Tag: SS501

[Review] Why – Kim Hyun Joong

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It has been almost 5 years since we last saw Kim Hyun Joong on the stage in Korea. But due to Japanese promotions and a number of scandals, he put his solo career on hold. On top of that, he also enlisted in the military and completed his duty in 2017. And now, he has returned with his new mini-album, New Way and the title track, Why. This is his first comeback since Beauty Beauty was released in 2014.

Why is a completely different sound to what Kim Hyun Joong used to release as a solo artist in the earlier in the decade. It is a vocally driven ballad. I personally did not expect this vocal style from him. Sure, I knew he could sing but not in this manner. The song gives off Roy Kim or John Park vibes, which I thought was a very interesting approach. I also liken his vocals to those artists. He doesn’t nail it perfectly but he is in that vicinity if we were to put all vocalists onto a spectrum of some sort. I liked the soothing nature of the ballad but I felt like the instrumental could have been a little bolder. I wanted a stronger orchestral touch to the song, which I think could have helped the song to sound more emotionally driven. Overall, Why is a nice song. It could have been more but it was still good nonetheless.

The music video was also quite interesting. We see Kim Hyun Joong and a female break up and they part ways. He spends a lot of his time walking in his chosen direction and this continues until the final chorus, to which he turns back and starts running in the direction of his former companion. But he lost her in the crowd and it comes until then that their relationship is no longer possible. The music video also features French (correct me if I am wrong) subtitles for all of the Korean that he sings but English subtitles when he sings words or phrases in English. Don’t really understand the point of that but thought it was intriguing. Another thing I noticed is that a lot of the people in the background are staring at him throughout the video. That has never bothered me before but I guess it is a lot noticeable due to the slow nature of the video.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 8/10
Overall Rating – 7.4/10

Pain – SS301 (SS501)

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After a very long wait, SS501 is finally back. However, as two of their members are currently in the military, the band has reformed to become SS301 for the time being. The line up of this subunit is: Kim Kyu Jong, Heo Young Saeng and Kim Hyung Jun. It has been years since the band last came out with a song. Thier last promoted song was Love Ya, which was released in 2010 (before I started this site as well). They have been going into the military and also been doing a lot of solo work since then.

The song is good. I do have some complaints, but we will get to them eventually. The song has this really nice soft sound to it. The piano and style sounds like they were going for some sort of Latin sound. While I think the mashup between the dance and piano sound was pretty good, there were some parts that I felt did not fit in. For example, the rapping was horrendous. Give them props for attempting it, but if I had the opportunity to eliminate any one part, it would be the rap. It just does not fit in and sounds pretty bad. And the English is pretty bad. “I’m so pain” just gets repeated all throughout the song and it literally gives me pain every time I have to listen to it. But beside that, their vocals were on point and I thought it was a good song to listen to. Is it memorable? Not really. Really did not make me want to listen to the song over and over again.

The video is simply just close up shots and the members dancing. That was simply the formula to the video. Beside that, I don’t have much to say about the video. Love the editing and I thought the video gave the song a really polish yet modern feel. The black and white sets look so cool and with the odd highlight of red. So what else, their fashion looks good? Even though it took me a while to figure out whether they were wearing school uniform at some points. Actually come to the think of it, something could have been added to the video to give it more to talk about. Like some sort of plot would have been nice, but I am honestly fine watching just this.

The dance was pretty cool. Not really memorable.The chorus looked like it just did not go well with the rest of the dance. The chorus looks out of placed and mismatched. The tie grabbing seem pretty cool, but it looked like the members struggled a bit while on stage. But nonetheless, we still got a pretty cool stage.

They’re back and hopefully they will stay. It has been a long time coming, but it is never too late to make a comeback. 6.5/10

Your Story – Kim Hyun Joong ft. DOK2

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Source: http://i1.wp.com/24-7kpop.COM/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/khj-your-story1.png?resize=770%2C472

Kim Hyun Joong recently made his comeback with his pre released single, Unbreakable, and his title song from his third mini album, Your Story. The hip hop sensation, DOK2, also featured in this song and also did feature in his previous single, Break Down. This song is completely different to Unbreakable, this one being a more emotional song and the other a more powerful song. The song reconnects the audience with the RnB feel, a style that Kim Hyun Joong has yet gone for. Now, I have something to say, but is another song from this mini album charting higher than this particular song or am I just misreading stuff? I think I am misreading, because it makes no sense. I checked MNet online charts, and Kim Hyun Joong’s Let’s Party was voted on top of all songs, not Your Story or Unbreakable.

Anyway, I really did not like the song. I enjoyed Lucky Guy, Kiss Kiss, Please, but this song was just so boring for me. I really do prefer Unbreakable, if I had to choose between the two songs, and I did not like Unbreakable that much either. This seems to be a different side of the singer that is not that appealing. Well, the girls are all swooning over him, squealing on top of their lungs when they hear him, but as a guy and not a fangirl (or boy) of Kim Hyun Joong, I found the song lacking in colour and emotion, The song is meant to be emotional and all of that, but it did not appeal to me as I thought it would. The song was quite too slow for me and there was no impact to the song. It is not catchy. I found the “Your Story, Your Story” part really annoying and the chorus felt really dead. Basically the song was black and white for me and the vocals really did not fit the feel of the song. Overall, really disappointed.

