Top/Bottom 10 Songs of the 220's
Posted: 22 Jul 2014, 08:13
It's been awfully quiet around here lately, and seeing how the SEB anniversary album is on its way, I figured it's the appropriate time to do this.
Top 10:
1. Boys Gone Wild / Dejo (SEB 221)
Although not delivering much with his female vocalists, Andrea Leonardi has been on a complete roll with his male-led entries since his comeback six years ago, and this is easily one of his freshest productions to date. The infectiously innovative synth melody alone is enough to cement this track's classic status, but the song structure does an expert job of juxtaposing a mildly dark minor chord progression with a jubilantly eclectic major chorus. Other fine touches include the "come on come ons" during the synth reprises, the smashing intro, and the offbeat synth bursts that add brief flairs of surprise during the otherwise straightforward verses. While Let's Go Wild! is probably SinclaireStyle's best track in recent history, this is his definite crowning achievement of the 220's decade.
2. Hot Hot Racin' Car / Go 2 (SEB 225)
Although I was a devoted Go 2 fan back when I first got into eurobeat, the majority of their songs songs have since sunken to okay status in favor of more nuanced productions. Thus, it's all the more ironic that their sole track this decade landed so high up in my top 10. Without the doubt, this is the best original song the duo has ever recorded (since Blood on Fire is a cover). During their middle years, this act began compromising its musical merits in favor of a more guitar-driven and raucous style, but this track sees them finally recapture that element of raw eurobeat which drew so much attention to them in the first place. With a razor-sharp chorus, crisply complex synth, and knot-tight production, this song is a staple of modern SCP eurobeat. Special mention also goes to Ennio's flamboyant rap, which makes his performance seem all the more ingrained within the flashy tune itself.
3. The Element of Fire / Fastway (SEB 224)
While Fastway's newer performances have been more on-and-off than they were in the past, this superb track proves that his aptitude for excitement is still far from extinct, even more than a decade and a half since joining SCP. Although I originally picked this song off for trying too many things at once and being too unfocused, it gradually pieced itself together for me overtime. The borderline freeform melodic structure gives this track a feeling of limitlessness, something that usually can't be said for the eurobeat genre in general. Even with its heavily layered progression, however, the pounding production and solid vocal delivery manage to hold the complicated structure firmly together. While Fastway's other three tracks from this decade are basically modest degradations of his older classics, this song undertakes a direction that truly makes it stand out in its own right.
4. The Jungle is on Fire / J-Stark (SEB 226)
Delta may lack its giant repertoire of writers and producers from before, but that's hardly shown to damage the quality of its releases, and this is a prime example of why. After a particularly attention-gripping intro, this song launches into full-blown electronic intensity. The track harbors some of the most dexterous synthwork to come from any eurobeat label in several years, spitting hundreds of notes per minute, yet with not one disrupting its acrobatic sense of focus. The off-kilter chord progression allows for Capaldi to experiment freely with offset synths, making for a superbly polished production that's still enticing even during the later breakdown sections. Top the phenomenal production off with Luca's fierce, versatile vocal layers, and you have a masterpiece that continues to intrigue me several plays later.
5. An Angel Right to Me / Bliss (SEB 226)
Bliss is one of SEB's only remaining titles whose tracks wouldn't seem in-place anytime earlier than the present day, and this song encapsulates all of those forward-thinking elements into one perfect package. The act's signature thick use of auto-tune produces a cybernetic feel, which is brought to life by its floaty, gleaming melodic atmosphere. Even though Higher Higher More and More is also excellent and probably a little more innovative, Bliss' second showing is a bit catchier, while still retaining the lush evocations that characterized its predecessor.
6. Miss You / Mickey B. (SEB 223)
Considering this seems to have been made in 2008, it's a wonder to me why Avex didn't pick it up sooner for SEB. Even though I was never a fan of this particular production style at A-Beat C, it turns out to be miraculous effective when applied to this particular track. In addition to reviving minor elements of classic A-Beat C, the melody carries with it a darkly sentimental mood, made all the more prominent by Mickey's glum and coarse vocal performance. It falls under the category of aishu, but it has just enough extra thump that you can feel a pulsating desperation in its delivery. Simply to put, this song is everything that all of Sunfire's female-led productions wish they were. It may have slipped past my radar initially, but it's proven to be a favorite of mine as the months have gone by.
