For this week’s Past Album Review, we will be diving into a HIGHLIGHT (or BEAST, as they were commonly known during that part of career) album. While I do plan to slowly go through their earlier releases, I chose Hard To Love, How To Love based on my enjoyment of their title track for this album, which is Shadow (link below within the actual review). The album also contains an introductory track but like most album reviews, I have left it off.

2. Shadow (Title Track) – Click here to read the full review of Shadow. (8.5/10)

3. How To Love – How To Love was promoted in the final week of promotions for this album, as a special follow up. A music video dedicated to fans was released to accompany the extra week of promotions. While the song takes on the ballad route, it is bright and pop-ish (unlike their other ballads) and definitely very catchy. I remember the ‘How To Love, Love Love…” line being engraved into my mind for that week. I also really liked the vocals in the song, which added a sweet element to the song. The instrumental was also quite soothing and easy going, which was quite appealing as the other songs on the album did have a harsh side to them. (8/10)

4. Be Alright – If you want a little bit of electronic mixed into a pop song, then Be Alright is your song. When I listen to this song now for the review, I realised the song reminds me of their Good Luck days. It might be due to the electronic synths they used in the song. But on top of that, they applied a filter on top of the ‘It’s Gonna Be Alright’ part of the bridge to stagger the sound, which I thought was a nice way to cut the repetitiveness of the track. Once again, the vocals for the song were nice but the winning member was Junhyung, whose tone is perfect for a song of this nature. (8/10)

5. I’m Sorry (Pre-release Track) – This was the second track revealed from the album prior to the release of the album. And this is more of the sound that I like from Beast when it comes to ballads. They do sound best when they have emotions backing their vocals and this is exactly what they demonstrated in the song. I really liked how Junhyung is used as a backing during the chorus, which I thought was interesting given the contrast between deeper and higher tones. I also liked the guitars in the instrumental. I think the song could have been had a little more impact to bring it up to the standard of their more successful pre-releases, but this was still good nonetheless. (7/10)

6. Will You Be Alright? (Pre-release Track) – This was the first track revealed from the album prior to its release. While I did like the ballads that Beast (their name at the time of the releases) released, this one was easily forgotten and passable when I listen to the album. Why do I think that? Well, everything felt okay. And that just didn’t really do much for me. The song contained a nice melody and was quite pleasant. The vocal work was also quite nice but it wasn’t the most amazing piece on the album. And the instrumental felt standard, at best. So it was good, overall, but not their best sound. (6/10)

7. Hate You – I liked Hate You for its instrumental. The song falls into the standard pop domain but there is something about the instrumental that makes the song quite appealing to me. I am not really 100% sure what this certain element is but I did like the laidback nature of it. I thought the heavy nature that the title alluded to went nicely with the light tone of the music. The vocals and raps here were quite nice. There was also a nice melody. I think the main issue about the song is that it feels very standard but I think all the other elements make up for it. (7.5/10)

8. Encore – Wrapping up the album is the most techno-based song on the album. Encore. It does throw you back to that era when techno music was the big thing of the music industry. Encore felt cheesy but that was the descriptive word that I would describe most trendy techno-pop songs from back in the day. I have to admit that the vocals and raps in the song were really well done and I am slightly surprised that they weren’t more autotuned. It gets the blood pumping for the end of the album, leaving us all with a high. (8/10)

Overall Album Rating – 7.6/10