%20BoA%20-%20Aggressive.png "BoA releases a brand new version of her 2008 song “Aggressive” | Random J Pop")
BoA’s celebration of her 20th anniversary was scuppered by a non scandal involving prescription sleeping tablets, and then personal tragedy which struck concerning the passing of her brother. But now Avex and BoA are actually doing things for it, and it’s pretty damn good. Where-as for BoA’s 20th anniversary of her Korean career, BoA recreated some of her music videos, for the 20th anniversary of her Japanese career, BoA has recorded new versions of some of her songs.
BoA will be releasing a best album which features all of these songs, but each of these songs will be released weekly over the course of the next couple of months. Trust that in 2025 Kumi Koda is gonna do something real similar and call it 12 Singles ColleXXion, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of when she famously released weekly singles back in 2005 - just to remind bitches. That’s if she can wait that long. She might do it this year. We know Kumi Koda can’t siddown.
Artists re-recording their own songs is controversial (reasoning aside; i.e owning masters, streaming availability, rights issues etc), because very rarely do the re-recordings better the originals. But, when artists change up the arrangements and re-record a song in the spirit of how they would want the song to sound now, versus trying to recapture what was, then I’m all for it. And I wish more artists whose voices and artistry have grown over the course of their career would do this. I’ve been wanting a self cover album from Hikaru Utada and Crystal Kay for the longest time. Shit. I’d even take one from Ayu.
BoA’s voice was a part of why I struggled to get into her music before. But ever since 2012, BoA has really done work on her voice, songwriting and producing. So the thought of her going back and re-recording songs in her evolved state is great. And the coolest thing is that the songs aren’t just standard re-records, but new versions entirely. So it’s not just a self-cover, but more of a self-reimagining, which I find even better. I was pleasantly surprised when I pressed play on “Aggressive” and heard not just all new production and arrangements, but all new vocals too.
“Aggressive” was the opening song on BoA’s 2008 album The Face; an album I did not like. I also couldn’t stand the song, which has been flipped from some loud cute pop mess, into something far darker and seductive. The entire song has changed, and in a lot of ways for the better. But it’s not without its shortcomings.
🔊 Stream “Aggressive” (The Greatest Version): 🟢 Spotify | 🟣 Apple Music | 🔴 YouTube Music | ⚫ Tidal
The overall vibe of The Greatest version of “Aggressive” is great. The verses sound hot. BoA’s vocals sound a whole lot better. But baby. Why does the middle 8 sound so empty? What happened to the chorus!? There is not enough of a significant shift in energy to lift the chorus out of the song a little more, so it causes the entire thing to sound really flat and monotonous. And for how much I cannot stand the original version of “Aggressive”, I could never call it flat and monotonous. And as much as I prefer how BoA sounds on this self-reimagining, it feels like BoA went in, did one take of the song and said ‘I’m not doing any background vocals’. Because, baby. Where are they? They were needed here.
Still. It’s an improvement. But one which could have been a whole lot better if a bit more consideration was taken with the arrangements and making the chorus pop. I mean...how do you give a pop artist like BoA a song with a chorus that...doesn’t pop, when the originals’ did? I hope this isn’t a re-occurring theme, because BoA has recorded a whole album of these self-reimagining’s.
BoA and Avex will be releasing The Greatest versions of songs weekly for 10 weeks, every Monday. The Best album itself The Greatest will drop on May 30, 2022 and will feature a new song. There are some conflicting dates and information online though. And it seems even “Aggressive” came as a surprise to fans online, as they seemed certain they were gonna get something else first. Japanese announcements of new music often tend to be messy, feature broken links and pieces of information which conflict or cause confusion amongst fans. Just a regular day in Japanese music innit.
