Year: 2017

[Review] Shine Forever – Monsta X

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Monsta X recently returned with their first full-length album and Beautiful in March. Fast forward a few months and the group is officially back with their first repackaged album ever, which includes two songs, Shine Forever and Gravity, along with all the tracks were part of The Clan Part 2.5: The Final Chapter. Though I did miss out on the opportunity to review their first album, I will be doing a full album review for their repackaged album, which you can expect at the end of the month (can’t say exact day, just expect it to come :))

Following Beautiful‘s EDM influence, Shine Forever goes for another hard hitting track. While they do accomplish that very easily with the intensity and music genre, the track falls short in a few minor aspects. The instrumental felt very generic and failed to be mind blowing. Beautiful was good because there was an addictive melody, which made it much easier to enjoy. Shine Forever doesn’t seem to have that and felt more like a flat line. The vocal work for the group. It only seems like Kihyun could manage to drag himself to the forefront of the intense moments in the song (i.e. chorus), where the rest of the members felt like they were embedded in the instrumental, which made their parts seem less memorable. The verses share the same fate and just didn’t have enough energy to make it feel memorable as Kihyun’s parts in the song. The raps were pretty good and seemed to go well with the instrumental during their parts. But that is just my breakdown of the song. Do I like the song? Yes. Not their best, but still a great track to listen to.

I actually like the video. It seems like Kihyun and Minhyuk got into an accident, which left Kihyun blind (hence he was wearing blindfolds). It seems like Minhyuk is constantly reminded of the events, which leave him very guilt ridden. Somehow, Wonho finds out the truth and turns away from Minhyuk, with the rest of the members learning of the accident, which they all leave Minhyuk feeling guilty and sadden. Kihyun, though still blind, doesn’t blame him for the accident and comforts him, who I also assume also convinces the others that Minhyuk was not to blame. In the end, they band together and help Kihyun either regain his sight or provide some sort of light to allow him to see again. Though, it doesn’t necessarily amaze me, the plotline was good and cinematography was cool as well. Their acting isn’t the best but they did a pretty good job overall.

[UPDATED] Their performance does look a bit bland on the outside. But it does pack a punch as it progresses along. While there isn’t anything that memorable in this routine, there is something that I can’t pinpoint, but it makes this performance captivating. Their past routines had a key dance move, but this doesn’t. Yet, I still can’t take my eyes off them.

Song – 7.5/10
Music Video – 9/10
Performance – 7/10 [UPDATED]
Overall Rating – 8/10 [UPDATED]

[Review] Remember – Nine Muses

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Nine Muses are officially back with their latest title track, Remember. Their last official comeback as a full group was in 2015 with Sleepless Night. Since then, a number of the girls have “graduated” from the group, leaving only 5 members (Hyemi, Kyungri, Sojin, Keumjo and Sungha). Sungha is currently on hiatus, hence Nine Muses will be promoting as a four-member girl group for this comeback.

Because of my exams, I missed out on all the teasers and the highlight medley for the release. So when I checked out the music video a few hours back, I was listening to it with no idea what to expect. And I am glad that I did. The song blew me away within just the first listen. While I do think I would have also been blown away with the song if I had an idea in regards to which route it would go down, not knowing made it feel so much more impactful. The song starts off eerie and haunting, with an acoustic guitar in the background. Then the song reaches the pre-chorus, which probably was the height of all that haunting-ness. And then the song built up in an instant and launched itself into the electronic, bass-filled and intense chorus. The contrast between the two parts sounded very cool and was quite unexpected. The song returned to the same initial haunting vibe, but this time with a constant thudding sound. While the same formula was used, it was reinventive each time, making it feel fresh and different each time. Their vocal work was amazing and the rapping was low-key amazing. The layers at the end sounded gave the song the feel of complexity without feeling messy and hence made it more interesting. I may have over did my breakdown of the song, but do check out this song! It is not one to miss.

Like how the song starts off, the music video is equally as eerie and haunting. The story isn’t confirmed yet, but this is what I understand from the video. Each member represents a stage in life. Keumjo is the youngest stage and we see her running away from a guy (presumably her father, who abused her), holding a bear. We then see Hyemi, who seems to be a more grown up version of Keumjo and fully understands what is happening. I presume that the girl ended up killing her father. We fast track to Sojin, who is now in the world and working, where she meets the photographer guy. And that leads onto Kyungri. Now, I don’t know if the girl decided to hate every other guy in the world (and goes around killing them) or the photographer guy did something to her (like cheat on her), but we see Kyungri shoot, kill and dispose of the body. We see at the end that the members make up one person and we see them burn the guy in the bathtub. He has photos with him, which I assume were all the girls he used to be with and hence that kind of proves that he cheated on them and since the abuse her father inflicted on her was so traumatic, she thought of only to kill. The bear burns as well because it represents innocence, which was lost at the young age through the abuse. That is just my take on the video. But all in all, the imagery and the feel of the video is fitting for the song and I pretty much liked the entireity of the video.

