Super Eurobeat 125

1.Matt Land - Bad Dream (A-Beat C)
Matt Land seems to be one of the best album openers as his songs are often as the first one for the albums. Like this time we also get the talented singer doing yet another magnificent performance and he shows all of the meeker artists how proper eurobeat is made. The song is simple, yet very catchy and the typical eurobeat elements work when there's a great melody and a great vocalist to back them up. Overall a great opening for the album, couldn't have probably began a lot better. And I like to call this song Wet Dream for reasons unknown.
Rating : 9½

2.Karen - Wanna Belong To You (A-Beat C)
The same label continues and we get the female vocalist with a very distinctive voice. In comparison to the other girls, Karen's deep voice sounds refreshing and that's most of the times the key-element for her songs. Wanna Belong To You starts with an interesting intro and then the song starts to get somewhat mediocore, the verses are okay, the chorus sounds good, and finally when the c-melody starts the song gets really good. The c-melody sounds a bit muffled, but it still sounds nice. Nothing spectacular, but still a good song with excellent guitar elements.
Rating : 8

3.Kevin Johnson - Lonely (Delta)
Clara Moroni is here yet again, but this time only backing up Kevin Johnson. This time though their collaboration works plain marvellously and the song could've had Cherry in the name as well. Kevin Johnson throws in his best vocals so far and Clara sounds great as always. If we start to compare this song with many other songs that Kevin has done, the difference is that this is much cheerier and a lot catchier. The c-melody is very hyper and extremely catchy, the song leaves you wanting for more and this is also one of the highlights for the album.
Rating : 9½

4.Rose - Spanish Melody (Time)
Everytime I see the songtitle for this track I think of Pizza Girl's Bang as the lyrics in that song mentioned Spanish Melody and that song was way better on any standards anyways. This song is pretty much your typical Rose materials that don't offer a lot of originaly but a lot of acoustic elements that suit some, but not me. The chorus is the clear peak for the song as the song is actually very catchy during it, it's just a pity that the rest of the song can't back the chorus up at all.
Rating : 7+

5.Monique - Another Day Without You In Paradise (A-Beat C)
Okay for once this name swept me off my feet. I wasn't expecting anything from this song and when the intro began I started gasping for air and had to check twice it was Monique we were talking about. The song has an amazing intro, the level goes down a bit during the verses, but the chorus works again marvellously, the vocals sound great and the nice chime-effects in the background give the song a nice distinctive sound to it. Overall a very good song, needs a bit of meat around the verses and then it'd rock big time.
Rating : 8½

6.Pretty Woman - Drive Me Faster Now! (Delta)
Another huge surprise, or okay to be truthful I wasn't that surprised because the title for this song looked good in the booklet already. This song starts out with an extremely hyper and catchy mechanic solo that is simply perfect. The song carries the highlevel thorough it and the chorus is plain irresistible, Pretty Woman's lyrics sound magnificent and the c-melody always manages to give me shivers running through my back, it's just that good. One of the best performances on this album.
Rating : 10-

7.Atrium - Side By Side (Time)
Intro that begins with vocoder can't be a good sign, and when Time uses vocoders things are awfully wrong somewhere. The song kicks off slowly and turns out to be exactly what I was fearing it to be, the song has a mediocore background, boring vocals, boring sounds, overall a song I don't wanna listen to a lot. The c-melody works like pretty much always, if only it was the only element in this song.
Rating : 6

8.Mr. Groove - Gettin' On Desire (A-Beat C)
I never was the biggest Mr. Groove fan and therefore I was rather surprised when this song started and it sounded really awesome. The cool intro with whispers starts the song with class, and then the c-melody takes over and the song really gets into action. The verses are rather normal with no huge hooks in them, but the chorus makes up for them and is very good. You shouldn't expect to hear anything new from this song, but if you want plain good old eurobeat with guitars, then this is your option.
Rating : 9-

9.Dave & Domino - Don't Close Your Eyes (A-Beat C)
The first actually slow song on the album works better than I anticipated it to do. The song starts with an excellent c-melody that is repeated a couple of times and clearly rises this song above many of the other Dave & Domino songs. The vocals are good, but I wish they would've left more space for Domino so the song would've been more distinctive, now it's more like a Dave song with some girly girl backing him up.
Rating : 8-

10.Giselle - Let Me Kiss Tonight (Time)
From the many many Time artists Giselle is one of the names that I've liked for some reason. Perhaps the difference is that Giselle's productions are cheerier and happier than what we hear from Time in general. This song is like that, the backgrounds are cheery with happy elements here and there and the girly vocals suit the song perfectly. I can easily imagine hearing this song sung by a different vocalist like Christine for example, this is pretty identical to Christine productions now that I think about it, which is a good thing.
Rating : 8