7. Wacky-Wacky-O! / Scream Team (SEB 221)
Like Miss You, Wacky-Wacky-O! was produced several years prior to its official release, in this case, having been made before I even started high school. Also like Miss You, I'm in complete disbelief that Avex deliberately ignored the song for such a long time. It brings back all of Scream Team's marked horror-themed campiness but also twists the formula up a bit, making it more than just a disposable Halloween tune. It sounds far more gleeful than menacing, but even with a more light-hearted feel, the sporadic touches of eeriness make it no less ghostly than the act's more straightforward works.
8. Loving Eurobeat / Dejo & Bon (SEB 221)
Falling only marginally behind the stellar Boys Gone Wild, this spiritual successor to classic Sinclaire anthems like No One Sleep in Tokyo and Max Power further articulates that male-led speed romps are of second nature to the label. With thumping production, adventurous melodies, and a grinding synthline, this song truly is classic and progressive at the same time.
9. Hurry Hurry Hurry / Mela (SEB 226)
With Asia Records having mostly degenerated into a zombified shadow of its former self, this was truly a breath of fresh air after a long slew of mediocre productions. While Baby Tonight is also pretty good, it’s this song that fully recalls the label’s propensity for being innovatively cheesy. While other recent songs with Castellari at the helm sound like uninspired knockoffs of western pop, Hurry Hurry Hurry truly lives and breathes eurobeat from top to bottom. It’s because of this song alone that I still have faith in Asia’s capacity for greatness. Now, if only Mauro could make a worthwhile comeback…
10. I’m Your Sexy Machine / Hotblade (SEB 228)
While Hotblade will surely be hard-pressed to ever top his masterpieces from the previous decade, this track proves that he’s still one of the most relevant voices in the industry. The track has the same unrestrained musical style as The Element of Fire and is similarly consolidated by explosive production and clawing vocals. The verses also benefit from some particularly evocative lyrics, generally a rarity in fast-paced dance music. It may not be quite as flawlessly crafted as the top choices on this list, but it’s still a definite winner.
Honorable Mentions:
Higher Higher More and More / Bliss (SEB 224)
One Love One Love / Boris (SEB 228)
Sunlight / Kaioh (SEB 222)
Dreamers / Paul Harris (SEB 224)
Bottom 10:
1. Welcome to the Show / Tanith & Dark Evil (SEB 223)
I don’t have any dislike for hyper techno in general, but this track just leaves me really cold. Ennio has proven before that he can be a natural at rapping, as proven by Rok-Matic’s Shout and my top 10 pick Hot Hot Racin’ Car, but here, all of that potential is wasted on an incoherent trainwreck of a song. The raps themselves suffer from rather clunky flow, and the melody returns by Linda are cornily repetitive. Even the production comes off as extremely flat, with a dull synth hook and improper development. The fact that this was voted the best song on SEB 223 just completely boggles my mind. Just because it experiments with genres less familiar to the SEB series does not mean it succeeds in any way.
2. Learning Love / Oceania (SEB 228)
Futura/Oceania never mustered anything beyond the average, but on this track, all of her usual blemishes reach a whole new level of shoddiness. Just about everything goes wrong on this track, from the underpowered production, to the unguided synthline, to the off-pitch and frail vocals, marred further by needless use of pitching; and to the hokey musical structure. It’s not quite as much of a killjoy as the Tanith & Dark Evil catastrophe, but it’s still a raucous mess that I certainly have no desire to listen to again.
3. Hot Like a Fire / Remy Panther (SEB 229)
After SEB 227, I was mildly excited about Malvicino’s introduction as the first new male HRG vocalist in nearly a decade, but unfortunately, songs like this almost make me nostalgic for Nick Festari again, as overexposed as he became. To be fair though, the problem here is mostly the song itself, as it’s about as non-thoughtful as you can possibly get with eurobeat. The entire production sounds like it was handled by someone who had absolutely no musical background but was somehow able to hijack the HRG studio in order to come up with it while the usual crew was out for the night. The melodies and lyrics alike are not only riddled with derivative qualities left and right, but also so incoherent that it feels like there was absolutely no theme or direction in conceiving them. As a vocalist, Malvicino has sort of an unrefined charm on I Wanna Run to You and Too Tan, but on something as colorless as this, he sounds horrifically incompetent. It’s schlock like this that gives eurobeat a bad reputation.
4. Tonight in Paradise / Belight (SEB 223)
Here’s how NOT to handle bubblegum eurobeat. All of the chaotic craziness that made Kiki & Kika/Fancy and some of newer Christine so much fun is absent. What we get instead is an underproduced reject tune for Playhouse Disney, complete with an ugly descending chord progression, saccharine vocals, and a painfully simplistic melody. You’d be better off listening to your uncle chant Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe than settling for this.
5. Boom Boom Boom / UltraViolet (SEB 229)
UltraViolet’s first three tracks are among the less forgettable creations to come out of Dima Music Studios over the past several albums, but the label’s perishing creativity finally catches up with the artist completely here. There seems to be absolutely no heart channeled into this failed fusion of bubblegum pop and anime music. The vocalist’s delivery seems incredibly half-assed, and the melody feels like a tired mish-mash of what seem like ideas that would constitute a massive hit but aren’t execute with attention to detail. Maybe if the presentation was improved, this would’ve been a decent song (the chorus is sort of similar to Vicky Vale’s more colorful One Two Three (To the Moon and Back) from SEB 89), but as it turned out, it just goes to prove how rusty a once towering label has gotten as of late.
6. Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Tonight / Annalise (SEB 222)
This is another song that sounds like it was written by somebody who doesn’t quite understand music theory. While not quite as rehashed as Hot Like a Fire or unpleasantly shrill as Learning Love, the track still feels utterly lost in its direction. The melody sounds like the type of thing you’d hear your three-year-old niece randomly improvise, with pretty much no sense of development or purpose.
7. Gimme Love / Norma Sheffield (SEB 222)
Believe it or not, Norma’s appearances on SEB 224 and SEB 226 aren’t half-bad. This, on the other hand, is soppy garbage. The vocals are as underwhelming as ever, and the production offers nothing in the way of inspiration.
8. Whenever I Dream On / Tipsy & Tipsy (SEB 227)
Ah yes, this is Saifam at its absolute worst. In comparison to something awesome like Bandolero or the aforementioned Hurry Hurry Hurry, this song has the same cheery incentives but none of the spark that makes it identifiable. What we’re left with is pretty much what would probably happen if the Disney Channel’s next upcoming female star made her music crossover in the eurobeat industry.
9. Bad Girl / Domino (SEB 226)
I’ve gradually come to realize over the years that Domino isn’t actually my favorite artist, but I never expected any of her newer material to be this bad, either. Much like Boom Boom Boom, this comes off as an incredibly half-assed attempt at eurobeat cheese. The melody is practically nonexistent and the synths are much too thin for my liking. The verse feels like a rush job, while the chorus treads by without any kind of memorable hook. This track has the same playfulness as Domino’s classics like Stop and Euroboy but is otherwise a completely soulless production.
10. Bad Joy / Tora (SEB 222)
It seems that Andrea Leonardi’s female-guided productions are the yin to his male tracks’ yang. With the exception of Prayer and Walking Alone in London, all of SinclaireStyle’s female-led works from the 220’s are unimpressive at best, and this is probably the blandest of all of them. The production is as effervescent as Loving Eurobeat, but the melody is extremely hollow and the vocals are drowned out by an overuse of enhancers. It all amounts to a track that’s stiff, robotic, and ultimately lifeless.
Dishonorable Mentions:
I Just Wanna Stay with You / Dream Fighters (SEB 225)
Wild Boys / Rich Hard (SEB 221)
Liar / David Dima (SEB 228)
Get Somebody to Love Him / Wildside (SEB 228)
Top 10:
1. Boys Gone Wild / Dejo (SEB 221)
Although not delivering much with his female vocalists, Andrea Leonardi has been on a complete roll with his male-led entries since his comeback six years ago, and this is easily one of his freshest productions to date. The infectiously innovative synth melody alone is enough to cement this track's classic status, but the song structure does an expert job of juxtaposing a mildly dark minor chord progression with a jubilantly eclectic major chorus. Other fine touches include the "come on come ons" during the synth reprises, the smashing intro, and the offbeat synth bursts that add brief flairs of surprise during the otherwise straightforward verses. While Let's Go Wild! is probably SinclaireStyle's best track in recent history, this is his definite crowning achievement of the 220's decade.
2. Hot Hot Racin' Car / Go 2 (SEB 225)
Although I was a devoted Go 2 fan back when I first got into eurobeat, the majority of their songs songs have since sunken to okay status in favor of more nuanced productions. Thus, it's all the more ironic that their sole track this decade landed so high up in my top 10. Without the doubt, this is the best original song the duo has ever recorded (since Blood on Fire is a cover). During their middle years, this act began compromising its musical merits in favor of a more guitar-driven and raucous style, but this track sees them finally recapture that element of raw eurobeat which drew so much attention to them in the first place. With a razor-sharp chorus, crisply complex synth, and knot-tight production, this song is a staple of modern SCP eurobeat. Special mention also goes to Ennio's flamboyant rap, which makes his performance seem all the more ingrained within the flashy tune itself.
3. The Element of Fire / Fastway (SEB 224)
While Fastway's newer performances have been more on-and-off than they were in the past, this superb track proves that his aptitude for excitement is still far from extinct, even more than a decade and a half since joining SCP. Although I originally picked this song off for trying too many things at once and being too unfocused, it gradually pieced itself together for me overtime. The borderline freeform melodic structure gives this track a feeling of limitlessness, something that usually can't be said for the eurobeat genre in general. Even with its heavily layered progression, however, the pounding production and solid vocal delivery manage to hold the complicated structure firmly together. While Fastway's other three tracks from this decade are basically modest degradations of his older classics, this song undertakes a direction that truly makes it stand out in its own right.
4. The Jungle is on Fire / J-Stark (SEB 226)
Delta may lack its giant repertoire of writers and producers from before, but that's hardly shown to damage the quality of its releases, and this is a prime example of why. After a particularly attention-gripping intro, this song launches into full-blown electronic intensity. The track harbors some of the most dexterous synthwork to come from any eurobeat label in several years, spitting hundreds of notes per minute, yet with not one disrupting its acrobatic sense of focus. The off-kilter chord progression allows for Capaldi to experiment freely with offset synths, making for a superbly polished production that's still enticing even during the later breakdown sections. Top the phenomenal production off with Luca's fierce, versatile vocal layers, and you have a masterpiece that continues to intrigue me several plays later.
5. An Angel Right to Me / Bliss (SEB 226)
Bliss is one of SEB's only remaining titles whose tracks wouldn't seem in-place anytime earlier than the present day, and this song encapsulates all of those forward-thinking elements into one perfect package. The act's signature thick use of auto-tune produces a cybernetic feel, which is brought to life by its floaty, gleaming melodic atmosphere. Even though Higher Higher More and More is also excellent and probably a little more innovative, Bliss' second showing is a bit catchier, while still retaining the lush evocations that characterized its predecessor.
6. Miss You / Mickey B. (SEB 223)
Considering this seems to have been made in 2008, it's a wonder to me why Avex didn't pick it up sooner for SEB. Even though I was never a fan of this particular production style at A-Beat C, it turns out to be miraculous effective when applied to this particular track. In addition to reviving minor elements of classic A-Beat C, the melody carries with it a darkly sentimental mood, made all the more prominent by Mickey's glum and coarse vocal performance. It falls under the category of aishu, but it has just enough extra thump that you can feel a pulsating desperation in its delivery. Simply to put, this song is everything that all of Sunfire's female-led productions wish they were. It may have slipped past my radar initially, but it's proven to be a favorite of mine as the months have gone by.