I am quite sure the accompanying performance would look great on a proper stage with fantastic lighting. But from what I could see from the showcase, the performance looked amazing. They went with a sexy comeback this time and they did not joke around with it. Not groundbreaking, but still looked amazing.

Song – 10/10
Music Video – 10/10
Performance –  8/10
Overall Rating – 9.5/10

[Weekly Chart] 2nd Week of June 2017

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Sorry for the lack of uploads over the weekend. I had one final exam to study for and now I am officially free for the next three weeks or so weeks. So, it is time to catch up!!! A review will be uploaded later tonight (or little past midnight), so do expect it.

Cosmic Girl’s took over the top of the chart this week with their latest track, Happy. Pentagon went on to debut at second place with Critical Beauty and the past few week’s reigning song, Don’t Wanna Cry by Seventeen falls to third position. T-ARA and Astro take out this week’s 4th and 5th position respectively.

Two chart topping artists, BLACKPINK and Mamamoo will be making their respective comebacks this week. It is going to be one interesting battle. Monsta X and Nine Muse have already dropped their songs (a few hours ago) and you can expect reviews for their tracks very soon. Hwang Chi Yeul will also be making his debut (if he garners enough listens this week) with his new song (He made his comeback last week, but due to my exams, I have decided to let the song sneak onto the charts officially this week).

Here is a legend to help you understand the chart’s status column below:
Green (↑)  – Song has gone up in ranking
Red (↓) – Song has gone down in ranking
Blue (=) – Song has remained in the same position as the previous week
Orange (new) – Song debuts on the chart
Grey (Final Week) – Song appears on the chart for its final week.

11th Jun – 17th Jun 2017
Title Artist Status
1 Happy WJSN (Cosmic Girls) (↑ 10)
2 Critical Beauty Pentagon (new)
3 Don’t Wanna Cry Seventeen (↓ 2)
4 What’s My Name? T-ARA (new)
5 Baby ASTRO (↓ 2)
6 Why Don’t You Know Chungha (↑ 9)
7 I Smile DAY6 (=)
8 Dance Dance DAY6 (↑ 6)
9 Hwi Hwi Laboum (↓ 3) (Final Week)
10 Lonely Sistar (↓ 8)
11 Cherry Bomb NCT127 (new)
12 Untitled, 2014 G-Dragon (Big Bang) (↓ 4)
13 Sun, Moon, Star KNK (↓ 9)
14 Mayday April (↑ 2)
15 Signal TWICE (↑ 3)
16 Easy Love SF9 (↓ 3) (Final Week)
17 Wind FT Island (↓ 12)
18 Shangri-La VIXX (↓ 9)
19 365 Fresh Triple H (↑14)
20 Suddenly Roy Kim (↑ 4)
21 Shadow Daehyun (B.A.P) (=)
22 Ending Scene IU (↑ 16)
23 Rumour K.A.R.D (=)
24 Palette IU ft. G-Dragon (Big Bang) (↑ 3)
25 Beautiful Pentagon (↓ 6)
26 Egoist Roy Kim (↓ 1)
27 Hello Hello B.I.G (↓ 7)
28 Cactus A.C.E (↓ 18)
29 At The End Changsub (BTOB) (↑ 13)
30 Mind Control TOPSECRET (↓ 13)

Songs leaving the chart this week (and will not appear starting next week):

Title Artist Peak Position No. Of weeks in Top 30 Final Week’s Position
Hwi Hwi Laboum 1 (x3) 9 9
Ninano Gong Minzy 13 (x2) 5 37
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo Berry Good 5 3 –
Easy Love SF9 5 9 16
Paper Umbrella Yesung (Super Junior) 18 1 50

I am off to write the next review, finish off the book I have been reading for the past few months and get some sleep after finishing my exams! Enjoy your week and stay well!

