globe Albums (9)
What The Critics Say
An in-house remix project from the American team of engineers and producers that have helped out on Tetsuya Komuro's Los Angeles-based recording, namely Junior Vasquez and Eddie DeLena. Fortunately, they have given an impressive rethink to globe's hits, turning the rockin' "SaYoNaRa" into a hard techno anthem, the rather ordinary "Perfume of Love" into a sleek disco machine, and "Departures" into something lonely and mysterious. With not enough remixes to fill the album, Globe throws in several live versions of songs that are different enough not to feel like a rip-off: these are arrangements for a small live combo. Although not a consistent album, it's a satisfying reworking. ~ Ted Mills, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Globe quickly bounced back from the bland Love Again with Relation, coming only nine months later and bolstered by a set of four singles all released in the same month. Like their first album, Relation is overshadowed by its singles. "Wanna Be a Dreammaker" comes on like a cute younger sister really into Nine Inch Nails, but features one of their best choruses. "Sa.Yo.Na.Ra" borrows its sound from Toto's "Hold the Line," certainly one of the oddest decisions the group's made. "Sweetheart" is a drum'n'bass battle between Marc's grumble and an Arabian verse from Keiko. "Perfume of Love" is the epic ballad. The rest of the album is listenable, and the final track, "Illusion," brings the album to its grand close. ~ Ted Mills, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Add Faces Places to the pile, along with Namie Amuro's Sweet 19 Blues, as an album that shows producer Tetsuya Komuro at the top of his creativity. After Globe's first album, Komuro hurriedly reshaped his group and took them in a different direction -- very strange for a Japanese pop group, where formula is all. Totally gone was the happy techno of the first. In its place comes rock, epic, multi-part songs that would make Boston happy. Marc Panther stopped rapping and was given smooth, mumbling prose to speak. Keiko was pushed into operatics as well as crooning. Komuro's lyrics stop being about dancing and typical disco slogans of togetherness, and become -- from what can be made out -- slightly personal. Not missing are the hooks and Komuro's knack for a knock-out chord progression. "Can't Stop Fallin' in Love," "Is This Love?," and "Faces Places" are strong songs, some of their best, and the album-only tracks -- including the instrumentals, which usually means filler -- add to the whole effect, making this a solid hour of rock-pop. ~ Ted Mills, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
In 1996, this debut album by the Tetsuya Komuro-created group was a guaranteed hit before it even appeared on the shelves of the Asian market -- with five Top Ten singles paving the way, Globe's album feels like a greatest-hits package of the years 1995-96, so omnipresent were these songs at the time. Of the hits themselves, they are spit-shined, clear, empty calorie examples of Japanese techno-pop, with melodramatic arrangements and catchy melodies, the best of them being "Departures"; grand eloquence set to a pounding beat, but goofy enough to throw in rock guitars and sub-Sakamoto piano noodlings (Komuro's idol, so not a surprising). "Sweet Pain" comes a close second, which grabs you and shakes the sense out of you ("but...but what about Marc Panther's cheesy, quasi-English rapping?" Don't worry). The album tracks are nothing to write home about, but are spaced throughout so that they just keep the album consistent in tone. A pleasant enough debut, but more was to come. ~ Ted Mills, All Music Guide
