BoA aims to reclaim her crown with new album ‘Only One’

July just got a whole lot more interesting, with BoA today confirming today that she’ll release her seventh studio album, Only One, on the 25th. The album will be preceded by a digital single, also called “Only One”, on the 22nd, which was reportedly written and produced by BoA herself.

It’s no secret that BoA’s suffered from declining sales and popularity in recent years, both in Japan and Korea, but I’m thinking that Only One has the potential to serve as a stellar return to the top for the undisputed Queen of K-Pop.

So far, it looks as if BoA is taking the Baek Ji Young approach to staging a successful comeback. Just like Baek Ji Young, BoA reacquainted herself with the Korean public via a judging spot on a popular talent show — Baek Ji Young was on The Voice, while BoA appeared on KBS’ ratings winner K-pop Star.

I’m also going to assume that “Only One” might be a ballad or a midtempo, similar to Baek Ji Young’s brilliant “Voice”, and will serve as a warmup before BoA drops her inevitable dance-pop single, just like Baek Ji Young later did with “Good Boy”.

BoA’s last album, 2010′s Hurricane Venus/Copy & Paste, was a underrated collection of bulletproof electropop and lush ballads that easily trumped the majority of releases from America’s top pop divas that year. Although not an IU-sized success, it did reasonably well, but there were a lot of problems with BoA herself during that era. Homegirl looked like an exhausted corpse most of the time and a lot of her performances failed to feature the energy and killer choreography that have become her trademark. She was clearly severely overworked during that time, but judging by recent photos of her from this year, she’s looking better than ever right now, so hopefully that translates to the stage.

But performances aside, BoA better just come with some good music and a great concept. These days, you can never tell which way SM artists are going to go. Will BoA come back and kill it like SHINee did with “Sherlock”, or is it going to be something tired and unoriginal like f(x)’s “Electric Flop”?

While we mull it over, check out BoA’s best dance performance from the Hurricane Venus era below.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 15th, 2012 at 10:54 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • John Norman

    OH MY GOD what an AMAZING surprise!

    I’ve been following BoA since Atlantis Princess so to find out she’s coming out with a new song in A WEEK is so cool!

  • http://twitter.com/HyunAKnowles HyunA Knowles

    She’s not coming with a ballad, rite? Because a warm-up single three days before album release sounds nothing like a warm-up single. And all SM artists name their album after the title track, so I’m worried that this “Only One” self-written song is the title track.

    BoA is a great artist, but I’m not quite sure of her writing skills. Let’s just pray that this “Ony One” album is an amazing follow-up to the flaw free “Hurricane Venus”. God, I love that album!

  • http://twitter.com/lildarien lildarien

    So much love for this woman I cannot even. She was the first kpop song I ever downloaded and my first performance download was her debut. Cannot wait.

  • theprophetblog

    I’m thinking it’ll be a warm-up ballad/midtempo coz I can’t imagine Boa writing and PRODUCING a dance song, you know?

    Unless BoA does a midtempo or ballad, then waits for the repackage until she does a dance song…

  • http://twitter.com/ICONI3 ICONI3

    Glad I’m not the only who catches life every time I watch the “Dangerous” performances. Anywho,BoA was one of the first Asian artists that I’d discovered..rooting for her.

  • alejandrosc5

    Actually, Electrick Shock is so far to be a flop!

  • a_chan

    BoA <3 She's the artist that got me into J-pop/K-pop years and years ago. Her discography is pretty much the soundtrack to the last 8 years of my life.

    I'm thinking you're probably right about Only One being a warm up ballad. Or maybe a mid-tempo. Sort of like "Stand By" was released before the Hurricane Venus album. Whatever it is I'm excited. None of BoA's self-composed songs have been used as singles. B-sides and album tracks, yes, but never a single. It will probably be what that rumored cafe setting MV starring Yoo Ah In is for.

    At least we know BoA will be releasing a dance song as well. A choreographer, who if I remember correctly worked on "Sexy, Free & Single", has tweeted about choreographing for BoA as well.

  • http://twitter.com/StopItLuke Luke

    So happy the Queen is finally coming back!!! Missed her being around :/ I’m wondering about this single(?) too, I think she should release an uptempo as the lead single and 3 days before album launch doesn’t sound like a warm up.
    Also what’s with all these digital singles?! *Looks at Ayu too* I want proper singles ~_~ anyway I’m sure the album is gonna slay, also does anybody know when she’s releasing a new Japanese album and when her movie is dropping???

  • theprophetblog

    In Korea they often do song releases a few days apart haha. They did it with Brown Eyed Girls last comeback.

    I know that BoA’s movie is completed but don’t know when it’ll be released. Won’t be surprised if it ends up getting stuck in production hell then goes straight to DVD

  • animasaurus

    I just want Son Dambi to come back :( But until then I will gladly take BoA to satisfy my needs.

  • Eddie

    According to her official facebook. “Only One” is the title track and the WHOLE album will be available digitally on the 22nd and in stores on the 25th. I expect there will also be a “highlight melody” within the next few days.

    This seems to be SMs new style for releases.

  • http://twitter.com/StopItLuke Luke

    I know, I mean if this isn’t even a proper single though is there gonna be time for a real one with the album dropping 3 days after this? Do they release singles after the album has dropped in Korea?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Victor-Giovanni-Tepetla/100002047432442 Victor Giovanni Tepetla

    My gosh that performance of Dangerous is horrible!!! As BoA I was expecting something cool, the dance was so freaking WEAK, lipsync, the best of the video was from 2.50 to 3.04 :s

  • TakaMina

    Not impressed with the f(x) shade, proph. Electric Shock is flawless and you know it.

  • http://twitter.com/missleehyojae Francella D.

    Electric FLOP?
    TO WHOEVER WROTE THIS ARTICLE: I invite you to search how much did Electric Shock mini album sold (also count digital, physical, etc..), how many awards f(x) won with this song, the number of votes it got at Mnet and the number of views it got in 1 day at YouTube.
    And after you search all that, I REALLY want to see if you’re going to say “Electric Flop” again. Please feel free to be butthurted, insulted and feel ignorant. A LOT.
    Have a nice day.