Super Eurobeat 166

1.Fastway - Shock Out (SCP)
Ennio Zanini is back with a great album opener for 166. Shock Out starts out with a really special kind of intro that suits the album opener perfectly. The track is pure energy and especially the vocals make the song shine through due to all of the hooks. Impressive presentation in this land of mediocore eurobeat.
Rating : 10

2.Alvin - Domino (Boom Boom Beat/Asia)
The pace doesn't slow down at all when 3B takes charge with Domino. A typical kind of intro bursts into energy and starts pushing forward with energy like from the good old years. The bass-based background keeps flowing forwards with the vocals creating extra edge to the song. A great chorus that sums up the highpoints of the song. Another good song to carry on with the album.
Rating : 9

3.Candy Taylor - Destiny (Delta)
After the rollercoaster ups and downs Delta has been presenting lately I have sort of come to the conclusion that I won't have any kind of expectations for the songs anymore. Destiny starts out as rather boring with a typical synth and the generic sounds over all, but after a few times I had listened to it, it started to unravel a bit. The song has a nice soundworld which is what saves it from total doom, it's a pity the vocals can't really add much spice to it as Clara sounds rather bored when she's singing the chorus.
Rating : 7+

4.Brian Ice - Take Care Of My Heart (A-Beat C)
Welcome Eurobeat Disney! For some reason Brian Ice got stuck in the years just after the millennium. I was visioning a "Hakuna Matata" shout incoming any moment when I was listening to this song, sadly it never came as it would've probably made the song a bit better. The pop type of eurobeat rarely appealed to me and this song just can't really do much to make me like it. A boring pop-eurobeat track with practically nothing special about it.
Rating : 5+

5.Symbol - Forever Love Me (Time)
Symbol is practically the only Time title that has lately made me really interested everytime it appeared. The last few songs we heard from him were catchy and pleased many of us eurobeat fans, so Forever Love Me had a big space to fill. The song features kind of contradictional sides to it. The energetic and variable sounds and c-verse work magnificently, but at the other end the verses and chorus sound completely boring. With the bad and good sides, I guess the middle line will be drawn in mediocore. Well that's also the kind of feeling I was left with after listening to the song over and over. Not bad, but definitely not memorable.
Rating : 7+

6.Kelly T. - I Need Somebody To Love (A-Beat C)
Seems A-Beat C has yet an another new face to offer to the eurobeat audience. The vocalist has a rather japanese accent (or at least sounds like that to me), but then again she also sounds rather italian. Might be just me visioning what this singer is like in the end. Well either way, Kelly T. reminds me of Nuage on multiple levels as the song has a similar style and on top of it the voices are somewhat similar. I Need Somebody To Love is a good debut for this girl as the song is catchy and over all well produced with a few nice gimmicks here and there. Was I the only one who thought when she starts singing "Only for a while" that she would get ready to say "Konnichiwa"?
Rating : 8+

7.Valery Scott - Now And Forever (Boom Boom Beat/Asia)
Nice to get some female action from 3B for a change and as Valery Scott has presented us with a few great hits in the past so I had some hopes for this song as well. The song starts with a nice intro but then turns into quite a bland verse that seems to go on without any single highlight or low point. I didn't originally even notice when the chorus began as there was hardly a very significant change in the song and suddenly the c-melody started playing leaving me boggled about the situation. A very very boring song with nothing other than the c-melody to set apart the verses and chorus.
Rating : 5

8.Mark Gillan - Love Is Like A Fight (Time)
Boring.
Rating : 5+

9.Mel Rose - Burning Highway (A-Beat C)
For some reason I was expecting this song to be an SCP production when I saw it originally (Mel & Kim probably being the reason), but was surprised to see yet an another new A-Beat C girl. The song is typical to the Mickey B., Karen & Nuage line up with a medium pace and rather light sounds that don't really do much justice to the song. Compared to the other newcomer Mel Rose is clearly left behind with this song, nothing exactly bad, but it just ain't very catchy nor special.
Rating : 7

10.Lou Lou Marina - Who's Making Love (HI-NRG Attack)
Wow what a brilliant intro, the name with Marina in it, plus the undersea athmosphere made this song seem just perfect for the title. The start is sadly a clear highlight for the song, but at least it's 30 seconds of excellence from HI-NRG Attack. Fortunately the chorus follows the line of the brilliant intro, that just excludes the verses that can't reach the level of the rest of the song. Even with the boring verses I really enjoyed this song and was left with a rather happy feeling due to the great chorus and especially intro.
Rating : 8½

