Month: September 2016

[Review] Shooting Love – Laboum

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Laboum has returned to the stage with a brand new song. They made their first comeback in 2016 with Journey to Atlantis, which I totally loved. Just 4 months later, they returned with a new mini album and their newest title track Shooting Love. Furthermore, Laboum topped my weekly KPOP chart for last week. That was just my way of sliding my charts into these posts!

They came back with a pretty good song. I have to admit. It was catchy and addictive to listen to. I totally fell for it. But there are a few things that did disappoint me. The song sounds more childish (and at parts, cringeworthy). Journey to Atlantis was still that cutesy aegyo concept, but there was a more mature vibe to it. Parts of Shooting Love sounded like a kid was making shooting sounds. Some parts would have sounded a lot better in cheerleading format, but instead, we got kiddy format. I did like the rest of the vocals. The “Bang Bang Bang Boy” reeled me in pretty fast (though it did take me a while to figure out what they were saying, which I don’t really know why, though). The rap was unnecessary and was probably the other part of the song which I did not like. The pop vibe in the song was pretty great. I liked the instrumental to the song. Consistent throughout and the extra beats added for the chorus came at the right time. Really made me happy to listen throughout the rest of the song (minus the rap).

We really need to address this ongoing use of guns in the videos. I get they try to avoid the rating officials and want something cute rather than violent to be in the video, but honestly, it is getting pretty damn embarrassing and ridiculous. Have no clue on what is occurring the video. I get that they are split into teams. One of the teams comes with bombs and spy gear, while the other team comes with grenades and pink guns. I guess they are competing for someone’s love and trying to eliminate the other team. While my idea is ridiculous, I am going with what I think. And though that is pretty cringeworthy and really childish to watch, I find the video quite interesting and amusing. Plus dropping the bomb in the bin somehow managed to stop the bomb from blowing everything on camera to bits. Yeah, I don’t know. I loved the camera work in this video. It made the video look quite cool at some parts. In regards to the ending, I don’t know if the video was actually meant to be the “shooting of a (terrible) movie”.

The dance was great. The editing in the music video made the dance look quite cool and really made me expect a lot. I was a little disappointed with the stage performances, but only a little bit. Overall, I thought the dance was fitting for the song. Though I do have to ask, what were with the random “place hands under each boob” part of the chorus? Got a little lost there, but I loved the use of the handguns (makes sense) and the imaginary bow and arrow (also makes sense) in the dance. Just that random move I don’t find any sense in it.

Final Rating – 7.5/10

 

[Review] Chewing Gum – NCT Dream

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NCT is back (once again) but this time with a brand new subunit, NCT Dream. This new subunit consist of 7 members: Mark (who has also debuted with NCT 127 and NCT U), Ren Jun, Jeno, Haechan (who is also a part of NCT 127), Jaemin, Chen Le and Jisung. Every time I hear this song, I have to let out a sigh.Their average age as a group is around 15 years old. I also did some research and all the members are younger than me. I feel old and am getting old.

This is another amazing song to add to the mix of recent releases. It is a completely different style to what the previous subunits have done. To be precise, this song is more pop than any of 127 or U’s releases. Furthermore, it is a completely different style to what SM puts out. It is such a colourful and bright song. It is damn catchy and addictive. “Chew-Chew-Chew-Chewing Gum“. It is easy to remember and you will be singing along in not time. Even the vocal work and the rapping in this song is pretty good. It doesn’t sound like a new debut group, but one that has tonnes of the experience in the bag. The instrumental is pretty nice as well. It was consistent throughout. No major slow downs to throw the track off its … track. Even when it came to the rap, the song remained true to itself and didn’t change in any way. So many songs do that and somehow manage to ruin the vibe and the flow of the song. This is by far the best NCT release yet, mainly because I fell for the song as soon as I heard it.

