Becca CD Review

Label: Sony / Red
Becca
Alive

Beccaofficial.com
www.myspace.com/beccachanofficial

By Mike Bax

Signed to Sony Music Japan as a teenager, Becca (Rebecca Emily Hollcraft) has achieved a level of fame in Japan that most artists can only dream of attaining. She’s a pop sensation, anime star, and bona fide celebrity on the other side of the world.

Discovered by Meredith Brooks (who is credited as songwriter on many of the songs on Alive!!), the Portland Oregon native released Alive!! in Japan in 2008, and toured it to celebrity status abroad. Now she’s set to return to tour her native soil.

Alive!! is rife with mid tempo power ballads, grrrrl power pop sensibility, and a top forty sound that should find Becca surfing the airwaves in North America in no time. I find the material is akin to many artists (Brooks included) who have pursued similar song craft over the last 10 – 15 years, and doesn’t really sound particularly original. While many would say there has been no original music in the past 25 years, that doesn’t seem to be hindering the rise of numerous pop stars year by year.

Alive!! contains 13 songs with a go-for-it energy that has worked for numerous musicians before Becca. Time will tell if she can garner the same success as some of her mentors. Some of the songs on Alive!! were included in an EP release last year in North America called Kickin' & Screamin'. Alive was release last week on March 2nd.