July, December, always deep inside of my mind

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Bore
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July, December, always deep inside of my mind

Post by Bore » 06 Aug 2011, 18:32

The summer is nearly over (at least in Northern Finland), and while my initial plan was to get the 215 review done well in advance it got delayed and even more delayed. Then over a week ago I finished doing the review, but it's been taking me quite a while to get it actually edited to a final version. Well either way, just as 217 has been released I finally got the review completed. So a bit late, but better late than never!

<a href="http://eurobeat-prime.com/reviews/seb215.php">Super Eurobeat 215 review.</a> Stop & Go!

#Infinity
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Post by #Infinity » 07 Aug 2011, 19:14

Really nice review! Though I disagree with a few songs, mainly early on. Since we're on the subject, I may as well put in my two cents, now that I've heard the album.

My favorite track here is definitely Power Two. It easily has the most melodic approach of Hotblade's songs so far. Though in a way, he's sort of taking a step back by traveling towards a more classic, retro style, as opposed to his raw, innovative take on Plastic and Legendary Heart, I think he brings out his best qualities here. His vocals sound energized and emotive throughout this track, whereas they seemed to have less of a direction and came off a bit ugly for me in his previous performances. I'm surprised that Bore didn't rate it higher, especially considering that he's given high marks to most male SCP tracks, including Hotblade's.

I'm going to unfortunately have to be the party-pooper and say that I think Maximizin' is an overrated track. I feel that just because a non-TIME eurobeat song adds a few house elements here and there doesn't automatically make it a classic. This song has the right ideas in mind, but for me, it comes off sounding very stiff. It relies a lot on repetitive vocal licks and synths that don't have any falls or rises. The production is very sharp, but the tune itself isn't that interesting. It's still a pretty good track overall, but as far as other songs in the same style go, I'd probably take Switch! or Wanna Be With You any day over this.

The rest of the album is a mixed bag for me. I actually liked Delta's first two songs a lot more than the general consensus (though Shalaka Boom is still the best and probably my runner-up for the album next to Power Two), and I quite loved Mecha Fireball for its hot synth riff and dynamic buildup during the verse (though the chorus is pretty average), but the highlights are offset by some pretty weak performances as well. Are You Ready to Fly is one of the most tired-sounding Dima productions to date, Tower of Love goes nowhere, the Healing Remix is useless, and No Turning Back is just an overproduced mess. Actually, I'll take it back, that is the overrated track of the album for me. It's kind of funny, since everyone else is saying that it's a huge improvement from other recent female productions from Leonardi as of late, but I think it's one of his worst songs since re-joining SEB. Still, it's not the absolute worst track on the album - that honor goes to Skylight. It has a bunch of cliche elements tapped in, which usually work, but in this case, the song is so dull and wimpy that you hardly notice it. I really hate the abrupt, improper transition into the chorus, which deprives it from having much of a palpable structure. Some people have kind of enjoyed it, but as for me, I'm sorry, but it just bored me to tears.

Overall, this album is okay, but it has too many serious lowpoints for me to call it a standout. It's probably one of the better releases of the decade to date, but that's not saying much, considering the 210's so far are probably the weakest decade for me since the 110's.
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Post by the_ditz » 07 Aug 2011, 19:26

#Infinity wrote:Overall, this album is okay, but it has too many serious lowpoints for me to call it a standout. It's probably one of the better releases of the decade to date, but that's not saying much, considering the 210's so far are probably the weakest decade for me since the 110's.
Are you for real?? I guess you've just lost your new Eurobeat mojo (kinda like what happened with me a few years back...)

215 isn't my favourite album from the decade by any stretch, but it still contained some classics (Hotblade, Alix and David Dima's "Sunrise" will live on the longest for me).

And No Turning Back is Sinclaire's most tuneful female track since Move On Now Baby. I pretty much hate every female track released between those two tracks by Sinclaire... :P

#Infinity
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Post by #Infinity » 08 Aug 2011, 09:40

the_ditz wrote:Are you for real?? I guess you've just lost your new Eurobeat mojo (kinda like what happened with me a few years back...)
Hardly at all! :razz: Granted, even though my musical interests have diversified a little bit lately, I still love eurobeat as much as I ever have. I just haven't been particularly impressed by most of the latest albums in the Super Eurobeat series, and even then, I can still pick out certain tracks that clearly stand out to me, such as Power Two and Shalaka Boom on this album. I also loved SEB 208, so it's not like I'm biased against newer releases or anything. Again, the biggest problem for me personally is that TIME/Eurogrooves and Asia, my two favorite labels, are nothing but cover machines now, often in non-eurobeat styles.
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Post by Bore » 08 Aug 2011, 11:44

I had my off time with eurobeat a few years back (for a longer time really), but for me the genre has been picking up a bit from the slump it was in. Though as a whole it's still not really anywhere near the highlevel of the early 2000. Though I have had plenty of really big favorites this decade as well.

215 wasn't definitely the best album about, but it does feature a lot of nice music. Just a shame most of the songs were so close to being real hits, but there was still that something missing.

From the brief experiences with 217 so far I'm liking what I hear. Dance Boom Boom, Disconnected and Rock My Heart stand out at first impression clearly above the rest. And it's surprising that Sinclaire pulls off a 2nd really nice song, it's like he listened to my complaints :P Or Avex just has started picking better songs.

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Post by DUSKvsDAWN » 09 Aug 2011, 15:08

I totally love the new album!
A Mega NRG Man song, just what I needed! (I'm a huge fan of him, haha)
The song really "rocks" (:
"OH SHIT I have a bag of Milkyways!"

"at night @_@"

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