After a decade of million-selling Japanese-language albums released in her homeland, J-pop icon Seiko Matsuda attempted to win an American audience with this bubblegum set stretched together by the likes of Michael Jay, Maurice Starr, Emilio Estefan, and Giorgio Moroder.
She was unsuccessful.
The main reasons lie in middle-of-the-road production and mediocre vocal performance.
The songs themselves are catchy and inviting, as best evidenced by the yearning "With Your Love" and the pensive "Try Gettin' Over You." On these numbers, Seiko's little-girl-quality voice shines through, contributing a certain innocence that helps the tunes run smoothly along.
But on overly saturated productions such as "Goodbye My Baby" and "All the Way to Heaven," her otherwise pleasant tone only adds damage to the noise.
Nonetheless, the subtle mid-tempo numbers "Everybody Feels Alright" (with background vocals by a pre-fame Jon Secada) and "Who's That Boy" (the set's strongest moment, production-wise) are enjoyable listens.
Overall, Seiko doesn't live up to dance-pop standards set by Madonna and followers such as Debbie Gibson and Exposé.
Perhaps if the album had retained more of the elements of the singer's Japanese material, the results would have been more unique and consistent.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | All the Way to Heaven | Seiko | Play | 03:40 | 8 MB | 26 MB |
| 2 | He's So Good to Me | Seiko | Play | 04:14 | 9 MB | 28 MB |
| 3 | Leave It Up to Fate | Seiko | Play | 03:40 | 8 MB | 26 MB |
| 4 | The Right Combination | Seiko | Play | 04:26 | 10 MB | 27 MB |
| 5 | Goodbye My Baby | Seiko | Play | 04:00 | 9 MB | 27 MB |
| 6 | With Your Love | Seiko | Play | 04:20 | 9 MB | 27 MB |
| 7 | Who's That Boy | Seiko Matsuda | Play | 04:04 | 9 MB | 29 MB |
| 8 | Everybody Feels Alright | Seiko Matsuda | Play | 03:24 | 7 MB | 23 MB |
| 9 | Halfway To Heaven | Seiko Matsuda | Play | 03:38 | 8 MB | 25 MB |
| 10 | Try Gettin' Over You | Seiko Matsuda | Play | 04:44 | 10 MB | 29 MB |
| 40 mins | 92 MB | |||||
| 40 mins | 272 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seiko | Primary Artist |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |