Shuffle And Repeat

Communication!!! is Leah Dizon’s 2nd album. It was released on August 20,2008, and reached #16 in the weekly charts. It sold a total of 13,533 copies, and spent 1 week in the top 30.

Album Review
Leah Dizon – Communication!!!

tracklist:
1. Step into my world
2. Love Paradox
3. LOVE SWEET CANDY
4. Without a good-bye
5. Vanilla
6. Nothin’ to Lose
7. Lost at Sea
8. Communication!!!
9. Not Too Bad
10. BxKxRxxx
11. Under The Same Sky
12. Thank you

Communication!!! starts off with quite a turn-off song, which surprisingly is the album’s main promo track, Step into my world. Now, let me get this straight. I was never a big fan of this song, but I can say that I sort-of appreciate it. It starts off okay with it’s “step into my world baby” lines, which is quite catchy, but annoying at the same time. Then  the first verse comes in, which is just fine actually.  But then the chorus comes in, and everything gets worse. Leah’s in tune but the main problem is that she sounds sick, and she sounds so nasally. She doesn’t control her voice that well, which I think is the reason why it’s kind of a let down. Good thing the “step in my world baby” lines were catchy because if they weren’t, I might have trashed this song in this review.

Coming next is Love Paradox, possibly Leah’s best song from her whole career. It sounds great, vocally and rhythmically speaking. She has complete control of her voice, which is an impressive fact since she wasn’t this great during her Destiny Line days. The urban sound she presented in this song obviously is the most fitting for her since she sounds so much comfortable in this song than all her other songs.

The third track is LOVE SWEET CANDY, The Vanilla single’s B-Side. For me, LOVE SWEET CANDY is one of Leah’s most bumpy songs because of the surprising Reggae atmosphere it has. The chorus has a very catchy tune, and the verses were good too.

The next song, Without a good-bye, is one of the album’s Rock-oriented songs. To tell you guys honestly, I never thought Leah and Rock would turn out to be this good since I often hear the typical pop Leah. I thought this would be a horrible song but, I’m very wrong. It has it’s own share of boring moments, but those dull moments are just few. You can see through the song that Leah has worked hard on this track since her voice sounds great and comfortable. In all, Without a good-bye is actually one of the many better songs on the album.

Oh, holy crap. It’s here again. Vanilla, the worst Leah pop song ever, makes an apperance on the album as track 5. To be honest, I never liked Vanilla at all. I thought it was a bit too much-pop for me PLUS Leah’s voice are nasally here again. A total skip-worthy track. pshh.

Things start to get so much better with Nothin’ to Lose, an excellent american-rnb influenced song. Seriously, Nothin’ to Lose sounds like a less-aggressive Love Paradox with it’s strong beats, and american atmosphere. It’s insanely catchy, Leah’s vocals in it have never been this great, and every-single-second of it was awesome. It’s probably is the best song from the first half of the album. Yes. It beats out Love Paradox for me. Love Paradox is still great but, Nothin’ to Lose is just.. gaah!! Get what I mean? Anyway, It’s a very very very good song from Leah. It might even be the best she’s ever released.

Lost at Sea was.. okay. It wasn’t that great, and it wasn’t bad either. Leah’s voice sounds great at some parts, but bad at some too. The arrangement is so damn aggressive, and many parts of it reminds me a lot of Without a good-bye. Though it is nothing compared to Without a good-bye, it still is a great addition to the album.

The next 5 songs probably makes this half better than the first half.
Starting with the title track, which makes thing so much interesting than the first half. Communication!!!, an extremely H-O-T song, gives the listener a great, bad-oriented song that never fails to appeal to the audience. With it’s synth,  and solid beats at the beginning, I was sure that this song would be hot since it gives an amazing full-of-attitude feel. The chorus was extremely catchy, especially the “Just your voice is never enough, never enough” lines. The arrangement was hella-the best, and every second of the song never was boring. In all, it’s a great song by Leah, and is another recommend.

After a hyper dance track, Not Too Bad slows things down with it’s laid-back feel, and up-beat atmosphere. I think, the most polished song from the entire album is this one because everything just sounds so clean. I mean, all of the tracks on here looked so polished but, this song was just perfect. The rnb flavor it has really helped the song sound so great. It doesn’t beat out all the other rnb tracks from this album but, I can say that this song is getting close. It’s hella catchy, and the background music sounds so hip. definitely a must listen. It’s a mid-tempo, cute, rnb treat, all in one package.

The other rock song, besides Without a good-bye is BxKxRxxx, and what the hell is wrong with the title? XD Anyways, Leah screams (sort-of) a lot in this song, and it may take a while before you get used to it but, it’s quite an interesting song. It’s an upbeat, rock track that surprises you with Leah’s punky-attitude. It features a great chorus, A GREAT, SPEEDY, HEADNODDING CHORUS, and great song arrangement, that keeps you on until the end of the song. Seriously, even though I was very very irritated with this song before, I think of it as a great track now. It’s very unique, and definitely, deserves a good listen.

Back to the slow-zone we have Under The Same Sky, the greatest B-side Leah’s ever released, I believe. It has a laid-back, relaxing feel in it that just soothes me everytime I listen to it. The breathing sounds at the background makes everything sound so heavenly, and all the instruments just makes the song sound so perfect.