 

[Review] Cherry Bomb – NCT 127

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NCT 127 has returned with their latest mini album and the newest title track, Cherry Bomb. The subunit previously made their return with Limitless at the start of the year. The fandom for NCT recently got their official fandom name and now are known as NCT Zen.

Cherry Bomb is song full of experimentation that was handed to NCT 127. For the most part, it could have been a great song. The hip hop influence with the dance style instrumental makes it into a potentially great song. But the mix up of genres that the song kept throwing at it changed it up a little too much and that took the greatness out of the song. To me, from the start of the song to the 1:20 mark of the song was amazing. It could have rivalled Limitless (which I have grown to like quite a bit). But once the vocal parts kick in, it feels like a completely different song with the same instrumental. And then the rest of the song goes back and forth, with other different styles thrown into the mix as well. Stand alone, I thought they would have been great. But together, the song doesn’t flow that nicely. It honestly felt I was listening to three different songs jumbled about. Their repetitive does try to become catchy but to me, they come off as somewhat annoying as we approach the end. Overall, what could have been a good song ended up on the other side of the spectrum.

I think the rough vibes from the song are presented nicely in the video, through the industrial backgrounds. The industrial backgrounds look quite cool and extremely fitting. Just the cartoon animations that were used throughout the video could have been replaced with some a little better, like the more real-looking (but you know they are fake) cherries at the end. The cartoons made the video look more childish, while the song does go for a tougher vibe. Besides that detail, everything looked quite good.

I think everyone watches the video to see the guys get low. They nearly do the splits, but they don’t. Either way, getting that low already seems painful enough. Overall, the performance looked quite great, as well. It doesn’t amaze (besides the half splits) me that much.

Song – 5/10
Music Video – 7.5/10
Performance – 7/10
Overall Rating – 6/10

[Review] What’s My Name – T-ARA

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Unfortunately, we have another group to add to the growing list of goodbyes. While their official disbandment won’t be until December, T-ARA has confirmed that the inevitable will be occurring. They last promoted with TIAMO at the end of last year with 6 members. Their contracts had expired last month and Soyeon and Boram chose not to renew it, hence ending their run with the group. The remaining four members (Qri, Eunjung, Hyomin and Jiyeon) chose to stay together until December this year. While it is not goodbye yet, this release will be the group’s 13th and final mini-album.

T-ARA is the one group who is saying goodbye without deviating from their usual upbeat releases. Don’t want to remind everyone about the ongoing disbandment news, but those groups have all chosen to return one last time with a ballad-like song. But it is still a normal day in the T-Ara camp with their upbeat sound. While I personally do like the song and think it is quite catchy, it does lack impact. There is definitely potential for the song to be dynamic and powerful. But it seems to hold back in that area, which does make it sound lacking in a way. The instrumental is probably the biggest example of that. It sounded cool and could have potentially become amazing. But instead, it didn’t seem to stand out. They could have done more to that funky xylophone sound, but instead, it seemed to just be there. The vocal work here is not groundbreaking, nor does it sound like their best. But it also not their worst. If there was one word to describe the song, the right one would probably “generic”.

Now, like every other fan of the group, I patiently waited last night for the music video. From what I understood, the video was meant to be up at 6 pm KST (7 pm where I live). But not a single message to communicate a delay or some sort of explanation for why it was uploaded late. I don’t want to sound like a fussy person, but it seems like their company has just given up on them. Okay, moving back to the video. It looked good, but I couldn’t stand how empty and lacking the video was. There were scenes of the girls looking back at their relationship with the dude and for a moment, some seriousness. And then at the end, they join hands together and smile. Given the circumstances regarding the comeback, I understand it. But I think it could have been explained or presented in a completely different way, which would make the video feel more engaging and interesting. To me, the video just confirms what I mentioned before regarding the company. Moving to a more brighter side of this review, I personally loved how they included references to Boram and Soyeon, through the six bottles, six pencils and six desks.

The performance was good but like the rest of the comeback, it didn’t feel like the right level of energy was channelling through it.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 6/10
Performance – 6/10
Overall Rating – 6.5/10

[Review] Critical Beauty – Pentagon

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Pentagon has returned with a brand new song, Critical Beauty and their third mini-album, titled as Ceremony. The group made their debut last year with Gorilla and later went on to return with Can You Feel It?. This year, they followed up with Pretty Pretty promotions. E-Dawn and Hui joined Hyuna to form Triple H and made their debut with 365 Fresh. The full album also consists of the pre-release Beautiful, with is one amazing song.

