Featuring many of her most famous Japanese singles, BoA's Best of Soul was released back in 2005 and became the first album in that year to sell over 1 million copies in Japan and is a critical landmark in hearing her musical progression.
BoA's long awaited greatest hits album which features many of most famous Japanese singles was released back in 2005 and became the first album in that year to sell over 1 million copies in Japan. Since then her popularity has gone from strength to strength all over Asia and this album is a critical landmark in hearing her musical progression.
Due to the nature of the album, the track list is somewhat limited by the singles that had been chosen to be released. Although this is not necessarily a bad point, it does lead to a lack of variety in musical styles due to an artist being associated with a particular genre. Sadly, this is the case in Best of Soul. Most of the album takes a pop and R'n'B route with a few ballads scattered throughout, giving the album some much needed "texture".
The album kicks off the upbeat song Listen To My Heart. It can't really be denied that this was a well-chosen opener. It's a good indication of the things to come and has a catchy chorus, almost annoyingly so. This track flows seamlessly into the next, ID; Peace B, possibly one of the highlights of this album. The song is well structured and is different enough, due to its use of samples within the music, to make the start of the album interesting.
Following a few bland mid-tempo R'n'B tracks is the first ballad of the album in the form of Every Heart -Minna no Kimochi-. The song shows off her vocal capacities more than the previous tracks on this album but the song never really takes off in a major way. The chorus is enjoyable and there are some nice moments throughout, but you can't help but feeling that there's something missing.
Valenti gives the album a sudden change of pace and the song as a whole is more cohesive than the previous. Dynamic is added by the use of a latin influenced guitar about two thirds of the way through the song, which could have been used more often. The hightlights of this song are somewhat dampened by the choice of Kiseki as a follower, the song is very similar in tone, if not slower in tempo. The use of synthetics in this track are massively over done and make the track sound cluttered rather than opting for the more symplistic use in Valenti.
The half way point is marked by the very upbeat No.1, having originally been released as a single in 2002 the song has not aged very well unlike some of her other songs. At times the song sounds tacky due to the over use of keyboard effects. The album takes another sudden change with the supringly pleasant ballad Jewel Song, the song is very simplistic and has enough dynamics to stop it becoming boring, which, if the song writer's had been less confident, could have happened very easily.
The album appears to taper off towards the end but rescues itself at the last second with the song LA LA LA Love Song featuring the Japanese hip hop band Soul'd Out. The mid tempo song has one of the vocal highlights of the album with an excellent use of harmonies between BoA and the male vocalists.
Overall, this album is cohesive. Most of the songs are well chosen and well positioned within the album although there are a few moments when the album changes tone too suddenly, which could easily be rectified by changing the order of the track list. Although this is not necessarily a bad selection of her singles there is not enough variety in the tracks to make the album worth listening to repeatedly. Most of the album is forgettable but there are a few stand out tracks that make it worth while.