The music video is definitely colourful and vibrant. Fits in perfectly with the song and the concept. As the average age of the group is quite young, it makes sense for them to go for this concept, the scouts. Move over school boy concepts, make way for the boy scouts! It is pretty unique, to be honest, I give that to them. So, from what happened in the video, I guess the camp leader is not too big on chewing gum. He lines them up and makes the boys spit out whatever is in their mouth if he catches them chewing. My question is: why are you acting as if it is disgusting? You asked someone to spit on your hand. Even if you are not expecting chewing gum, I don’t think anything nice will be coming out… But per usual, you tell kids to do one thing and they will do the other. So they have a hidden stash and at night, they have fun. Until the guy comes in, so they have to hide. But somehow, they trap the camp leader guy with chewing gum… Okay, towards the end of the video, it becomes a little confusing. Despite that, the video was fun yet interesting to watch. Not complaining about anything here. I liked it a lot and I keep coming back to the video and watching it.

Hands down. This has to be one of the best dance performances of the year. They are dancing on freaking segways. I can’t even ride a segway. I never even seen one in real life. I am amazed. After one week of promotions, I am in awe. None of them has had a stuff up on the boards and they make it look like it too easy. Even when they are not on the boards, the guys still manage to blow me away with their moves. Damn… For a pop based song, I think the quality of the dance was excellent. All I can do is the water sprinkler and I still manage to look like a clumsy human being.

Honestly excellent debut. Final Rating – 9.5/10

[Review] Secret Time – Spica

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It has been over two years (apparently two years felt like an eternity) since we last heard anything from these girls. Not much has happened in the previous two years since their last release, Ghost, which was not even promoted at all. They have changed to a different company, CJ E&M Entertainment (earlier this year) and since then, their activities have increased. Notably, Bohyung is appearing on the show, Girl Spirit, which allows main vocalists of underrated girl groups to shine.

If you don’t remember Spica or have not heard of them, remember them now. Their vocals and unique retro songs back in the day made them quite popular. And now they are back with the superb harmonies and vocals with this new song. It is as if there was no 2-year gap that could have undermined their vocal abilities. I am amazed at the quality of the song. Sure, it does fall short compared to other songs at the moment however I liken this song to like a “re-debut” rather than a comeback. Okay, more about the song. It is a very nice nu-disco track that makes me want to dance. It is funky and retro-y, fitting really well into the songs that Spica had released in the past. As I mentioned before, the vocal work in this song is amazing. I feel like they selected the right person for each part of the song. Jiwon, in particular, fits the chorus really well, in my opinion. Bohyung and Boa sounded amazing together. Narae and Sihyun (they don’t really shine in the song) sang really well. While they do all sound different, they came together really well and made the song flow spectacularly. I really loved the small short segments of no sounds, right after each chorus. It gave what followed through right after a nice punch and it made the song more vibrant and cool. The beat was there throughout the whole song and it contributed to that nice vibrant feel.

Not exactly fond of the video. I guess the song had a party-like vibe to it, so it made sense for a party to appear in the video. Love the idea of the skating centre. The set (and the idea) does bring you back to the times when roller skates used to be cool. I just feel like the events in the video are quite outrageous and extremely random, to the point where it did undermine the quality of the video (for me). I loved everything else regarding the choreography shots and the closeups. We need to talk about the “gun” nature in KPOP videos one day. This pretty much adds to my frustration when it comes to guns. The video, I admit, looked quite hardcore then. And then it turns to bubble guns and the girls are all smiling the next minute. I had a “huh?” face for the rest of the video. It makes no sense and it ruined the mood of the video. I feel like the video could have lost of the craziness and make it feel like a party. It is a way to capture our attentions, but as I said before, it was over the top. Like the addition of the backup dancers to the party was far too late.

Dance wise, it was okay. Sure, it could have been better. But Spica is definitely highlighting their vocals in this song. Hence if they had a more upgraded dance, their vocals were gonna be sacrificed. I understand that and for that, I can’t really say much about. Quality first. I did like the end of the performance where they line up in a diagonal line and do the “ssshh” gesture. That looked cool.

Final Rating – 8/10