Critical Beauty seems to stand out in the crowd. And for the same reasons, the song doesn’t sit right. In other words, I can see both sides of the coin for this song. It’s unique in a way that it mashes sounds together that you don’t really expect to work, but it does. The song opens up with a very notable Elvis Presley Jail House Rock riff. That alone already perked my ears up. It then mixes hip-hop into the song. Together, it makes the song more interesting and (as mentioned) unique. But the same combination sounded very sluggish and slow. There was no buildup, and it kind felt stalled. The vocals were quite good. What the song does lack in tempo (for me, at least), it makes up through the vocal work of the song. Just minus the whiny E-Dawn sequence we get in the song. The more I listen to it, the catchier it sounds. It just doesn’t get to the point where that slowness (mentioned previously) could be overlooked and to me, that was the biggest issue with the song. But overall, it is worth checking out for its individuality and uniqueness.

Thier music video seems to match the lyrics of the song. I interpret the lyrics of the song as the guys being extremely confident around their lover, singing lines like “what’s the point of asking what’s obvious”. The guys came off as confident men in the video through their charismatic gazes into the camera. And I thought that was pretty cool.  Just a simple observation, but there seem to be one camera angle that felt like it was being overused. The camera seemed always be positioned at a low height and continuously shot while looking up. Overall, the video was dry for the most part, but it went well with the song.

The performance was actually quite good. I liked the introduction and their formations throughout the performance. That confidence seems to carry through to the dance as well.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 7/10

[Review] My Swagger – GOT7

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While I did promise to do a set of reviews for JPOP releases by girl groups, I am having a hard time finding songs to fill that set. But yet, there is an abundance of boy groups releasing JPOP songs. So, for today, I have picked one song by one of my favourite groups, GOT7. My Swagger, released in May, ended up topping charts in Japan, showing the group’s popularity.

Right off the bat, just by listening to the first few seconds of their song, you could tell it was going to be a messy song. They do not mess around with their intense and more hardcore EDM sound. I tend to get worried when it comes to such songs because some aspects are hidden under the midst of all those loud sounds, such as the vocals. But I would gladly headbang to this. I know.  The song itself was quite catchy and left a positive impression (i.e. no headaches) on me when I first listened to it. Those vocals weren’t hidden at all and not once did the song feel repetitive. I think the vocal work contributed to that. As for the raps though, I don’t think it is their personal best. It felt dragged out and their tone didn’t feel as hard-hitting as in their Korean releases. The build-up was quite good, hyping the song up until the beat is dropped for the chorus. Not exactly fond of the ending, though. Overall, not a total fan of the song style, but they make it sound pretty good.

I thought the use of the pictures was interesting. They didn’t amount to much but it made the video look appealing. One thing I did notice was that the video started off much more focused on the tough sound and seriousness. But that was kind of dissolved into nothing as we proceeded with the video and the guys started to interact with the camera and each other. I know it is an odd observation that probably would be more disapproved (such as the guys were always like that from the very start). While it fit the music video, in the end, I thought it was rather odd. Poor Youngjae (at the end) and the moment he realised something was up. Overall, the video wasn’t too bad.

The dance was pretty good. Given the song style and their capabilities as dancers, they did pretty much was expected. Though I think we saw more of the choreography during the chorus, rather than the verses (so I am essentially going from that).

Song – 8/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 7/10
Overall Rating – 7.5/10

[Weekly Chart] 1st Week of June 2017

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Hey, everybody. Welcome to the first week of June. It’s will be another quick post since I am in the midst of exams. Just to let you know, the charts for next week will not be released on Sunday (18th June) but on a later date instead.

Seventeen remains in the top spot for the third week in a row. Sistar (as mentioned last week) would rise and that is what they did, rising to 2nd position. Astro dropped from 2nd position to 3rd position, while KNK rose from 5th to 4th. FT Island’s newest track, Wind, debuts at fifth place.

Possibly debuting next week on the charts is Eddy Kim, Pentagon, Jongup, Taeil, T-Ara, Hwang Chi Yeul & NCT127.

Here is a legend to help you understand the chart’s status column below:
Green (↑)  – Song has gone up in ranking
Red (↓) – Song has gone down in ranking
Blue (=) – Song has remained in the same position as the previous week
Orange (new) – Song debuts on the chart
Grey (Final Week) – Song appears on the chart for its final week.

