Super Eurobeat 185

1.Kiki & Fancy - Pararappa Dance (SCP)
Well while many might disagree with me on this, but it really is time to have Kiki & Fancy as the album openers. The SCP fun-duo have been releasing new songs steadily since their first SEB appearence back at SEB144. The level of practically every song has been high with just a few notches down from the awesome quality, so it doesn't come as no surprise that Pararappa Dance is yet an another fun faire to please the happy eurobeat boys & girls. Question whether this song had the best kind of intro to be the album opener is a matter of its own though, since I feel the intro doesn't really serve justice to the otherwise effective and catchy song. The track features all of the basic SCP bubbly elements: fast synth, lyrics that are fun to dance to, but make no sense at all, bouncy melody and lots of nonverbal vocals. A nice way to keep the Kiki & Fancy title rolling.
Rating : 9½

2.Franz Tornado & The Bombardier Girls - Bomba (HI-NRG Attack)
Quite truthfully when I see a new Franz Tornado title on an upcoming SEB tracklisting I rarely get my hopes too high, which in a way is amusing since most of the tracks have been big hits for me. Before actually hearing the song, I had zero expectations for the song so it doesn't really come as a surprise that this track really blew me away. While many of the HRG productions are energetic and aggressive, they rarely come at this caliber. The track features really aggressive in-your-face synths that stand out most clearly from the whole song. Masculine and energetic vocals by Federico really do justice to this awesome production as well. If you are a fan of HRG I can't see any point why you wouldn't enjoy this song as I feel it really rises above the masses due to the sheer brilliance in basic production values.
Rating : 10-

3.Kimmy - My Oh My (Delta)
If my expectations were close to non-existant with Bomba, I have to say they were even lower for a Kimmy song, which is fortunate. There have been fairly many mellow eurobeat songs that just don't really work, nor catch my attention in any way, but My Oh My proves that this kind of stuff can be made with good taste and style. The song kicks off with a superb intro that packs punch into a otherwise rather calm song that only speeds up in the c-melo. The chorus of the song sums the whole essence of the song in a simple and effective way: fun. Delta have produced fairly multiple mellow and not so aggressive female tracks in the recent years, but this might just be the first time for quite some time that I was blown away after hearing the song fully for the first time. With this kind of direction for the future Delta productions I'd be more than happy.
Rating : 10

4.De Leo - Funky Lady 2008 (Time)
I've quite enjoyed the original Funky Lady in the past, but with the recent history of bad remakes I didn't really provide much hope for this remake either. The song somehow manages to fuse the best points of the recent remake sounds and the original song's highlights to a rather efficient stew. While the original Gino Caria vocals can't really be replicated, I have to say that Cristian De Leo does a fairly impressive performance this time around. While the brilliance of the original song can't really be reached with the remake it works with its own merits. Speedy melody backed up with very typical Time sounds are pretty much a hit or miss thing for me, but this time around they work and the song flows on nicely. The same yapping about constant remakes apply here none the less, may it be a new Alexis or a Rose song, I'd still more gladly hear them than remakes.
Rating : 8½

5.King & Queen - Go Go Go Baby Go (A-Beat C)
At the 5th song and also the 5th label, the level of the album still remains surprisingly high. Even though the classic King & Queen title has been appearing on SEB a lot lately, the level of the songs has been really high in contrast to most of the other A-Beat C tracks. Go Go Go Baby Go could be thought of as the mental follow up to Go Baby Go, in more than the very obvious reason. The song features a very easy to sing and bouncy chorus that is the key to the whole song. Annerley handles the vocals with such a spark that it's a pleasure hearing her losen it up a bit and enjoy the happier side of eurobeat. Go Go Go Baby Go might not be the most original song title ever, but it fits a happy song that will surely become a Best Of '08 entry due to it being a perfect nonstop song with many of the basic transition parts for nonstops. A very nice way to keep the album going and if A-Beat C just manage to bring a bit more variety and life into this sort of productions I'll be converting back into A-Beat C fanboyism.
Rating : 10-

6.Digital Planet - Take My Desire (A-Beat C)
When the generic eurobeat intro takes approximately 10 seconds, this track uses up nearly 1/4th of the whole song for it, which is fairly bewildering considering the essence and purpose of eurobeat. In a different genre it would probably be a very typical thing, but with eurobeat I have to wonder if this was considered thoroughly. The intro is also the weakest link of the whole show, it's airy, boring and it just goes on for too long. The other parts of the song on othe other hand are rather nicely produced mellow Digital Planet like the past tracks from Stefano have been. The song somehow reeks of Norma to me, which could be considered a bad thing, but for some reason it works for the songs advantage this time around. A good chorus, nice basic melody, it all just needs more meat around the bones to make it really effective.
Rating : 7½

