Purchased: Hahaha. Acquired just under a month ago.
First Thoughts: This was the first K-pop thing I ever downloaded. The kind of sad thing is I think it's actually better than The Best of Afterschool.
Playthrough:
Rip Off - Very generic club banger. Perfectly acceptable, but nothing I'd go out of my way to listen to.
Flashback - Their most popular song, and understandably so. It's still a little generic, but it has the fantastic "b-b-b-boy I miss you" hook. Sounds a lot like Girls Aloud's On the Metro and Every Now and Then. And I'm always a slut for dubstep breakdowns.
Eyeline (Nana solo) - Sounds like a Dannii song. Like Rip Off, not something I'll probably ever seek out, but very enjoyable while it's playing.
Sonmoksigye (English: Wristwatch) - This is absolutely gorgeous. I have no idea which ones are singing lead on this, but they do a beautiful job with their lovely, smooth voices (Gloria Estefan teas). Beautiful melody too. I can imagine it as the closing song of a Princess Diaries-type teen romcom.
Timeless (JungA/Raina duet) - This reminds me of something, but I'm not quite sure what. It's more MOR than the rest of the EP, but that's not a bad thing at all. It's a nice midtempo that shows their flexibility.
Final verdict: It doesn't have anything in particular that no other album has, but it made for a very nice introduction to the group. I like it better than 90% of the K-pop I've heard. 7.5/10.
Purchased: My dad got a free promo copy since he wrote for the All Music Guide. Well, by this time he didn't anymore, but Disney apparently hadn't realized it.
First Thoughts: God, I love this album so fucking much. It was the album of my fourth to sixth grade years, even more than Teen Spirit. Actually, I knew the Spanish version, Milagros, a little better, because I lost my copy of the English version for several months. I am soooo looking forward to revisiting it. Let's get started...
Playthrough:
Lie, Lie, Lie - This doesn't sound exactly like your typical The Matrix song, but I'm not complaining. This was one of my very favorites. It's more urban-sounding, for lack of a better term, than the rest of the album. The middle 8 is especially incredible, especially that "I wanted youuuuuuu" at the very end. The accompanying key change absolutely made my nine-year-old life, even though I was years away from even knowing what the fuck a key change was. I preferred the Spanish version, as I did with, uh, almost all of the songs, and I still do, but the English version is still a 10.
Candy Boy - Faintly ridiculous lyrics about a candy metaphor, which got even worse in translation to Spanish, when they just became generic lyrics about "mi bailador" (my dancer)... I guess you could call it filler, but it's a total sugar high, to steal one of its lyrics.
Like a Girl in Love - Not as exciting as most of the album, but that minor key is a great touch, and the acoustic guitar at the beginning is one of the album's most remarkable moments. I imagine this is/was a favorite for a lot of people, just not me.
Miracles Happen (When You Believe) - Myra's one and only hit ("hit"), which so many people from my generation rightly remember fondly from its usage in The Princess Diaries. I listened to this on repeat for fucking EVER at the time, to the point that my dad complained about it just as incessantly. Five minutes seems incredibly long for a pop song to me now, but it doesn't seem long at all. By the way, it was written by two incredible pop songwriters: Eliot Kennedy (who's worked with Dannii, Atomic Kitten, the Spice Girls, S Club 7, and Céline ... but most importantly Billie Piper on Day & Night and Something Deep Inside) and Pam Sheyne (who's done stuff for Xtina, The Sats, M2M, Point of Grace, and God knows who else, and was the vocalist behind Rochelle on Almighty Records). It deserves every bit of praise it's ever gotten. The only pity is that the dancier "Miracle Mix," used for Myra's cameo on Port Charles, was never released except on an incredibly rare promo CD single.
Bye-Bye My Love - By no means bad, but a definite dip in quality. Christina-lite. I liked it at the time; I usually skip it now, just to get to the incredible next track.
25 Hours a Day - Sure, the lyrics are ridiculous, and it sounds totally out of place on the album. It's a breezy, Please Yourself-era Bananarama / Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me-era Gloria Estefan type song. Luckily, that's the exact kind of song I have a soft spot for if it's produced well - and this is produced incredibly well. Again, the Spanish version far exceeds the English version, but it's comparing a 9.5 to a 10.