4th Jun – 10th Jun 2017
Title Artist Status
1 Don’t Wanna Cry Seventeen (=)
2 Lonely Sistar (↑ 1)
3 Baby Astro (↓ 1)
4 Sun, Moon, Star KNK (↑ 1)
5 Wind FT Island (new)
6 Hwi Hwi Laboum (↑ 3)
7 I Smile DAY6 (new)
8 Untitled, 2014 G-Dragon (Big Bang) (new)
9 Shangri-La VIXX (↓ 5)
10 Cactus A.C.E (↑ 27)
11 Happy WJSN (Cosmic Girls) (new)
12 Wannabe Hyoyeon (SNSD) (new)
13 Easy Love SF9 (↑ 6)
14 Dance Dance DAY6 (↓ 4)
15 Why Don’t You Know Chungha (new)
16 Mayday April (↓ 9)
17 Mind Control TOPSECRET (new)
18 Signal Twice (↑ 2)
19 Beautiful Pentagon (↑ 9)
20 Hello Hello B.I.G (↑ 15)
21 Shadow Daehyun (B.A.P) (new)
22 Calling You HIGHLIGHT (↓ 11)
23 Rumour K.A.R.D (↓ 17)
24 Suddenly Roy Kim (↑ 19)
25 Egoist Roy Kim (↓ 3)
26 Bling Bling iKON (↓ 10)
27 Palette IU ft. G-Dragon (Big Bang) (↓ 13)
28 Night Rather Than Day EXID (↓ 7) (Final Week)
29 Only You 24K (↓ 11)
30 Will You Go Out With Me? DIA (↑ 14)

Songs leaving the chart this week (and will not appear starting next week):

Title Artist Peak Position No. Of weeks in Top 30 Final Week’s Position
Can’t Love You Anymore IU ft. Oh Hyuk 33 – –
Please BLACK6IX 45 – –
Love Is Teen Top 9 4 34
Night Rather Than Day EXID 3 (x2) 9 28
The Spring Eunji (APINK) 20 1 –
Steal Your Heart Unit Black (BOYS24) 16 3 50
Pattern Lee Hae Ri (Davichi) 13 2 –
Hibernation Yesung (Super Junior) 26 1 –

Hope you all have an amazing week, once again!

[Review] Why Don’t You Know – Chungha ft. Nucksal

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One of the former I.O.I members, Kim Chungha, have made her official solo debut with her song, Why Don’t You Know and min-album, Hands On Me. She (from what I remember) is the first member of I.O.I to make her solo debut, since disbanding. She is currently under M&H Entertainment and has been a highly anticipated solo act.

Why Don’t You Know tries its best to live up to the standards that have been set prior to its release. And it sadly falls short of those expectations. For the most part, the song is mildly good to listen to. The tropical EDM sound is quite nice. I personally enjoyed the instrumental of the track, but I feel like constant releases of the tropical genre may end up becoming repetitive in the future. But besides that, there was nothing standing out when I listened to the track and the same impression sticks to even after many replays. Her vocals are okay. They do shine, but I feel like she doesn’t shine enough. She does, however, sound like she spent most of her times pushing her voice to the limits, especially in the chorus. The featuring rapper, Nucksal, did not need to be in the song. I felt like his part took the song a step back, rather than a step forward. It also cut the flow of the song, which left Chungha and the instrumental having to recover (and quite poorly) to the original state of the song.

The music video was a mess in my eyes. It felt like there was, visually, too much going on and the editing necessarily didn’t help with that. The video could be cut in multiple sections. Let’s simply call the section ‘outdoors’, ‘aesthetic’ and ‘white room’. They didn’t go with each other and the editing made it feel all disconnected from each other. There wasn’t a common thread between each section, which made it harder to enjoy the video. If we looked at the individual scenes on their own, everything probably would have looked good and crisp.

Chungha performance looked quite good and matched the song perfectly. It just didn’t have that many memorable moments and was quite easily forgotten.

Song  – 6/10
Music Video – 4/10
Performance – 6/10
Overall Rating – 5.5/10

[Review] Untitled, 2014 – G-Dragon (Big Bang)

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Within just an hour of release, there are only a few artists that are capable of debuting at the top of charts in South Korea. Actually, that might be incorrect, since I am only aware of one occurrence of that happening (just yesterday!). I am referring to the long awaited comeback of G-Dragon. And he has been topping charts everywhere around the world with his latest mini album, Kwon Ji Yong. The main track is Untitled, 2014 and is the first YG artist in a while to only come back with one main title track (not exactly sure if promotions will actually occur).