11.Norma Sheffield - Dream Away (A-Beat C)
I was gonna start this review by ranting about Norma's style and I had to back up a bit as this song is actually very distinctive on Norma Sheffield scale. The song starts with a rather heavy athmosphere that is the first distinctive element, and when the song actually has a lot of machines backing Norma up it feels like a song that's clearly different from her general style. The mid-tempo is of course there, but the song just has more balls than 95% of what she's done, and that's a yay.
Rating : 7½

12.Kasanova - Now Or Never (Time)
Something about this song got my spider sense tingling, in a bad way. I am not sure what about this song makes me dislike it. The vocals sound quite bad when you listen to them for a second, the melody is not bad, the sounds are decent but yet I still feel it's much worse than other songs on the album. I honestly can't point out any other bad aspects about this than the horrific vocals, and yet I still can't stand it.
Rating : 6-

13.Cherry - Blink Blink (Delta)
The title of this song is very very irritating, everytime I hear the vocals go Blink Blink I hear Bling Bling and that is like the biggest turn off ever. I can not stand any american HipHop or Rap and those words are pure torture to my ears. The track is rather typical for Cherry and the vocals are good for apart the title that makes me go 'eeww' every single time. With this song the clear highlight is the c-melody and the sounds in general, the general eurobeat beat present is present but the backgrounds have nice elements in them that give the song a bit of a boost.
Rating : 7+

14.Arena 69 - Everytime You Need Me (Time)
A very un-Timey intro for a change, as the acoustic elements are no where in sight and there's more energy than in 10 typical songs by Time. The rather heavy mood suddenly turns into happy-happy-joy-joy and it always confuses me for a bit as I always get myself on the mood for something rougher and then it turns into a hybrid song. The song is not your typical time by any means and that's a great thing, as I might've very well confused this for a Delta production and overall the song works really well, the first confusion is the only part I didn't like about this song, make it rough all the way or happy all the way is all I ask.
Rating : 8½

15.Stephy Martini - Fall In Love (Delta)
An intro with pianos is something you don't hear often on Delta, and it caught my attention right away, and I had to double check we weren't in Time-land. The song uses pianos as a main element thorough the song which works surprisingly well even though I'm not a huge fan of the piano. The vocals are definitely by somebody else than Clara this time but I have no clue who the vocalist is, and I am still confused about the amount of different female vocalists on Delta. Anyways a pretty nice average song that would've fit mainstream pop easily as well.
Rating : 7½

16.Eurosisters - Honey For Love (Time)
I listened to this song for a long time and thought it was by Delta, then after I had listened to it a few times I took a look at the booklet and realized it was by Time, another surprise on the album. This song is so much like Delta, and I gotta say Time surprised me this time big time. The vocals are great, the sounds work and even the melody sounds good, and overall we're dealing with a good typical eurobeat song, nothing spectacular but a fun song to listen to.
Rating : 8½

17.Powerful T. - Over The Rainbow (A-Beat C)
The album is about to wrap up and we still get high quality materials by A-Beat C. This time Powerful T. displays us how magnificent he truly is. The song starts with an extremely catchy melody and right when the vocals kick in I started to feel that I'll really like this song. The chorus is catchy and the backgrounds are your typical A-Beat C male materials (so they're slightly heavier than what we can expect from the women). A great song that clearly is one of the better Powerful T. songs out there.
Rating : 9-

18.Dr. Love - State Of The Nation (Delta)
And finally the end for the album, Delta throws in yet another song by the classic title Dr. Love. Like before Dr. Love does a song that is different from the mainstream eurobeat due to the excellent backgrounds and a great melody. If A-Beat C has their stars then Dr. Love definitely has to be the star on Delta. This song is overall very well done, as all of the elements work and the female vocals in the song give an excellent boost for the song, the chorus with all of the Boom Boom Booms works nicely and the c-melody is plain brilliant.
Rating : 9

Final Words :
The 120's have been rather high quality in general and this album is from the better end, like always there are the clear highlights and the lowpoints. The Pretty Woman song clearly rises above the rest with it's simple, yet effective style. Matt Land and Kevin Johnson do a great job on their songs and Dr. Love isn't left far behind with his song. The album suffers from a rather mediocore middle parts, but at least the begin and the end work very well, if only the songs in the middle would've been replaced this would've been one of the better SEBs in the history. Anyways a song I'd recommend for eurobeat fans to get, also the bonus disc offers a lot of great remixes of classic songs for the people who can get the version with the bonus disc.

Final Score : 8½

Reviewed by Bore