Wishing on the Same Star - Ugh, fuck off, Diane Warren. The requisite ballad. It's a really pretty song, but the production leaves so much to be desired. I had no interest in hearing Myra do something like this when I was nine, and I'm not that much more interested now.
Dancing in the Street - Ah yes, my first encounter with Myra, from the Recess: School's Out soundtrack. Like Miracles Happen, I played it relentlessly, though I eventually tired of it. Better than the vast majority of covers of this classic, and miles better than Atomic Kitten's version, which the UK got instead as a single for the Recess soundtrack. It sounds totally modernized (well, modern to 2001). A really good example of what you can do with a cover.
Where You At? - This is where the album enters its darker section, both lyrically and musically. I mean, it's not dark by any means, it's just not as ebullient as what comes before. Listening to it now, it strikes me that it's an attempt to ape Britney, but honestly it's better than 90% of what Britney shat out on her first three albums. Very cool electronic touches. This one could genuinely have been a single to mainstream radio. It's a bit Stacie Orrico.
Girls Like Boyz - Echh. I almost always used to skip this one (the Spanish version is slightly more bearable, mainly because I can't understand the lyrics as well), and it's the most fillery thing here. Truly, truly vapid lyrics and an uninspired melody. My tendency to wipe this one from my memory explains why I made the "darker section" comment, since it's much more in the vein of Candy Boy than Where You At?
As If - This sounds so much like something I know, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Another old favorite, though it hasn't held up quite as well for me as Lie and Miracle. It's still a great song, though. Mikaila wishes she'd had something like it. Also, maybe the only song on the album where the English version is significantly better than the Spanish version.
Hanging Up on You - Oh my godddddddd. I loved this one so fucking much. That pre-chorus - "Now I'm so onto you... Am I getting through? Guess what I'm gonna do..." - is still incredible, with its little electric guitar riffs underneath it. I still don't understand what the second verse is supposed to mean (her friends were trying to set her up with her nasty ex? Huh?), but this is legitimately the catchiest thing on here. Btw, I always associate it with my mom's comment that she always expected the last line of the chorus to go "So I'm hangin' up... You're dead" (to rhyme with "everything you said") instead of "So I'm hangin' up... Goodbye!" which in fairness is a pretty bad lyric.
Dreams - Okay, the other slowie on the album, which if memory serves was originally going to be the title track (pretty sure I saw an ad in another Disney CD mentioning "her upcoming album Dreams"). Unlike Same Star, though, it's pretty convincing. It actually does a better job of showing off her truly impressive voice despite having less vocal acrobatics. It's very "soft AC radio," but also very "last dance at junior prom." I enjoy it.
Japanese bonus tracks:
Step Into the Light - This was used in a Japanese shampoo commercial, which is random, but it's a worthy addition to the album. More rock and not as electronic as the other songs, which makes it stand out a little (at least they had the grace to stick it on as the first track). I imagine if she'd made it to a second album this would have been the lead US single. Forever bitter she didn't get that second album...
You're the Dream - The theme song for the 2001 Japanese Special Olympics. How random. It's not very good. Obviously a rip on Gloria's Reach, and a totally uninspired one.
Lie, Lie, Lie (Main Stream Mix) - This is great. Makes it into an A+ dance track.
Lie, Lie, Lie (SCHWEITZER Remix) - More trancey/bigroom than the Main Stream Mix, but just as enjoyable and anthemic.
Lie, Lie, Lie (DJ Akim in the 90's Mix) - Not nearly as effective in making it into a freestyle-ish track as the two other mixes are in making it into their respective genres. Still, a bit of a bop.
Final verdict: I mean, this is well and truly one of the milestone albums of my life, so I'm probably not able to be as objective as I'd like. But listening to it now, it still sounds just as fresh and invigorating as when I was younger. There is not a single bad song here - Girls Like Boyz is the worst, and it's still a 6.5/10. Besides, most of the songs are 9+. It literally set the template for the Disney girl albums to come - but it did it way better than any of them have, even including my beloved Metamorphosis and When the Sun Goes Down. In short: fucking incredible. Its total lack of recognition is a mark of the true evils of society. 10/10.
Highlight: YOU SHOWED ME FAITH IS NOT BLIND, I DON'T NEED WINGS TO HELP ME FLY
