BTOB made their return with Beautiful Pain (the title track) and a special mini-album, Hour Moment. This is the first release without Eunkwang (as I have mentioned already) enlisted into the military a few months back. Despite being without their main vocalist, BTOB has effortlessly filled the void that Eunkwang left with one anothe], expected of a group with amazing vocalists and rappers. So without any more delays, let’s have a quick look at their album.

1..Friend (Pre-release Track) –I liked the progression between a ballad-like start to an upbeat and inspiring sound at the end and during the choruses. The message of the song expresses gratitude to their friends, which plays in nicely with the members impending military enlistment. Eunkwang, who enlisted a few months back, participated this song and it is nice to hear his voice once again. While I am on the topic of vocals, everyone sounded amazing here, especially Ilhoon’s vocals during the second half of the chorus and Peniel’s raps in the second verse. (9/10)

2. Like It – Like Friend, Like It follows the same pattern. It actually starts off slower and softer than compared to the previous song. But it picks up a little sooner, at the start of Ilhoon’s vocal lines which is still in the verses. The song is R&B based, with a lot of the synths in the instrumental reminding me of the R&B genre. I felt the song was a little more straight forward and typical, in comparison to the rest of the songs. Nothing new about this track. But in the wise words of the song’s hook, ‘I like it’. (8/10)

3. Butterfly (나비) – We now come to the softer side of the album. Unlike the previous songs, there isn’t a turn in the instrumental which incorporates electronic synths and make it into an upbeat song. Instead, the guitar in the instrumental remains throughout, reminding me of some folksy songs. I like how their vocals weren’t extravagant in this song, instead opting for something that felt a little more constricted in a number of manners (such as pitch and volume). But nonetheless, the vocals were quite nice. I liked the hushed rapping, which felt fitting. (8/10)

4. Please (제발) – It is finally nice to hear Ilhoon return to some rapping. I say that because his section stands out the quite a bit. From his section onwards, the song turns into a power ballad, boasting a very dramatic (yet sparingly used) orchestral instrumental, power vocals from the vocalists and smashing raps from the rappers. Everything comes together to form a very powerful and well backed track. The highlight of the song has to go to Peniel’s rapping, which climaxes the song perfectly and fitting in with the power ballad side of the song extremely well. (10/10)

5. Beautiful Pain (아름답고도 아프구나) (Title Track) – Click here to read the full review for Beautiful Pain. (9.5/10)

Overall Album Rating – 8.9/10