For me BoA's better, with her recent releases I expected a jam packed dance album but to my surprise her album Better attacks some very rough subject matter. Toxic relationships (Start Over), begging someone to cut her out of their life and leave her alone (Cut Me Off), Someone not being honest with her about how they feel for her (Temptations), telling herself she can do better than she has been, as well as her lover (Better), Begging for a breakup to come as she is miserable, but also feeling tethered to the commitment she is supposed to have for that person (All That Jazz), her depression causing her to not clean her room, and fall behind on tasks (Cloud), Feeling inadequate (Little Bird), refusing to be broken and trying to trust again after a terrible relationship (Honey & Diamonds), having someone be a bad significant other but wanting them to continue to try to be with her anyways (L.O.V.E), to feeling so addicted to someone you feel you cannot go anywhere (Got Me Good). Her vocals are probably her best as she hits some high notes she has not ever reached in her career including multiple whistle tones on Cloud. She also had a massive hand in writing this album writing 4 of the songs by herself without assistance on the lyrics which happen to be some of the longer songs on the album, (Little Bird, Cloud, L.O.V.E., and All That Jazz). As someone who usually does not explore anything but the happy topics of love, and relationships, seeing her steer to the darker route and attacking some of the hardest topics to discuss, with elegance and honesty, is hard to ignore.
I feel like this is one of her most emotionally draining yet empowering music projects to date, she has usually stuck to cuter concepts or sexy concepts with no in between. On Implode from Cut & Paste we saw some deeper subject matter and I always wondered what an album would be like having her explore much deeper subjects. I was not disappointed. She really has grown with her audience slowly over time and is now seeming to finally feel comfortable to discuss topics that her fans who have grown up with her, may also be experiencing in their day to day lives.