7. Wacky-Wacky-O! / Scream Team (SEB 221)
Like Miss You, Wacky-Wacky-O! was produced several years prior to its official release, in this case, having been made before I even started high school. Also like Miss You, I'm in complete disbelief that Avex deliberately ignored the song for such a long time. It brings back all of Scream Team's marked horror-themed campiness but also twists the formula up a bit, making it more than just a disposable Halloween tune. It sounds far more gleeful than menacing, but even with a more light-hearted feel, the sporadic touches of eeriness make it no less ghostly than the act's more straightforward works.
8. Loving Eurobeat / Dejo & Bon (SEB 221)
Falling only marginally behind the stellar Boys Gone Wild, this spiritual successor to classic Sinclaire anthems like No One Sleep in Tokyo and Max Power further articulates that male-led speed romps are of second nature to the label. With thumping production, adventurous melodies, and a grinding synthline, this song truly is classic and progressive at the same time.
9. Hurry Hurry Hurry / Mela (SEB 226)
With Asia Records having mostly degenerated into a zombified shadow of its former self, this was truly a breath of fresh air after a long slew of mediocre productions. While Baby Tonight is also pretty good, it’s this song that fully recalls the label’s propensity for being innovatively cheesy. While other recent songs with Castellari at the helm sound like uninspired knockoffs of western pop, Hurry Hurry Hurry truly lives and breathes eurobeat from top to bottom. It’s because of this song alone that I still have faith in Asia’s capacity for greatness. Now, if only Mauro could make a worthwhile comeback…
10. I’m Your Sexy Machine / Hotblade (SEB 228)
While Hotblade will surely be hard-pressed to ever top his masterpieces from the previous decade, this track proves that he’s still one of the most relevant voices in the industry. The track has the same unrestrained musical style as The Element of Fire and is similarly consolidated by explosive production and clawing vocals. The verses also benefit from some particularly evocative lyrics, generally a rarity in fast-paced dance music. It may not be quite as flawlessly crafted as the top choices on this list, but it’s still a definite winner.
Honorable Mentions:
Higher Higher More and More / Bliss (SEB 224)
One Love One Love / Boris (SEB 228)
Sunlight / Kaioh (SEB 222)
Dreamers / Paul Harris (SEB 224)
Bottom 10:
1. Welcome to the Show / Tanith & Dark Evil (SEB 223)
I don’t have any dislike for hyper techno in general, but this track just leaves me really cold. Ennio has proven before that he can be a natural at rapping, as proven by Rok-Matic’s Shout and my top 10 pick Hot Hot Racin’ Car, but here, all of that potential is wasted on an incoherent trainwreck of a song. The raps themselves suffer from rather clunky flow, and the melody returns by Linda are cornily repetitive. Even the production comes off as extremely flat, with a dull synth hook and improper development. The fact that this was voted the best song on SEB 223 just completely boggles my mind. Just because it experiments with genres less familiar to the SEB series does not mean it succeeds in any way.
2. Learning Love / Oceania (SEB 228)
Futura/Oceania never mustered anything beyond the average, but on this track, all of her usual blemishes reach a whole new level of shoddiness. Just about everything goes wrong on this track, from the underpowered production, to the unguided synthline, to the off-pitch and frail vocals, marred further by needless use of pitching; and to the hokey musical structure. It’s not quite as much of a killjoy as the Tanith & Dark Evil catastrophe, but it’s still a raucous mess that I certainly have no desire to listen to again.