And of course, the Digital King himself went with a completely unanticipated style with this track. Though I am quite sure G-Dragon has released ballads in the past, I don’t think I have heard anything from him that is this heartfelt. Just by listening to it, you can tell that it goes deep. There are two parts of this song. The melodic piano instrumental receives big ticks from me. It’s simple and clean. Nothing too fancy. But the real winner has to be his dominating and amazing vocals. If the instrumental received big ticks, then G-Dragon’s voice has to receive massive golden stars. I think that description alone tells you what I think of the song entirely. I  am literally just staying still for the entire song, every time I replay it. I am in awe and am speechless at the same time. There is no highlight. I usually point out to a certain section of the song that I love the most. But it is evident that for the very first time, I think the entire song is the highlight. We all know what G-Dragon is capable of, but yet he manages to blow everyone (including myself) in one away or another, majority of the times he come back.

The music video showed his professionalism and skills. Essentially, the video was shot in under an hour. That is something unheard of. According to the new articles I am reading, the idea was extremely simple (which matched the simplicity of the song). The video focuses on G-Dragon’s performance, not content or complexity. And that is what is delivered. I love a good old simple video and this one probably one of the few that does it right. While we do not see G-Dragon that clearly, it is an amazing video to watch that matches the song perfectly.

Song – 10/10
Music Video – 10/10
Overall Rating – 10/10

[Review] Happy – WJSN (Cosmic Girls)

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After their comeback in January with I Wish, Cosmic Girls are finally back with their latest title track, Happy and their very first album. Like the previous two reviews, there will be an album review coming for this album as well. Just expect all the album reviews to come out after the 19th of June. But until then, let’s start the review.

For a song titled as Happy, it is extremely cheerful and ‘happy’ which to me is a big plus. Some songs try to change it up and be unique. That sometimes takes the feelings and emotions away from the song. Happy keeps its real by sticking with the sound all throughout. As a fan who thoroughly enjoyed their last two comebacks for its more ‘cosmic’ sounds and concepts, I was a tad disappointed to learn that they were not going continuing with that sound. To the point where I sat through the first listening of Happy not feeling that happy. But with more listens to the song, I have officially fallen in love with it. It may not be their best sound, but it is still quite a nice song to listen to. Their vocals and raps are okay. Bright but not memorable. The instrumental shared the same fate but I did think it was quirky sounding for a while. It may not sound like I am enjoying the song, but I can assure you that the chorus has started to catch on. Within a few more listens, I am sure I will be singing and dancing to this song constantly.

I love the video. The teaser had a bit of plagiarism issue, where they have been accused of copying JPOP’s Perfume concept. But we are not here to talk about a teaser. We are here to talk about the dodgeball fun in this video. I believe the concept they were going for was cheerleaders, which was reflected on stage as well. It matched the bright and vibrant sets and the sound of the song as well. What I also loved about the video was the girls in the scenes or backgrounds. While it has been done before, it looks fresh and cool. What I am exactly referring to how there are multiple members in one scene. One would get the centre postion because it was their part to sing, while the rest of the members carry on doing their own stuff. I know. Nearly all music videos do that. But it legit looked a unique thing was going on here. Overall it was a great video to watch.

The performance matched the song. It used that cheerleading concept and applied a more cute style to it. Overall, it was memorable but it is was still nice to watch. I liked the pom poms (not exactly sure what they are called in cheerleading). They added a more realistic touch to the stage and music video.
Song – 7/10
Music Video – 8/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 7.5/10

[Review] Wind – FT Island

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FT Island is back with a brand new album, which celebrates their 10 years since their debut. The group debuted back on June 7, 2007. Exactly 10 years later, the group dropped their 10-year anniversary album, which consists of Wind (the title track), a remake version of Lovesick and 11 other self-produced tracks. 10 years is a very long time and I wish to say congratulations to the guys for reaching 10-year milestone. While their album is quite lengthy, I too smell an album review coming your way.

Wind is amazing. Breath-taking. Spectacular. Throw in any other positive adjective that makes the song sound amazing. I think we all expected some grand and ultra high quality, especially given their recent releases and this being their 10th-year celebration. And I personally think they delivered. The song started off with the orchestral sound and Hongki’s raspy’s voice. And for a while, it does stay like that, up until the second verse. That was fairly interesting, giving how they are a band. The entrance of the drums and guitars lifted the song up even more. It also allowed the song to build up and feel more impactful, which made it even better. Likewise, I love the instrumental break/bridge of the song. You think that the start was slow, the rest of the song would follow suit, but rather, it ended up turning into a rock ballad, in the end, that was equally as jammable as other songs released by other bands. I think before I end the review anymore, I have to return to Hongki’s vocals. It was just pure bliss to hear him sing this song alone. And he does an amazing job at it (the live is even better, given his condition). If you want to listen to his vocals or to a great rock ballad, this is the one to check out.