The final song, Thank you, features the most simple, innocent arrangement out of all the 12 tracks on here, which makes it really special for me. To be honest, this song’s simplicity is the greatest thing about it. Everything simply gets great when Leah sings the “Kimi ni arigatou!” lines, and when she sings in a very innocent manner. You can hear how thankful Leah is in this song because of the innocence present in her voice. Through this song, the album ends at a brighter note, and it’s like saying “farewell but, I’ll be back”. I guess Leah intentionally did that because of her pregnancy XD. Anyway, it’s a nice track. Listen to it too.

To be honest, The singles for the Destiny Line era were waaaay better than the singles here in Communication!!! but, I can proudly say that all the album tracks here beats the ones in Destiny Line good. You can see how much Leah’s learned with her singing through the quality of each track in this album. Many of the 12 songs were polished and well-produced, and many of the tracks here was so much better than I originally thought. Try this album out, I bet you won’t be disappointed.

Favorite Tracks:
Nothin’ to Lose, Not Too Bad, Communication!!!, and Love Paradox

Shuffle rating!
A-

Single Review
Leah Dizon – Vanilla

Vanilla is Leah Dizon’s 5th single. It was released on June 25, 2008, and reached #26 on the oricon weekly charts. It sold a total of 8,312 copies. Vanilla is currently Leah’s lowest selling single.

tracklist:
1. Vanilla
2. LOVE SWEET CANDY
3. Kanashimi to Egao no Naka de
4. Vanilla (Instrumental)
5. LOVE SWEET CANDY (Instrumental)

After being blown away by her previous mind-blowing single, Love Paradox, I was expecting Vanilla to be another great track but, what do I get? A sort-of-disastrous pop song that’s trying to be cute. Well, It’s not fully bad, because there are still parts of the song which I like… just like how I actually found the interlude after the 2nd chorus to be groovy. Anyway, as I have said in the Love Paradox review, I like how Leah’s voice improved now than before because, well, it’s better… but, with this song, it seems like she’s back to her not-so-good, old self. I mean, I really don’t want anyone to be offended when I say this but, Leah should have just released a single that’s pretty much the same as Love Paradox than Vanilla because it was a hit. I’m not against pop songs or anything but, I was hoping Leah did a bit better because she did in her previous single. In Love Paradox, her voice sounds great but, in this song, she sounds a bit sleepy. Her voice also gets out of the tune at times but, at least the background music’s there to save it.  Look, don’t get me wrong. I’m a fan of Leah. I really am. But, If she keeps on releasing songs like this, my views on her just might change.

If you ask me, LOVE SWEET CANDY would be a much much better A-side because It sounds a hundred times better than Vanilla. It has that sort-of-reggae beat that carries a cute, pop tune, where Leah shines, and handles it perfectly. My favorite part of this song would have to be the interlude after the bridge because, it is where you can hear the groovy sound Leah offers us. I know that many people agrees with me when i say that this song is the best out of the 3 in this single because, well, it sounds so much better. Good thing this song was included in the Communication!!! album because it’s one of Leah’s better songs.

Kanashimi to Egao no Naka de reminded me a lot of Again and Again (a song from her debut album) because it uses almost the same instruments as that song did. Anyway, I think this song was a little average because there weren’t any wowing points, at the same time, Leah doesn’t do anything different. Despite that, the song is quite good with it’s calm points but, I believe she could’ve done better.

Favorite Track:
LOVE SWEET CANDY

shuffle rating!
B

Single Review
Leah Dizon – Love Paradox

Love Paradox is Leah Dizon’s 4th single. It was released on March 26, 2008 and reached #15 on the weekly charts. It sold a total of 10,193 copies and charted for 3 weeks. A Bach Logic Remix of Love Paradox was supposed to be included in this single but was removed due to some unknown reasons.

tracklist:
1. Love Paradox
2. Under the Same Sky
3. Love Paradox (Instrumental)
4. Under the Same Sky (Instrumental)

My favorite song from Leah Dizon has to be Love Paradox. Why? It’s Simply because of the big improvement Leah has shown to us in this song. Instead of making crappy, trying-to-be cute pop songs, at last, she decides to show us her different side through this edgy song that’s surprisingly amazing, containing her vocals that are “ohmygod!” improving. LP really has a mind-blowing urban sound, a great vocal arrangement, and an extremely catchy chorus! Words aren’t enough to express my love for Love Paradox, especially it’s chorus. When you start listening to this song, you wouldn’t notice that you’re starting to sing along with Leah , that your body starts moving with all those heavy beats and claps, and that you just start to whine and ask for more of this addictive song.
Which reminds me…
Oh come on, 3:33 is not enough! It really pisses me off to know that it only runs for 3 minutes and a half ‘cos I really want to hear more from this song. Overall, A very nice A-side for comeback single and a really addictive one!

The B-side, Under The Same Sky, is very good too. It has a calm atmosphere and has a gentle sound to it. It isn’t as WOWing as the A-side but, I have to admit, it’s still really really good. In fact, It’s better than her other ballads. I absolutely loved how Leah’s laid back voice sounds in this song. It just makes you feel so relaxed and how it really makes you feel so refreshed! Another good thing about this song is that we can really feel Leah’s emotions as she gently sings the lines with full power and expression, adding a really nice feel to the song, that makes it an enjoyable RnB/POP-like treat.

Favorite Track:
Love Paradox

shuffle rating!
A