums cram all or most of the singles right together toward the beginning of the album. It didn't used to be like that -- Back in the old days singles were usually spaced evenly across the span of the album. Lately, as the single market continues to weaken, it doesn't seem surprising that the average consumer out there who buys this album will be buying it primarily for the singles (because they don't own the singles already). In fact, some consumers may practically ignore the new album tracks and will want the album to jump straight into the songs from the radio that they know and love. Album tracks make those one-time buyer, flash-in-the-pan consumers impatient. That is why I think that so many Jpop albums begin with singles these days. All of BoA's albums begin with singles, although this is her first album that doesn't share the name with her number one selling single. Not to say that all people who buy the album only care about the singles and don't like album tracks, of course. By the way, "Rock With You" and "Shine We Are!", as well as "DOUBLE" on track 10, are all prime quality BoA singles. Track 3, "SOME DAY ONE DAY", is a song featuring Verbal, the rapper from m-flo (considering how many guest appearances he makes on other artists' albums, you should all know that by now). BoA is going to be featured on an upcoming m-flo single, and perhaps this song will appear on that single. This is a pretty good song. I found it to be pretty catchy. Verbal doesn't do a whole lot other than his rapping section near the bridge in the middle, where he does his usual rants about "m-flo" and "expo". Nothing incredibly new here, but decent work at least. I enjoyed it for what it is. The new song on track 4 has the same name as this album. It begins with an orchestral intro. This is a gentle mid-tempo ballad, with the orchestra providing light accompaniment throughout. BoA's singing is very sweet in this one, almost too sweet to bear at times. The main melody is extremely catchy and enjoyable. Good song. "Midnight Parade" is the B-side track from the "DOUBLE" single. This is a great song, and I was really happy to hear it again. I almost forgot about it, since the release of the single. The song has a nice strong beat that continues steadily throughout, with a bouncy melody from BoA. It was a good idea to include this one. Track 6 is "Be the one". This song was re-cut into a single and released on its own CD shortly after the release of this album. This song won't stand among her best singles, but it certainly deserves to be there at any rate. This song sounds like single quality -- The power smacks you in the face as soon as you hit this track. Strong soulful vocals the way BoA does them best. The melody is nice and catchy. Track 7, is a little plain, with its average pop sound and mid-tempo. This is exactly what you can usually expect from BoA. It still has a great melody anyway. Maybe it's nothing earth-shaking, but decent nonetheless. When it comes to BoA "decent" and "average" are usually pretty good things because she maintains a fairly consistent high quality. "OVER ~across the time~" is a little more unique, with its odd vocal chorus providing accompaniment from time to time in the background. It has the usual quick vocals in most typical BoA songs, but as usual, she does a pretty good job with it, and that makes "typical" again not such a bad thing. "kokoro no tegami" sounds silly, with its English lyrics playing in the background, "Wanna be, just wanna wanna be." (That would have been fine if they had just said, "Wanna be, just what I wanna be," but that's a lot harder for Japanese people to say, and some people will probably assume that's what they're saying anyway.) This song develops into a pretty good melody too, so it's all good. I don't mind the silly singing as long as it has this nice bright, enthusiastic melody from BoA. Track 11, "Easy To Be Hard" is a really cool, catchy new song. I really like this one. The part at the ending of the chorus where she sings, "I, me, mine," is sweet. The final song, "Song With No Name" is awfully plain, with its sparse instrumental accompaniment and soft vocals (when I say "plain", I'm using it in a different sense than I have throughout most of this review). It's almost like an incomplete song, since it really just has two verses and then it is over. BoA's singing in this one is very sweet. It shows that she also has that delicate quality necessary to be a really dynamic vocalist. This might not have been the best ending for the album, but luckily there is a bonus track included afterward, which is the Japanese version of the bright, happy, upbeat song, "Milky Way", which was originally one of her Korean releases. This Japanese version already appeared on the "DOUBLE" single, so this is by no means new material. I love this song, regardless of its short play time of just over three minutes. My rating for this album gradually moved up from seven, to eight, finally up to nine. The reason I'm giving this album such a high rating is because the singles are all of very good to excellent quality, and the new music is all quite good, a better selection than I would expect from most new Jpop albums, even if most of the songs do very little to break the usual mold she has already been set in (you may have noticed that I didn't have a lot to say about most of the tracks for this reason). It's clear that she has gradually improved since her first Japanese album, and it's really starting to show now. If you don't mind pop music in its purest form, then there is no reason you should not enjoy BoA's surprisingly mature, rich, soulful vocals and catchy upbeat dance songs.
Buy it here.
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