The Greatest in the 32nd thread!!
 

Just wanted to kick this thread since it seems BoA is releasing a new best album on 5/30, "The Greatest".

nice!!!

That was unexpected but exciting news! Looking forward to this campaign!

She will do self-covers for 10 weeks starting with AGGRESSIVE (next week?)

I thought she was done with Japan, so this is surprising news

And I'm glad she's innovating and not releasing just a lazy best-of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPvNW_dTkJM

Here's AGGRESSIVE (The Greatest Ver.)

Its not very different tho. I think i don't prefer it over the origial.

Yeah, it's not particularly a reimagined version and for me it didn't improve from the original in anything, sadly :( I was expecting "The Greatest" to be like "Unchained" but I guess I should keep my expectations very low from now on ahahaha

The new version of Aggressive is enjoyable enough although I think I still prefer the original. I'll form a proper opinion on it when I get the album!

^yeah same. It can't be worse since it is basically the same and AGGRESSIVE was always a great song.

I enjoyed Make A Secret and although Dakishimeru doesn't come close to the original (which is hard) this is shaping up to be a solid release so far!

AGGRESSIVE was never a favorite of mine, so maybe that explains it, but I like the new version. It’s more club-driven, moody, thumping, gritty. The original AGGRESSIVE is kind of circus-y. This one is sexy, steady, cool and mature.

The original is one of my favs and I always thought one of her more mature tracks to begin with. I don’t really dig any of the three so far, neither good nor bad - just a different version and I guess I can appreciate that. I wish she would chose lesser known songs tho. Aggressive was a nice surprise.

Dakushineru is my fav single by her. I guess I had higher expectations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp169AiaMBM

コノヨノシルシ／KONOYONOSHIRUSHI (The Greatest Version)

Not bad. Very relaxing. I kind of like it.

That was an unexpected song choice for me but I like it! As you say, it has a relaxing feel. I am enjoying seeing which song will be released each week!

Still deciding which edition I should buy of The Greatest. Every Heart was enjoyable enough. Think I might make a playlist of the original songs to go alongside with it.

after QUINCY which was really good, LOVE LETTER is up next, which was expected.

QUINCY is my favourite so far, making it "disco" really took it to a new level!

LOVE LETTER had a nice grand feel to it.
I‘m still confused about the best-of that will be out soon. Will it just have these 10 tracks + that one new dance tune or will she remake all of the included songs?


She certainly did a better job than Kumi so far tho.

When we'll have covers!

Covers are out, last song will be LISTEN TO MY HEART. Album will have 12 tracks: 10 singles, My Dear and a new song called “the greatest”

I'm surprised they didn't put SUKI da yo, AMOR, I believe and Wishing Well in the package as well, I wonder if she's keeping them for a possible studio album in the future?

And it's nice we're having LISTEN TO MY HEART, I guess it's the first time she's re-recording it? I just wish she picked more unexpected songs though. We got 3 songs from OUTGROW and THE FACE while VALENTI, LOVE & HONESTY and other albums were forgotten ^^'

The album is also very thin for a best of. Feels half assed again.

Surprised there's no Valenti! Finally listened to the new version of Love Letter and it's lovely!

Think I will go for the standard version of the album.

She just re-recorded 10 songs and then recorded a new one. This was never billed as an “all-time best” single collection type of thing. We always knew what we were getting. I don’t get what’s so half-assed about it?

I would classify it as "half-assed" if she picked up to re-record just some obvious songs like NO. 1, VALENTI, JEWEL SONG and Meri Kuri instead.

My only complaint is most of the tracks are very much similar to the originals in terms of vocals. She's singing with her voice from today, but the interpretation is very much close to the original ones, which is pointless to me when we are speaking of a "re-record release". I really wanted to see some matured interpretation for classic songs.

That’s fair. I enjoyed most if not all of the new versions, but I know you’re not the only one who had some problem with them. I guess it’s up to taste. Hopefully the new song will be good!

The arrangements are very cool and sounds fresh, I really enjoyed almost all of them!

I don't see a point in releasing it now since we have all but one track by then. If she wouldn't have pulled the single stunt i would feel different about it. at least she could have put 2-3 extra re-recordings on the album to make it worth it.

To me, it's OK. Even in Japan, physical releases are becoming destined to die-hard fans and collectors more and more, streaming numbers are becoming more relevant to show artists' impact. Releasing songs like that, one by one, boost their numbers and the album will debut with a high number of streams from day 1.

sure thing, but even not physically buying it I would like to have a nicer package.

SMTOWN new video

Its...kinda lame.

Haven't listened to everything but I like it all so far. Just I think the new song sounds more like her Korean style which surprised me. My other surprise is that the actual tracklist isn't announced with the tracks listed in the order they'll actually appear on the album.

It is save to say that the list on the website is the order, with the greatest as the first and my dear as the last.

Where on her website? I've been on the Japanese official website thrice and looked through the news and discography sections and couldn't find the tracklist.

On the info page about the album right above the bonus items.

https://avex.jp/boa/news/detail.php?id=1098353

I appreciated the "No.1" vibes the rooftop scenes were giving me, and the overall production level of the video (which she usually is not lacking in)...but it just fell very flat for me visually and sonically. :(