11.Melissa White - Lay Your Love On Me(SCP)
She's back, but can she offer same kind of arsenal as she did the last time? The intro is a good way to answer the question: No. Melissa sadly falls into the level of the generic eurobeat artist with very common production values and not a very catchy song. Vocals sound nice and the chorus ain't all that bad, but those just won't help enough.
Rating : 7

12.Neo - King Of Chinatown (A-Beat C)
Well Neo fortunately ain't yet falling into the club of mediocore acts as King Of Chinatown is pure energy and action. The title already suggested a unique song and that's exactly what we got. A-Beat C has managed to create yet an another catchy male song for us with the vocals being the biggest hook and especially the intro and c-verse are bloody marvellous. A highlight for this album.
Rating : 10-

13.Baby Gold - The Night Is Party (HI-NRG Attack)
The 2 HI-NRG Attack songs on this album show us with a very different kind of side of the label than we've gotten used to. The tracks follow the typical production line, but they also offer much more variety than they usually do which is really nice to see. The extra guitars in this song feel slightly weird as we've mostly gotten used to hearing them in the masculine kind of eurobeat, but none the less they seem to add this song a nice uniqueness to it. Happy song that won't live for long, but every once in a while it works pretty nicely.
Rating : 8

14.Leila - Stop Loving You (Delta)
Clara is back again with the same broken record playing. A typical production, typical vocals, not much to say. I might add that all these clones are making me sad looking at how Delta is experiencing a similar fate as Time did years back (or at least it seems like it).
Rating : 5

15.Sara - Summer, Spring And Fall (Time)
Wow yet an another brilliant intro on this album, the start made me think of hot summer days, sitting in the shade and reading a book. The track has a very similar tone to it, plus the repeation of the seasons seems to work nicely and the song title is at least unique. The track uses the plain common sounds you can expect from Time but those combined with a nice melody and vocals creates a very peaceful athmosphere and the vision of sitting in the shade enjoying the summer heat is strongly present. Nothing ground breaking but a nice fuzzy feeling this song creates for me.
Rating : 8-

16.Cherry - Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) (Delta)
It has been quite a while that I've been complaining how Cherry has been getting the crappy songs, so for a change they break the pattern and present us with an effective cover from Cher. The efficient melody backed up with eurobeat beats and Clara Moroni's strong make a powerful combination as this song shines out as one of the better songs on the album. Great use of different sounds and especially the semi-instrumental part in the middle part of the song sounds great.
Rating : 9-

17.Lupin - Black U.F.O. (Boom Boom Beat/Asia)
More 3B and this time a step back up. The song had been praised by many before I heard it, so I was expecting something exceptional. I may be overly critical but the song itself wasn't anything special, I did enjoy it and especially the chorus is irresistible, but the production just seems rather boring and doesn't offer much variety. A catchy song that will surely loop in my player for ages, but could always get better.
Rating : 9+

18.Dave Rodgers Feat. Kiko Loureiro - Ring Of Fire (A-Beat C)
More guitars, fast paced melodies and Kiko Loureiro! Can it go wrong, honestly? I knew from the moment I saw the title that this would be a hit, and at least to me it worked very efficiently. The song features some heavy sounds compared to generic eurobeat which is a good change plus Dave's aggressive vocals suit the song just perfectly. Catchy song and a good closing song for yet another volume of Super Eurobeat.
Rating : 9

Final Words :
After the slightly disappointing 164 and the nonstop 165, 166 brought us back to what is the typical level of SEB. The songs had quite a lot of range from excellent to boring with the weight being on the better end for a change. Over all this album held quite a few great tracks that kept me coming back to the album which made me enjoy the album a lot. The few lowpoints didn't really bother me as much as they did with 164 so the album got a slightly better average even though in reality it was lower than 164. As quite a few people have been writing in reviews to the forum with the extra field of "Best" and Worst" songs and with the "Honorable mention", I decided to start doing this as I thought this was quite a nice feature. Also a thank you through here to all of the active forum users that have been keeping the show running there <3.

Final Score : 7½

The Best 3 Songs

- Fastway - Shock Out
- Neo - King Of Chinatown
- Lupin - Black U.F.O.

The Worst 3 songs

- Valery Scott - Now And Forever
- Leila - Stop Loving You
- Mark Gillan - Love Is Like A Fight

Honorable Mention

- Lou Lou Marina - Who's Making Love

Reviewed by Bore