WHO'S BACK?

***Who's Back?*** is the 8th Japanese studio album by South Korean singer BoA. Her eighth Japanese language album, *Who's Back?* compiles all of her singles released since *Identity* in 2010.

## Background and development

After her 2009 English language debut *BoA* (2009) and her seventh Japanese album *Identity* (2010), BoA focused on releasing music in South Korea. In 2010, BoA released *Hurricane Venus*, her first Korean studio album in five years, followed by *Only One* (2012). In 2011, to celebrate 10 years since her Japanese debut, she released a video single, "Milestone".

Three of the songs on the album were originally released in South Korea as singles: "Only One" and "The Shadow" from *Only One* (2012), and "Baby You..", a Japanese version of BoA's song "Disturbance" (2013). All three songs featured writing credits by BoA herself. The majority of the songs on the album were released as Japanese singles, with four of the remaining songs being B-sides for these singles ("The Shadow", "Baby You..", "Close to Me", "Fun"), and a single new song, "First Time".

## Promotion and release

Many of the songs during their initial released had commercial tie-ups, such as "Woo Weekend" which was used as the 25th anniversary song for Disney on Ice Japan, and both "I See Mee" and "Milestone", which were used in commercials for Audio-Technica headphones. Several songs were theme songs for television programs: the song "Tail of Hope" was used as the opening theme song for the drama *Hakui no Namida*, while "Message" was used for the online Bee TV drama *Love Message!'*s theme song. "Masayume Chasing" was used as an opening theme song for the first thirteen episodes of the seventh season of the anime *Fairy Tail*.

The song "First Time", the only new song found on the release, was used to promote *Who's Back?*, and received a music video, featuring footage of BoA recording the song. The song had minor success, charting at number 76 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart.

## Critical reception

CDJournal felt that the album, compiled of almost entirely previously released works, acted more like a greatest hits album than a studio album. The reviewers felt that the album was impressive in the wide range of genres and techniques used, going from "up-tempo dancable pop tunes" to "melancholic medium ballads". For the individual songs, the reviewers felt that "Woo Weekend" had "relaxing light vocals" and a "comfortable, soft melody line", and praised her "poppy, colorful and innocent approach", and that "Only One" was a "perfectly expressed" ballad with a high level of skills. They praised the "fresh" summer feeling of "Tail of Hope", and felt "Baby You.." (i.e. "Disturbance") was a high quality, adult song.

## Charts

 Taiwan G-Music East Asian weekly releases | 1

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 BoA / WHO'S BACK? [CD+DVD] (Japanese). CDJournal. Retrieved on November 3, 2014.
2. ↑ New Fairy Tail TV Anime's Promo Video Previews BoA Song. Anime News Network (March 16, 2014). Retrieved on April 5, 2014.
3. ↑ Japan Billboard Hot 100 (Japanese). *Billboard* (September 10, 2014). Retrieved on October 30, 2014.
4. ↑ BoA / WOO WEEKEND [CD+DVD] (Japanese). CDJournal. Retrieved on November 3, 2014.
5. ↑ BoA / Only One [CD+DVD] (Japanese). CDJournal. Retrieved on November 3, 2014.
6. ↑ BoA / Tail of Hope [紙ジャケット仕様 [CD+DVD]] (Japanese). CDJournal. Retrieved on November 3, 2014.
7. ↑ Error on call to Template:cite web: Parameters **url** and **title** must be specified (Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved on November 3, 2014.
8. ↑ 2014년 41주차 Album Chart 종합 (Korean). *Gaon Music Chart*. Korea Music Content Industry Association. Retrieved on October 28, 2014.
9. ↑ 2014년 41주차 Album Chart 국외 (Korean). *Gaon Music Chart*. Korea Music Content Industry Association. Retrieved on October 28, 2014.
10. ↑ G-Music J-Pop Chart (Chinese). G-Music. Retrieved on November 3, 2014.
11. ↑ G-Music J-Pop Chart (Chinese). G-Music. Retrieved on November 3, 2014.
12. ↑ オリコンランキング情報サービス「you大樹」. *Oricon*. Retrieved on October 3, 2014.
13. ↑ 2014년 10월 Album Chart. Korea Music Content Industry Association. Archived from the original on November 6, 2014. Retrieved on November 6, 2014.
14. ↑ 【CD】WHO'S BACK? ［CD+DVD］ (Japanese). Tower Records. Retrieved on November 3, 2014.
15. ↑ Who's Back? (Korean). Bugs. Retrieved on September 14, 2014.
16. ↑ 寶兒BoA / WHO’S BACK？ (CD+DVD) (Japanese). G-Music. Retrieved on November 3, 2014.
17. ↑ BOA(보아) - WHO'S BACK? [통상반] (Korean). Hot Tracks. Retrieved on November 3, 2014.