7.Vanessa - Take It Easy (Time)
Yet an another complaint about boring intros, what is it really with this album and tracks featuring really boring and incomprehensible intros? When I was listening to the album for the first time at the background while playing some strategy games I almost gave myself a heart attack after noticing myself humming to this song and going 'what is this, it's good' in my head, before realising that it was a Time female song. The track sounds very plain and generic, but it still works, the reason why, I have no idea. I gave the song multiple repeats and I tried to find that special hook, special part about it that would've made me hum along, but it just wasn't there. Maybe this just means that even generic eurobeat with practically no signs of uniqueness can work well. Oh and One Night In Tokyo, where?
Rating : 8+

8.Kelly T. - Tell Me Why You Say (A-Beat C)
The airiness of Norma is back for vengeance, and it ain't going away it seems. I could say the same thing about bad intros again, what a surprise. The song suffers from a rather typical Norma Sheffield-syndrome as it has various parts that sound really nice and beautiful, but most of the song sinks deeper and deeper into the swamp. The c-melody is truly beautiful and strikes to me as one of the more beautiful ballad-clips from the recent eurobeat songs, it just is a shame when the rest of the song just sounds boring (aside for the parts of the chorus where Kelly sings the actual song title). Too lightly produced, but then again the aishu euro has a fanbase of its own, I'm not one of them.
Rating : 7-

9.Betty Feat. Annalise - The One For Me (A-Beat C)
Intro, sucks, broken record much? So the mandatory Annalise for the album is here again, but what is this? The song is actually quite efficient. The song does not break the formula of the previous Annalise songs, but instead introducing a 2nd vocalist somehow manages to bring a new life for the track. The song has a rather interesting structure since most of the song seems to blend together rather seamlessly and noticing when the bridge ends and chorus starts is fairly hard, quite frankly it feels like it's just one long verse, a pretty nice verse if I may add. Whether the vocalist is the same one from GGM, I won't even try to pinpoint that, I just say that whoever it is, she sounds really good in this duet. Maybe we need to get more Annerley duets. Annalise Feat. A-Beat C All Stars incoming, anyone?
Rating : 8½

10.Pamsy - Emotional Child (SCP)
So it obviously isn't just Annalise who is getting heavy promotion on SEB lately, Pamsy has been a very frequent visitor in our CD-players as well. Her style still hasn't ventured far from the original path since she still seems to do a rather different job than most of the other SCP artists. Emotional Child is yet an another mid-paced eurobeat song with, cloudy synths and over all a trance-flavored mood. Not a master piece like some of her older tracks, but it doesn't really have much bad in it either, it just lacks the actual punch to become as memorable as per say Livin' In The Night, but perhaps a good entry for the next JGTC.
Rating : 8-

11.Dave Rodgers - The V.I.P. Is JP (A-Beat C)
When the original extended version of this song was featured on 178 I immediately fell in love with the old school A-Beat C style and of course Mr. Loureiro's guitars. While many of the other songs Dave has lately performed lately have lacked punch, this track is a whole different chapter. The song features an incredibly catchy melody and the chorus is so fun and easy to sing along to, it just reeks of good old effective Dave. The original extended song worked pretty well and while this song hasn't in reality gotten that many changes, the most disctinctive diffence is adding the shout "Junction Produce!" here and there between the verses, which just feels off place, a lot. I had before realised how the song is some Junction Produce marketing tool naturally, but why add the title here and there is the question, also is Avex somehow tied with JP? I probably could get the answers through Google if I read Japanese, but shrug. Well either way, this is a solid Giancarlo production that is a slice of the golden days of A-Beat C males for me.
Rating : 9½

12.Frank Torpedo - Para Para Night 2008 (Time)
Oh wow, we have YET an another sucky intro, or maybe it's just me. The original song is a true eurobeat classic so remaking it does feel natural and to be quite frank I have to admit they did a bloody good job for a change. The track doesn't really sound all that much like the original and it's mostly a good sound since it mostly feels like a new song all together. The verses sound totally remade but the bridge and chorus naturally sound like the distinctive eurobeat classic. Good vocals, great sounds, nice production values over all, may just be one of the best Time remakes.
Rating : 9½

13.Sara - Baby Fly (Delta)
An annoying "WooooooooOOooo!" to start the song with, the intro otherwise does not suck though. The song has a slice of older Delta á la the songs by Suzy Lazy and the likes in the years before the 3-number SEBs. The track keeps the fast pace up constantly which feels slightly overwhelming if you listen to the song multiple times in a row and I was even slightly hoping for a slightly calmer c-melody to reset the upbeat tempo for a while. The last minute of the song works a whole lot better than the first 3 since it somehow feels much more consistent and effective when they leave key-elements alone for a while and play with variety more than going full out the whole time. Either way the song is rather nice, just needs a bit of some extra spice and voilá, now it's a ***-star meal instead of ***** that I wanted.
Rating : 8

