Justican's SEB 208 Review
1.TELL ME WHY - RICH HARD
Pirates was a nice suprise, for a album with alot of heavy music, it
was a lovely break to have a speedy but low toned song. This time, the
whole album is about to follow suit and its an excellent song to start
off the album. A varied and addictive synthed followed by flowing yet
hard hitting vocals steam this song very well. It goes on spledidly
towards a memorial chorus which, unforunatly, the overused virbration
effect that could of been used more effectivly by only used once or twice
in the song. Some improvements could of been made but as it is, very
listenable and harmonious.
Review Score: 8.5
My Score: 8.5
2.JUNGLE OF FIRE - LAURA VOX
Said by many to be the highlight of the album, Jungle of Fire fits to
to almost everything great about Super Eurobeat, but of course, that
means its all been done before. A new vocalist does give it that
feeling that it is a fresh tune even if the synth and lyrics do fit
into the previous formula. There no part of the song I can find fault,
its addictive and very heart-felt, although it seems it should be a
faster song, its good to show that lowering the harsh tones of
previous SEB formulas can still make a great song.
Review Score: 9
My Score: 8.5
3.INVISIBLE TOUCH - FASTWAY
Rock Beatin' Wild seemed to be very Fastway, but just didn't seem
right. Fastway has got rid of any snazzy fancy features and made
another rock solid Fastway formula that definatly fits the bill. Alot
have mensioned about it being a little weaker then previous songs and
the instrument do show this, but the full energy of Fastway is still
there. It gets quite close to be compared to the highlife of Fastway
back in Euromach and is a very good contender for the better songs on
this album.
Review Score: 9
My Score: 9.5
4.AWAKE - STEPHY
Stephy is an artist that has made so many tunes that rank so highly
over her SEB history because of her own style of singing and epic Euro
synths. However in this song, her style is not apparant at all and
instead went for the style heard best in early 2000 eurobeat, which is
a good decade for her type of eurobeat but, sadly, makes this songs
the weaker she has done in a long while. But the song is not bad in
anyway, its very solid and harmonious, it seems its DIMA that has done
all the work into that and her voice makes the song run instead of her
usual vocal talents taking the song to a new level.
Review Score: 8
My Score: 7
5.QUEEN OF HEART - CORRADO
Like Awake, Queen of Heart sounds quite familier to previous eurobeat,
in fact sounds, very much like a male version of Leslie Parrish. I
tend to like the majority of Leslie Parrish's music for there dark
mystery and this song has alot of it. It has a very good balance of
happyness and sadness in the song, making it very appropiate for the
"love and sweets"/Aishu style and another song that undoubtly solid
thoughout.
Review Score: 8.5
My Score: 8
6.CRAZY - DAVID DIMA
I find this song to be quite crazy, mainly due to the large amout of
80's rock musical references to it. Due to this strange formula, its
undoubtly catchy and addictive, making it a great tune to sing to.
However, that also what stops it from making it a perfect song, with
all these references, seems a bit cheesy and hap-hazard. Definatly a
fun song and its a good thing it dosent go over the top like "All is
magic".
Review Score: 8.5
My Score: 9
7.THE MAGIC OF SUNSHINE - CIAO CIAO
The two ultimate things you can do in Eurobeat is to make a song very
catchy and to make a song unique. This song conqures suprising does
both, even if it does lend heavily off the SAW formula, it still pull
the unique sound off. I gather its thanks to the success of "Hard to
say im Sorry" and the not so popular practicing from slow, female-
based NRG songs back though that last 10 years, this song is pulled
off spectaculary.
Review Score: 9.5
My Score: 10
8.PRETTY WOMAN - FRANCIS COOPER
This is the marmite of the album, you either love it to peices or hate
it to death. You may of previous heard Francis back in Euroflash days,
and if so, his songs where deep, fast and emotional. Again with Hi-NRG
songs, changing the fast to slow (-ish, its still fast compared to
ordinary songs), the songs still keep the solid sounds of the previous
3 decades. Im not sure why Pretty Woman sounds like it has never been
done before even, even if it sounds typical for a slow 80's euro song.
I adore this song to death, it may even reach my top 10 SEB songs of
all time. The song is perfect, very harmonious, addictive and
emotional, the only thing that I could change is the effects that
should of been left to "The Magic of sunshine" and the obvious synth
dedication to Roy Orbisons classic tune.