BoA re-recording selected songs from her Japanese discography is a big deal and something to shout about. But Avex aren’t who they once were, and barely promote any of their acts these days. And the last Japanese album BoA put out that actually pushed considerable amounts of units was The Face back in 2008, so there is also that. And I honestly don’t think BoA cares enough about doing any form of extensive promo, which is very fair. A real shame, because this project seems really cool. And given that Avex’s roster feels like a legacy roster these days, having some of them re-release and re-imagine old shit wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
🎧 Playlist: BoA’s Pussy Music
💿 Reviews: Better | Starry Night | Woman | One Shot, Two Shot | Kiss My Lips | Hurricane Venus | Identity | BoA | The Face | Outgrow | Listen to My Heart
BoA will be releasing a best album which features all of these songs, but each of these songs will be released weekly over the course of the next couple of months. Trust that in 2025 Kumi Koda is gonna do something real similar and call it 12 Singles ColleXXion, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of when she famously released weekly singles back in 2005 - just to remind bitches. That’s if she can wait that long. She might do it this year. We know Kumi Koda can’t siddown.
Artists re-recording their own songs is controversial (reasoning aside; i.e owning masters, streaming availability, rights issues etc), because very rarely do the re-recordings better the originals. But, when artists change up the arrangements and re-record a song in the spirit of how they would want the song to sound now, versus trying to recapture what was, then I’m all for it. And I wish more artists whose voices and artistry have grown over the course of their career would do this. I’ve been wanting a self cover album from Hikaru Utada and Crystal Kay for the longest time. Shit. I’d even take one from Ayu.
BoA’s voice was a part of why I struggled to get into her music before. But ever since 2012, BoA has really done work on her voice, songwriting and producing. So the thought of her going back and re-recording songs in her evolved state is great. And the coolest thing is that the songs aren’t just standard re-records, but new versions entirely. So it’s not just a self-cover, but more of a self-reimagining, which I find even better. I was pleasantly surprised when I pressed play on “Aggressive” and heard not just all new production and arrangements, but all new vocals too.
“Aggressive” was the opening song on BoA’s 2008 album The Face; an album I did not like. I also couldn’t stand the song, which has been flipped from some loud cute pop mess, into something far darker and seductive. The entire song has changed, and in a lot of ways for the better. But it’s not without its shortcomings.
🔊 Stream “Aggressive” (The Greatest Version): 🟢 Spotify | 🟣 Apple Music | 🔴 YouTube Music | ⚫ Tidal
The overall vibe of The Greatest version of “Aggressive” is great. The verses sound hot. BoA’s vocals sound a whole lot better. But baby. Why does the middle 8 sound so empty? What happened to the chorus!? There is not enough of a significant shift in energy to lift the chorus out of the song a little more, so it causes the entire thing to sound really flat and monotonous. And for how much I cannot stand the original version of “Aggressive”, I could never call it flat and monotonous. And as much as I prefer how BoA sounds on this self-reimagining, it feels like BoA went in, did one take of the song and said ‘I’m not doing any background vocals’. Because, baby. Where are they? They were needed here.
Still. It’s an improvement. But one which could have been a whole lot better if a bit more consideration was taken with the arrangements and making the chorus pop. I mean...how do you give a pop artist like BoA a song with a chorus that...doesn’t pop, when the originals’ did? I hope this isn’t a re-occurring theme, because BoA has recorded a whole album of these self-reimagining’s.
BoA and Avex will be releasing The Greatest versions of songs weekly for 10 weeks, every Monday. The Best album itself The Greatest will drop on May 30, 2022 and will feature a new song. There are some conflicting dates and information online though. And it seems even “Aggressive” came as a surprise to fans online, as they seemed certain they were gonna get something else first. Japanese announcements of new music often tend to be messy, feature broken links and pieces of information which conflict or cause confusion amongst fans. Just a regular day in Japanese music innit.
BoA re-recording selected songs from her Japanese discography is a big deal and something to shout about. But Avex aren’t who they once were, and barely promote any of their acts these days. And the last Japanese album BoA put out that actually pushed considerable amounts of units was The Face back in 2008, so there is also that. And I honestly don’t think BoA cares enough about doing any form of extensive promo, which is very fair. A real shame, because this project seems really cool. And given that Avex’s roster feels like a legacy roster these days, having some of them re-release and re-imagine old shit wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
🎧 Playlist: BoA’s Pussy Music
💿 Reviews: Better | Starry Night | Woman | One Shot, Two Shot | Kiss My Lips | Hurricane Venus | Identity | BoA | The Face | Outgrow | Listen to My Heart
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