BoA - Game

BoA is, and has become, a legend - in more ways that one. She's a legend in Korea because when she debuted she was a hit - a singing-dancing machine and LSM's favorite trainee, how could she not be? Then she went into the Japanese industry and actually succeeded - BoA is a name in Japan, not just some random word that sounds like a snake. But because of her success in Japan, she's kind of neglected her Korean career - she's a legend because she's only talked about in Korea, never heard or seen.


Well, now she's back. And obviously I have to say my piece on this new single. I had very high hopes for it, mainly because I just called Identity one of the best albums I've heard in a long time.

Frankly? I'm not impressed.

I first heard the song Saturday at around 11PM - I was a little out of it and wasn't really thinking properly, but I knew I didn't like it already. When I listened to it again Sunday morning, it finally hit me why I don't like the song - it sounds like Ice Cream, off f(x)'s first mini-album. Seriously. I may not like it, but I've heard it a good number of times to be able to say that. Turns out, the same guy wrote it - I had my hunches, and they were confirmed.

I'm quite angry, actually.

I thought BoA was supposed to be this "high-priority" artist - she gets all the best songs and best this and best that. Right? But then she gets a song that's around 70% the same as a song by this girl group with two singles and one mini-album to their name. Isn't that a little insulting? For both BoA and f(x), actually. What, he was testing if that sound would work and needed a bunch of testing subjects, so he got f(x)? Then when he thought it worked, he gave BoA a similar song? Puh-lease.

Well that just boils down to the fact that BoA's manufactured, wherever she goes - she definitely doesn't sound like this in Japan. And she better not.

She did pull it off much better than f(x), but that's not the point - the feel, the actual structure of the songs and even the talking during the verses are almost exactly the same. I don't care if it's written by the same guy - is that all he can do? (OK that's not the only thing he can do because he wrote Abracadabra too, but it's a rhetorical question!) And don't give me the "oh but the lyrics and the meaning of the songs are different!," because that has absolutely nothing to do with the music.

Ice Cream wasn't a song I particularly liked, but I do have to admit that I'm a bit drawn to Game, one way or another. If BoA didn't have a certain spunk and sophistication to her, I wouldn't like the song, but she does so I do. A bit.

Without comparisons, the song is rather sophisticated-ish. It's got a crisp kind of spunk with a tiny pinch of sophistication - mainly because of BoA's vocals. It's catchy in it's own way, and like most SME songs, it has impeccable production, no matter how sub-par the song is. I like the trumpets throughout, reminds me of my beloved Bump Bump! (LOL!), and it's one of the few elements in the actual song/arrangement that set it apart from the f(x) track. And I do like how it just ends - it's like one second she's singing and then BAM, the song's done.

Just like how this review is. LOL.

3.9/5 (the only reason why this got a rating like that is because I kinda like it)