[#15] BoA - "Not Over U"

From: "Only One"
Format: EP
Released: July
Territory: South Korea
Previous Best of Appearances: #30 - "Ordinary Day" (2010) / #5 - "Bump Bump! feat. VERBAL (m-flo) (2010)

As an EP, "Only One" was pretty okay -- cohesive, and the songs were all strong on their own -- but I had two problems with it. First, there were more fireworks between the songs, and second, for an act as practiced and experienced as BoA, the album sounds kind of boring. I mean they were gorgeous songs, but all in all they just fell flat.

But then there was "Not Over U". It's a mid-tempo, which means that it can potentially hide BoA's shortcomings as a vocalist (mainly how she gets squeaky whenever she has to do a lot of high notes), and it's in the right vocal range for her as well, unlike some of the other songs on the EP. BoA sounds great on it -- this is what happens when you really take the time out to tailor-fit an repertoire, or even just a song.

The instrumental was what really drew me to the song though. I love how it starts off just a guitar line and slowly progresses into something pretty far from it. It's interesting enough to carry the otherwise flat melody, and literally makes the choruses soar. There's so much going on, but it's just like one blast of chaos then everything goes back to normal.

Now if "Only One" was full of songs like this (but not carbon copies!), I wouldn't be complaining. That much.