14.Baby Gold - Kiss Me Now (HI-NRG Attack)
For some reason it took me ages to grasp that this isn't a Time song, something about the intro with robotic vocals and a general mellow mood just reek of Time to me. Kiss Me Now has a very heavy Euromach touch to it and I wouldn't be surprised if this song originated back a few years at all. The song has the nice touch of HRG all around, may it be the guitars in the backgrounds, pitched vocals or aggressive melody, basic nice, but not the quality that Bomba offered us.
Rating : 7½

15.Christine - Candy Baby (SCP)
Well, I have to say I am very very pleasantly surprised with the direction Christine suddenly took. She has presented us with beautiful eurobeat ballads, wacky fun euromach material and about everything in between, lately it just felt that maybe her attitude had matured a bit, scrap that obviously. Candy Baby is everything I've been wanting to hear from her for quite a while, it's really upbeat, happy and features some of the most ingenious eurobeat sound effects ever. The track is so amazingly happy it makes me feel all fuzzy inside everytime I hear it, not the least because of the effects that remind me of my youth together with an 8-bit NES. The track is a mental follower to such Christine classics as Crazy Generation & Mr. Nice Guy, the only thing I want to add to this review is that I want to hear more of this! Pure SCP-bliss.
Rating : 10

16.Kasanova - Feel Me Tender (Time)
Every SEB has that one notch down, I was faintly hoping this album might be missing that, but Kasanova to the rescue and not even late. If generic eurobeat could sound good like I stated before, it also can sound like crap. Feel Me Tender sounds like a production that lacked improvision and imagination. The backgrounds feature nice violin (?) sounds that are the only nice spice that strike as appealing to me about the song, the rest just sounds recycled and lifeless. Chorus lacks energy and dedication, it just sounds like it wasn't sung with a real feeling at all.
Rating : 6

17.Cody - Final Destination (Delta)
If we've had some very macho-esque SEBs lately, this album has been slightly underpowered in comparison to some of the previous ones. Cody is one of the manly men who keep the fire burning and with dark-shades on. Final Destination sounds and feels like the kind of Delta I've grown to love during the recent years. The track has nice variety in sounds, it clearly chops off various parts of the song and giving a breather in between so you know what's coming next. Effective vocals, really catchy chorus and great sounds together produce a very efficient yet typical Delta song. Vocal wise there's something about the intro in particular that sounds great and the "WoOOooo" sounds really cool.
Rating : 9½

18.Mega NRG Man Feat. Domino - Back To 80's (Go Go's Music)
So the album is finally wrapping with a duo that has high expectations from practically all eurobeat listeners due to the fact that it combines one of the most well known male vocalists and maybe the most widely known female. I was heavily hyped about this song because of a person who shall remain anonymous for now, so I had my hopes higher than high, did they match, read on. I have mostly loved everything GGM have put out and at first I was declaring that this is the first production I just don't enjoy. My initial reactions were even close to annoyance and the song just lacked the energy, the fun, the feel of every other GGM production, but by time I grew to enjoy it more, but not as much as I would have expected. Vocal work rocks all around, but the song just suffers from a rather boring chorus that should be the key to the whole track. The intro and c-melody on the other hand work brilliantly but slowing the tempo down for the verses and chorus feels like a bad move here, it's all a matter of taste I guess. Either way, in the end I grew to like the song but my opinion is that this sort of a fantastic duo could have produced even better.
Rating : 8½

Final Words :
When I preorder a SEB I mostly always have high expectations for the album, this time around I hadn't given much consideration to what the album even consisted, I just wanted to keep the monthly CD incoming, but I have to say I was fuzzily welcomed by a cheery album. After all the masculine albums I am perfectly at home with this kind of feel good eurobeat that euromach introduced me to. The album moves on the generic SEB level over all, but due to the fact that I'm a huge fan of the female eurobeat with cheery and upbeat production values this album felt like a much better one for me than the actual average says. The SCP girls give a good show all around and King & Queen keep the happy fun rock moving from person to an another, I can only hope this sort of mood goes on since this album was basically my favorite from the 180s so far. Nice job over all by the labels and even the remakes sounded well thought, one actual slump from the general level is definitely an improvement.

Final Score : 8+

The Best 3 songs

- Kimmy - My Oh My
- Christine - Candy Baby
- King & Queen - Go Go Go Baby Go

The Worst 3 Songs

- Kasanova - Feel Me Tender
- Kelly T. - Tell Me Why You Say
- Digital Planet - Take My Desire

Honorable Mention

- Franz Tornado & The Bombardier Girls - Bomba

Labels present on the album:

A-Beat C: 5
Delta: 3
Go Go's Music: 1
HI-NRG Attack: 2
SCP: 3
Time: 4

Reviewed by Bore