Review Score: 9.5
My Score: 10+
9.NEVER GONNA MAKE - RADIORAMA
When I first saw this song, Dance Dance Revolution came straight to my
head and I would think it wouldent be the same song, but it was. Like
many people, downloading stepmania and as much offical DDR simfiles as
you could, you where bound to play this song from DDR 4th Mix. The
original was a very solid eurobeat tune from Factory Team, this
version does retain the solid qualitys though speed it up along with a
decent synth hook. This song bring out the 90's eurodance spirit and
make is such a good tune to sing and dance to. The remix is varied and
rythamically sound so its a tad more intense the original, but none of
it lets down what I expected in the song. Shame it does sounds a bit
dated.
Review Score: 8.5
My Score: 8.5
10.MEMORIES OF YOU - ORLANDO
A new artist, usual there a yawnfest as they just borrow a style from
a previous artist but it just falls short. Although Corrado did imiate
one, he pulled though as a contender to that artist, Orlando songs are
simliar to Kasanova, but actually exceeds the quality previously heard
by that artist. Orlando' style is definatly a suprising twist to a
previous style and it works out very successfully. The song is full of
emotion and spirit, along is increased with the driving chorus and
synth. Not to best song to sing to but the lyrics are beutifully
placed and easy to sway to. There needs to be more into the lyrics to
make this an epic song, perhaps theres always next time.
Review Score: 9.5
My Score: 10
11.EYES OF SKY - VIVI
Since she has thrown the "Me, Myself and I" style away and adopted
the cutsy, warm hearted eurobeat style, her songs sound gracious and
pleasent. This song follows suit and this is a very solid song
following her previous formula so well. Not over the top like
Christine, the song is very soothing and happy, making the song
relaxing. It a little too typical though, but it fits in the album
very well as this type of song isnt covered yet, its a very welcome,
plesent song to hear.
Review Score: 8
My Score: 8.5
12.MIND GAMES - DREAM FIGHTERS
A very retro 80's intro sounds very promising, unfortunatly it ends
and Dima kicks in the Europanic style synth. Its a shame really, ive
heard a tonne of this style of music that this song sounds the most
un-interesting of Dream Fighters for the 200's. It suffers with
similar problems as Awake, though the problem of having this vocalist
means the song isnt carryed with the same grace as awake. Those who
hardly hear Europanic style songs should like it, to me its quite a
tired and typical song even if its a fairly good through tune.
Review Score: 7.5
My Score: 7.5
13.EZ DO DANCE (Morris Capaldo VS TRF Remix) - TRF
Its a nice suprise to see a songs you have hear so much, then hear
remix's of same song so much, then hear a even newer remisx and still
enjoy it thoughly. The reason I really likes the Survival Dance, there
was enough changes to give it a few good listens and it not get boring
fast. Good synth, retains alot of the original charm and captures the
best of High paced NRG from SEB. I gather because of its Techno side
it gains this, but the conversion is very good, even if the majority
of the Techno is still very promident. One of the better remixes here
on the 200's.
Review Score: 9
My Score: 9.5
14.MELODY - NAGISA
If you have been listening to J-Euro the last few years, there have
been many songs sung by the fabulous Nagisa which have been original
and memorial. Her singing is usually hidden behind the strong synths
so its good to hear her real voice in this ballade version. This is
one of the most thorough of all the bonus tracks on the 200's, very
melodic, sincere and fluid, it brings out Nagisa vocal talent to make
it all the better. Shame because of Melodys overplay, it seems stale
from the beginning.
Review Score: N/A
My Score: 8.5
RESULT:
I loved the album SEB 194 "love and sweets" and I wouldent of
anticipated another similar alnum, then one comes along and its even
better. There isnt one song on here I havent fully enjoyed and
listened to all of them many times already. I look at the worst three
songs on the album and think "how can they be put there, there all
great songs". Its true though, they are only there because the other
gems shine that everso brighter. I think the best part of the album is
that the diversity of the songs cover so much of the Super Eurobeat
Spectrum. There is Eurobeat from each of the three decades and more,
yet all of them dont need to be fast or hard to become good songs.
With the recent albums being so tempremental and experimental, having
a very solid album that commemorates the previous history of SEB is
making this the second best album of the 200 yet.
Review Score: 113/136.5 - 83%
My Score: 123.5/147 - 84%
Best Songs:
The Magic of Sunshine - Ciao Ciao
Pretty Woman - Francis Cooper
Memorys of You - Orlando
Worst Songs:
Awake -Stephy
Eyes of Sky - ViVi
Mind games - Dream Fighter
