In her previous albums and singles,
Yuna Ito made a name for herself through her extraordinary ability to put together ballads with deep sentiment (and perhaps a touch of melodrama, not always seen as bad in the J-pop market). On
Dream, however,
Ito takes a surprising turn with a much heavier set of dance tracks. It's something of a shame, given the quality of ballads put out on albums like 2007's
Wish. However, that's not to say her dance music is poor at all. It is perhaps a bit hit or miss, but when it hits it tends to hit well. "Brand New World" could have been an
m-flo track in another life, energetic and well-produced. "Koi Wa Groovy X 2" sounds like a leftover piece of
the Miami Sound Machine. "Love Machine Gun" is at once funky and full of basic pop chord progressions -- clashing with itself stylistically but coming to a decent head. When the music isn't good, however, it's entirely flat. The attempt at Spanish pop with "Baila Baila" uses steel drums that magically remove the Spanish flavor and most of the energy. "Body" never quite gets off the ground. "Trust You" moves back to the ballad form that really gives
Ito her power, but somehow gets too repetitive to give her room to stretch out her vocals in any meaningful way.
Dream isn't a bad album by any measure, but it's also not quite up to the standard of quality that
Ito previously set for herself.