Ahhh… another indecipherable music video. First of all, it is a beautiful video to watch (even though I had to watch it a few times to try to understand it – I got distracted by the music). The visuals and cinematography were just perfect. The burst of sound we get for the final chorus was paired very nicely with an exploding flower, which blew my mind. Moving onto the plot, my guess is that they lost their lovers and hence why they all look heartbroken. Not exactly sure if that is it, but it seems to be that way every time I rewatch the video. There seems to be more to it, especially since how eerie the start of the video was and how Jaejin was running after her in the end. My other guess would be that the members died (or only one of them) and might be the reason why she was running away (in response to the news) and why the members all looked heartbroken. I don’t know. But it didn’t take away from the aesthetics of the video, which made it worthwhile to watch.

Song – 10/10
Music Video – 9/10
Overall Rating – 9.5/10

 

 

 

[Review] I Smile – DAY6

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It’s that time of the month where we reach the 6th of each month and DAY6 makes their monthly return with a brand new song. But what makes their June release even more special is that their June release is actually their first album! Their main title track is I Smile, but it features all the songs that they have released on a monthly basis since the start of the year including I Wait, You Were Beautiful, How Can I Say, I’m Serious & Dance Dance. I also smell an album review coming your way.

I Smile returns to the emotional side of music which the guys have previously released, before dropping Summer suited tracks. The first thing I noticed while listening to the song for the first time was the buildup, which was beautiful. DAY6 songs are great for rocking out to and this is not an exception. It might not be as intense as their other tracks, but this one hits the mark when it comes to that emotional side. Their best yet, actually. Their vocals are amazing, as usual. But what makes this track even better the instrumental break which they have during the bridge (?). That gave the song the right level of intensity it needed. It also changed the song up a tiny bit by introducing synths. Overall, DAY6 has continuously pushed out great songs each month and this month is not an exception.

Complimenting the emotional side of the song, the music video did a wonderful job of captivating those feelings. Each member did a pretty good job at staring into the camera with a lot of emotion. Essentially, one of the guys sees his former lover at a bar where he is performing with another person. The lyrics show how they continue to smile for her, despite being heartbroken. And the videos ties in nicely with the lyrics. The cinematography was pretty good and the solo shots of the members looked amazing. The first few seconds of silence of the music video was oddly painful for me. I don’t know why. I don’t know if it was their intention, but I thought some of the backdrops during the instrumental break were similar to the ones used in previous music videos. They looked oddly familiar and very cool, nonetheless. And finally, the lead actress in the video was very pretty. I honestly could not stop staring at her.

Song – 9/10
Music Video – 9/10
Overall Rating – 9/10

[Review] Mind Control – TOPSECRET

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TOPSECRET is officially back with their latest song, which was released on Monday (5th of May). The 7-member boy group previously made their debut with She (which I did not end up reviewing) back in January and are under JSL Company. 

The song is your generic upbeat Summer track from a boy group. But there is a slight twist that makes the song a little more compelling to listen to. It fits in with the rest of the Summer tracks for the Summer season. But that just means it doesn’t stand out that much in the crowd. There wasn’t anything special about worth talking about. Their vocals and rapping abilities are pretty good, but there isn’t anything amazing about them. But that small part right after the chorus really lifts the song up and gives it an intense sound. It also makes the song brighter and vibrant. It changes up the song quite a bit, but it works well. At first, I thought it sounded weird and odd. But after a few more listens, it ended up sounding quite normal. The rest of the song was forgettable but because of that different post-chorus section, the song will probably get more attention in the future from me.

The music video is set at a school. The guys are in science class and learning about hormones. I don’t blame them for falling asleep. Just reading the subtitles had me falling asleep. But the guys somehow create a formula which gets everyone dancing. They were very wasteful on their part, by over spraying everyone and then wondering why they ran out. And then they somehow make another massive batch and proceed to gather everyone in a hall and make them dance. While I do question the plot (yeah… I do this to a few videos), I think it was a great way to incorporate “Mind Control” into the video. For once I don’t really enjoy the choreography shots, but overall, I don’t mind watching the video over and over again.