Wow, what a steamy music video. Yeah, beside that, the music video consisted of a guy walking down a beach and singing on a random stage on the beach. Nothing great from the video. Another black and white, plain feeling that lacks a lot of detail. I honestly agree with the others. The presence of the girl adds nothing to the video and only keeps perverts watching the music video. They are either appealing to the pervert population of the KPOP world, with the overused “scene” and fangirls, with the overused shirtless Kim Hyun Joong. Oh why do I feel like I am going to die and a bunch of ‘Henecias’ are going to be at my door tomorrow. Must keep my profile low.

There is no dance as far as I am concerned. Well, there are some parts of the dance, but it is not overally that great, He does dance the most when it is not his turn to sing, but really, he spends most of the time at the microphone.

1/10. Sorry. I really tried to be fair, but really was disappointed. Here is my question for you all. Which song did you like better: Unbreakable or Your Story? Or maybe another song off his new mini album? I prefer Let’s Party than these two songs. I have linked both songs down below in the playlist. Enjoy.

Unbreakable – Kim Hyun Joong ft. Jay Park

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Source: http://www.hallyusmash.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/kim-hyun-joong-unbreakable-badass-11.png
Source: http://www.hallyusmash.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/kim-hyun-joong-unbreakable-badass-11.png

Kim Hyun Joong recently made his comeback after consecutive Japanese promotions and releases, without a song in Korea, leaving fans swooning for him. According to my friends, they have been dying to hear a new song from the artist himself and was overcome with joy when he released this song, featuring the one and only Jay park. Woo! Anyway, the song was pre released ahead of his mini album on the 18th of July. Since then, and after his mini album was released, he has reached the top of so many charts, including Billboard. Wow! That is one big achievement there. Let’s continue shall we?

Okay, I am really torn about the song. I do like it, but it is not as great as his previous singles. Same go for “Your Story” which is his other title track. I expected some kind of hardcore party song, not something fierce and dominate. It is a great song, but I find it not for me. Yeah, crazy right? The song has its RnB roots and the vocals are pretty good. It is powerful and hits you across the face. The only thing I like about the song is the “Unbreakable, Unbreakable” part at the end of each chorus. I do also like Jay park’s part in the song. I don’t know, I did not like Break Down and this song is quite similar to that other song, in terms of style. Yeah, I am not impressed. The vocals of the verse are lacking the proper appeal which I found in Please and Lucky Guy. That “Woahh~” part at the end was really annoying and kind of came out of nowhere for me. I am not big on the whole instrumental of the song as well.

The music video is quite artistic. I do like the addition of the tradition Korean parts to the video, which seems really foreign in my mind. I think the last artist to do that was in B.A.P’s No Mercy, with the traditional fusion dance part. It was dark which really fitted the song’s style and I actually prefer the music video to the song itself. I like the large scale set of the music video and those ninjas were pretty cool. I think this is the first time I am going to say this, but I have this thing with a car turning into something else. That car just turned into a freaking cow. Yeah, I have not searched up the lyrics but a cow? Also, given tops for the addition of the drums, they add something new to the video that is quite different from the Lamborghini and the cow. Jay Park’s addition was pretty cool as well. And Kim Hyun Joong shirtless, yeah, I don’t what to say. Disappointed? Satisfied? Don’t care? But I hate that red filter and the raindrops and those slow motion parts. Sadly the only movie or video that should attempt slow motion is The Matrix, nothing else.

The dance is really so and so. Nothing great about the dance. It matches the dominate feel of the song and pretty much matched the style of the song as well. There was power and a lot of abs on the MCountdown stage on Thursday. What? It is the video I chose to add to the playlist anyway.

3.5/10. Not that great for me. I am sure others will love and like it But this comeback overall was not for me. That also includes Your Story. I think the only song which I liked was “Let’s Party”, mainly because I liked it on the Japanese album and now it was remade to Korean.

Lucky Guy – Kim Hyun Joong

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Song

Based on my liking & point of view, this song was a very big letdown. I preferred Please & Break Down (Which I actually did not like). However the chorus is very catchy & I quite enjoyed it. Yeah however I really don’t anything else about the song.

Music Video

Arrggh!!! I DISLIKE THIS MUSIC VIDEO. At first I thought of a James Bond kind of theme. The closest the music video got according to my theory is the picking up girls and casino playing. The teasers did not get me into the flow of the song. The teasers did not suit the music video or song in my point of view even though they are small sections of the video. Maybe that is just me. Now I have to ask, since when did girls would start stripping out in public especially when there is a guy nearby? Sick way of getting guys. Do not listen to this girls.  The music video is a bad teacher. But it also teaches never to date guys who suck at gambling. That’s right. If he loses money, you can be up for betting. *Shivers*. Anyway, i do like the concept that the girl is actually a spy and she looked very cunning and smart when she left Kim Hyun Joong. Very smart, very very smart.

Live Performance

Yeah, I don’t like the full red suit. I particularly like the performance from the MAMA 2011. Yeah, even though I know the whole thing was rehearsed by the performance was pretty good. Suzy was really good looking. The dance is pretty cool and not to complicated. Well, expect for the start, because the dance at the start looked complicated and well time.

And The Rating?

I would give this a 7/10. Also, you may notice, I rewrote this review for some particular reason.

Have Fun Watching. 😀 Troy.