BENI – Lovebox
June 2, 2010 |
 |
1. Lovebox Intro
2. Yura Yura (ユラユラ)
3. Sign (サイン)
4. Hitomi Tojite (瞳とじて)
5. Gimme Gimme♥ (ギミギミ♥)
6. Girl’s Night feat. JAMOSA
7. a million jewels
8. Kimi Ja Nakya (君じゃなきゃ)
9. bye bye
10. MOVE
11. break the rules
12. he is mine
13. My Friend (マイ・フレンド)
14. Message
15. Zutto Futari de unplugged version (ずっと二人で) |
I’m very behind on these releases! Sorry, guys! Anyways, it’s BENI. She’s been on the LW layout since this album came out. She pretty much needs no introduction at this point in time, and I partially don’t feel like introducing her XD.
Like in Bitter & Sweet, Lovebox has another introduction. The introduction for this album is has a bit of a childish tone to it with the giggling sounds in the background, while the music itself is a very chill, laid-back opening with a nice constant beat. It’s a cute little tune.
The album opens with one of her prereleased tracks, ユラユラ. It has a very typical BENI sound, but it’s still an enjoyable track even if it’s very generic-sounding for it. The song is her usual mid-tempo stuff with a safe melody and enjoyable singing from BENI. Regardless, I still enjoy this track with the constant bass progressions going on in the background of the track, and the fun melody of the song. I quite like the bright, almost “sparkly” arrangement of the song with the piano in the background.
I have a bit of a bias towards Sign since it’s actually available at the karaoke place I usually go to, and I always sing it :P. I had a bit of a indifference to this song when it was first released, but I noted BENI’s improved tone and lovely phrasing at the beginning of this track. Her voice flows really nicely into the verse and she shows a nice control of the lower notes in the verse. I really enjoy the kind of ethereal, repeated piano line in the background of this song. This is entirely a tone piece for BENI, and she performs with a lot of musicality throughout the piece.
瞳とじて is the first new song off the album, and I can’t say that I either like or dislike it. The opening is a little awkward-sounding with the rest of the song as the song itself is very laid-back and smooth, while the opening lines are much more forced and doesn’t really introduce the song very well, although structurally, there’s nothing really wrong with it. The chorus stands out much better within the verses as the transition isn’t quite as unsettling, but I have never really enjoyed the opening of this song. In terms of sound, it’s pretty much the same-old BENI sound. She sounds nice but this particular sound is already getting kind of old.
Coupled with ユラユラ, ギミギミ❤ was the other song and the track I liked a bit better out of the track songs. It has her standard sound with the kind of “sparkly” production with the electronic sounds mixed with bell-like sounds from the percussions. In particular, I enjoy some of the harmonies and the unison singing of her voice in the song. I also enjoy the counting in the verses and BENI’s performance of the song complements the track well.
Although Girl’s Night is another mid-tempo track with the usual electronic stylings, it features another vocalist, JAMOSA. I like how well the dialogue fits into the introduction of the songs. It’s nice to have a song that isn’t as laid-back as this song has a stronger bass line and beats supporting the two singers. BENI sounds her usual self and JAMOSA has an interesting nasally, almost childish quality to her voice which isn’t really that bad but takes a little getting used to especially since it constrasts a lot with BENI’s smoother tone. Despite this, both of them handle the energy of the track well and they build on each others’ voices and neither of them really overpower the other. It’s a nice balance between both their voices although BENI is the better technical singer of the two.
And we’re back to our usual scheduled mid-tempo stuff. a million jewels has a slightly different accompaniment sound in the background and sounds a tinge bit darker because of the sounds they add to background, but the overall feel is still the same as pretty much a lot of the songs on the album so far. BENI’s voice is nice as usual, but doesn’t really have the same kind of energy as it usually does. The vocal end up sounding a bit too bored for my liking and as a result, the song just sounds really dull and flat. Next, please.
Yay, another ballad. 君じゃなきゃ uses strings and piano and lots of typical R&B snapping. BENI’s voice is a lot more subdued than it usually is in this song and sometimes doesn’t really fit into the arrangement as well as it could. As a result, I really don’t feel like this song connects very well with me because of what I feel is a slight disconnect between the way the instrumentals are played and how BENI sings the song. To be quite honest, I’m bored out of my mind.
bye bye is yet another single from BENI. I remember so many BENI fans raving about this song when it first came out, but in the context of this album, it really doesn’t seem to stand out that much for me in terms of its sound. I still enjoy the chorus and how BENI accents the title of the song nicely. Otherwise, the arrangement is pretty much the same old, same old.