3. Hot Like a Fire / Remy Panther (SEB 229)
After SEB 227, I was mildly excited about Malvicino’s introduction as the first new male HRG vocalist in nearly a decade, but unfortunately, songs like this almost make me nostalgic for Nick Festari again, as overexposed as he became. To be fair though, the problem here is mostly the song itself, as it’s about as non-thoughtful as you can possibly get with eurobeat. The entire production sounds like it was handled by someone who had absolutely no musical background but was somehow able to hijack the HRG studio in order to come up with it while the usual crew was out for the night. The melodies and lyrics alike are not only riddled with derivative qualities left and right, but also so incoherent that it feels like there was absolutely no theme or direction in conceiving them. As a vocalist, Malvicino has sort of an unrefined charm on I Wanna Run to You and Too Tan, but on something as colorless as this, he sounds horrifically incompetent. It’s schlock like this that gives eurobeat a bad reputation.
4. Tonight in Paradise / Belight (SEB 223)
Here’s how NOT to handle bubblegum eurobeat. All of the chaotic craziness that made Kiki & Kika/Fancy and some of newer Christine so much fun is absent. What we get instead is an underproduced reject tune for Playhouse Disney, complete with an ugly descending chord progression, saccharine vocals, and a painfully simplistic melody. You’d be better off listening to your uncle chant Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe than settling for this.
5. Boom Boom Boom / UltraViolet (SEB 229)
UltraViolet’s first three tracks are among the less forgettable creations to come out of Dima Music Studios over the past several albums, but the label’s perishing creativity finally catches up with the artist completely here. There seems to be absolutely no heart channeled into this failed fusion of bubblegum pop and anime music. The vocalist’s delivery seems incredibly half-assed, and the melody feels like a tired mish-mash of what seem like ideas that would constitute a massive hit but aren’t execute with attention to detail. Maybe if the presentation was improved, this would’ve been a decent song (the chorus is sort of similar to Vicky Vale’s more colorful One Two Three (To the Moon and Back) from SEB 89), but as it turned out, it just goes to prove how rusty a once towering label has gotten as of late.
6. Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Tonight / Annalise (SEB 222)
This is another song that sounds like it was written by somebody who doesn’t quite understand music theory. While not quite as rehashed as Hot Like a Fire or unpleasantly shrill as Learning Love, the track still feels utterly lost in its direction. The melody sounds like the type of thing you’d hear your three-year-old niece randomly improvise, with pretty much no sense of development or purpose.
7. Gimme Love / Norma Sheffield (SEB 222)
Believe it or not, Norma’s appearances on SEB 224 and SEB 226 aren’t half-bad. This, on the other hand, is soppy garbage. The vocals are as underwhelming as ever, and the production offers nothing in the way of inspiration.
8. Whenever I Dream On / Tipsy & Tipsy (SEB 227)
Ah yes, this is Saifam at its absolute worst. In comparison to something awesome like Bandolero or the aforementioned Hurry Hurry Hurry, this song has the same cheery incentives but none of the spark that makes it identifiable. What we’re left with is pretty much what would probably happen if the Disney Channel’s next upcoming female star made her music crossover in the eurobeat industry.
9. Bad Girl / Domino (SEB 226)
I’ve gradually come to realize over the years that Domino isn’t actually my favorite artist, but I never expected any of her newer material to be this bad, either. Much like Boom Boom Boom, this comes off as an incredibly half-assed attempt at eurobeat cheese. The melody is practically nonexistent and the synths are much too thin for my liking. The verse feels like a rush job, while the chorus treads by without any kind of memorable hook. This track has the same playfulness as Domino’s classics like Stop and Euroboy but is otherwise a completely soulless production.
10. Bad Joy / Tora (SEB 222)
It seems that Andrea Leonardi’s female-guided productions are the yin to his male tracks’ yang. With the exception of Prayer and Walking Alone in London, all of SinclaireStyle’s female-led works from the 220’s are unimpressive at best, and this is probably the blandest of all of them. The production is as effervescent as Loving Eurobeat, but the melody is extremely hollow and the vocals are drowned out by an overuse of enhancers. It all amounts to a track that’s stiff, robotic, and ultimately lifeless.
Dishonorable Mentions:
I Just Wanna Stay with You / Dream Fighters (SEB 225)
Wild Boys / Rich Hard (SEB 221)
Liar / David Dima (SEB 228)
Get Somebody to Love Him / Wildside (SEB 228)