These guys will be shuffling their way through the next few months. I remember when shuffling was a trend at school. Minus the shuffling though, I thought the dance was rather weak. It was fun to watch though.

Song – 6/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 6/10
Overall Rating – 6.5/10

[Review] Cactus – A.C.E

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A.C.E is a brand new boy group joining the Korean music scene. They are under Beat Interactive and made their official debut last month with Cactus. The group consist of five members Donghun, Jun, Wow, Jason and Chan. On a funnier side note, but the group is currently known for their long legs and very short shorts. More on that later though.

While they have an odd title, the song delves into a more intense and bass heavy style of EDM, which actually sounds quite good. The verses feel quite empty compared to the rest of the song, but what they did was used that opportunity to highlight their vocal potential. I personally think that is a smart idea. But when it comes to the chorus and the dance breaks, the song does not hold back with the intensity. It’s perfect for them to show off their dance skills during that massive hit of energy, otherwise known as the dance breaks. It is the type of song that would get your heart pumping at a club. While it does sound noisy and dense, the sound actually works quite well. The more I am listening to the song, the more I fall into it. The instrumental makes it addictive to listen and it gives you that same feeling of being at the edge of your seat, especially the ending. For a debut song, you need to get noticed and they definitely debuted with a song that definitely got me noticing.

The video opens up with the guys being tied up and blindfolded. And then they somehow escaped and started to hold cactuses. As a non-Korean who has not brushed up on his Korean skills despite listening to the genre for nearly 7 years (I know… scary), I have no clue on what’s going on in the video. Moving away from that, the fashion or outfits that they are wearing are quite smart, but some of them look plain stupid. The black and white outfits look very cool and is a play on what they were tied up with at the start. It is as if they ripped themselves from their constrains and went with it. But the red outfits have me questioning thing. Especially the guy with half a jacket. Is it budget cuts or is it art? Overall, the video was confusing, but it looked like something a popular KPOP boy group would release nowadays,

Back to those short shorts. And of course, the performance. Like I said before, the song provided them an opportunity to showcase their dancing skills, which they used very well. Their performance looks as intense as the music and quite powerful at the same time. Not into their short shorts though. But I love the headlines and comments that those shorts gave them.

Song – 8/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 7.5/10

[Review] Wannabe – Hyoyeon (SNSD)

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Hyoyeon from Girl’s Generation has returned with her latest single. Her previously collaborated with Miss A’s Min and Jo Kwon and released a single titled as Born To Be Wild. She later went on to release Mystery, her first solo single. Both these songs were released for SM Station. This is her second single, with the song titled Wannabe, which also features SanE.

Right from the very start, we hear a constant groaning in the background of the song. It is undeniably a turn-off and quite annoying. She usually raps when she is a part of Girl’s Generation, but there is a different sound in this song, compared to works as part of the 8-member girl group. I actually think this tough sound fits her. Her raspy voice gives it a boost in terms of energy, which goes a long way in this song. But the part I love the most is the chorus. It’s catchy and provided much needed relief from that groaning at the start. The verses delved into a hip-hop centred sound, while the chorus felt like it was more retro pop. Odd combination and it doesn’t work for me. While it didn’t seem that apparent, there really wasn’t a transition that could have tied the two different sounds together. That made it feel like the parts were detached from each other. Likewise, SanE’s featuring in the song felt distant from the rest of the song. It just felt like another part of another song that was added to extend the song. There is definitely potential behind this song just by listening to the chorus. But the rest of the song seems to mask it.

The music video is filmed in a place, which seemed to look like an underground boxing arena and a warehouse where some of the boxers are practising. The cinematography seem to add an extra edgy vibe in conjunction to the song, which I think is quite cool. The way she moves around and starts dancing at some parts also made the video looked smooth. The addition of the guys in the background, where the camera pans to them watching Hyoyeon or ‘resting’, made things feel a little awkward. Furthermore, the amount of jewellery and ‘bling’ (my attempt to sound cool) wouldn’t necessary fly in an area like that. The scenery and surroundings mismatched the accessories she was wearing throughout the video. Overall though, the video was quite pretty good to watch.

The performance is quite cool. The styles matched the certain part of the song she was dancing to. The more edgy feel was also present, something we don’t really see when she is with SNSD, which is nice. It wasn’t impressive, but nonetheless, it was enjoyable to watch.

Song – 5/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 7/10
Overall Rating – 6/10