Do we actually get something a bit different? MOVE is the more upbeat, aggressive song of the album and has a darker sound with the arrangement and BENI’s slightly more aggressive singing. The arrangement itself feels a bit too subdued at times — it would have been better with a stronger bass and BENI singing a bit less smooth and more accented. As a result, the song sounds a bit too tame for my tastes. I do enjoy parts of the chorus, especially with the plethora of english lines everyone. I think she does okay with the “left side, right side” bit of the lyrics.
I find it hilarious that they set up another different song for this album. break the rules continues with the stronger, more aggressive sound. I actually quite like the stronger percussion beats and synthesizers in this song, especially in the verses where it’s mostly the percussion and BENI’s voice ringing over the accompaniment. The synthesizers and strings get a bit too messy in the chorus, and we get a massive WALL OF SOUND, none of which actually add to the aggressive sound of the song. I’m kind of on the fence on this one.
Seriously, what is that weird noise in the background of the beats in he is mine? Really distracting. Anyways, that aside, the song is another mid-tempo ballad. I quite like the arpeggio piano line that supports the song, and BENI’s subdued singing works this time for this song and builds the more ethereal sound of this song. Some of her phrasing is a bit too linear at times, especially with the choppiness of some of the repeated notes in the melody line which end up a bit too bland. Still, a nice attempt, although the result ends up being a bit more on the bland side.
Although マイ・フレンド is another mid-tempo track, it was nice to get a bit more of an acoustic feel to this song with the guitar and the nice drum accompaniment. This isn’t her usual laid-back stuff, but it has more of a brighter, cheerful feel to it. I particularly like how she sings the “I’ll be there” line. There are a few notes in the chorus which don’t quite hit the right pitch and I particularly find a bit distracting as she kind of half-hits them (and sounding a bit lazy in the process), but otherwise, I quite like the sound of this song.
The final song (not including the bonus track) is Message, a nice piano R&B ballad from BENI. Her phrasing here is much nicer and she makes a better attempt with the dynamics and different nuances of her voice to create a much better musical presentation than she did with 君じゃなきゃ. Overall, I’m really quite pleased with her vocal presentation both sylistically and in terms of her overall tone and sound. The arrangement itself is pretty standard, but what makes this song is the sincerity of BENI’s performance.
ずっと二人で (unplugged version) (the bonus track of the album) was probably the track I was most looking forward to on the album, especially since I’m a bit fan of unplugged and acoustic versions of songs. Unfortunately, the actual result of the song is a bit mixed. I was even a bit shocked at how many people didn’t hear what I heard that I had to double-check with Tsuki to make sure I wasn’t going crazy. Before I get into that, the arrangement of this track stunning. Absolutely stunning. The opening piano and strings just take my heart away and BENI’s tone is absolutely gorgeous and fits so well with the arrangement of the song. Out of the all the songs she’s done on this album so far, BENI’s tone is the best on this album. Now for the thing that urked me so much about this version: BENI’s pitch. The tempo at which BENI is singing just highlights BENI’s shaky pitch throughout this whole track. She basically goes from on-pitch, to flat, to on-pitch, to sharp over and over again and I can really tell she at least trying to keep her voice on pitch in the song. Granted, considering the tempo, it’s rather difficult to keep it in tune all the time, but it’s kind of annoying when she’s in-tune and randomly slides out of tune over and over again.
I can’t say that I liked Lovebox as much as I liked Bitter&Sweet. BENI’s singing ability has improved slightly, especially in terms of her tone throughout some of the songs on the album, but this particular album has far too many similar-sounding mid-tempo R&B tracks, none of which really stood out to me. The upbeat, aggressive tracks were, for the most part, mediocre in my opinion and really it was the ballads that made more of an impression on me this time around, especially with her delivery of both サイン and Message. The album isn’t by any means bad; it just doesn’t really go anywhere new or do anything that much better than what she had on her first album. I still love BENI, but this album never fails to put me to sleep every time I try to listen to it the whole way through. It’s all nice, cute, pleasant, same-sounding and all too safe.

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Message