[Album Review] Happy Moment (1st Full Album) – WJSN (Cosmic Girls)

WJSN (or Cosmic Girls) are back with their brand new album. It also happens to be their first full-length album, which was released a little over a year after their debut. The girls have drawn my attention with their title tracks Secret and I Wish. From what I have written for this album review, I feel like the album is a step in the right direction for the girls.

 

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Happy Moment Album Cover

 

1..Happy (Title Track)Click here to read the full review for the title track, Happy. (7.5/10)

2. Miracle (기적 같은 아이) – I think most people agree that Miracle is a more suitable title track for this album. It was similar enough to follow the standards that Secret and I Wish had set. But at the same time, they managed to turn the song into a much brighter and light sound, which made it a refreshing song to listen to. Exy’s rap here is totally more badass and suitable for her voice. I did really like this track and thought it was really great amazing as well. (9/10)

3. Mr. BADBOY – The songs keep on getting brighter as well. While it is a cute and bubbly song, I don’t really fall into it. It didn’t have that much appeal to my tastes (which I admit, are picky at times). I did like how they included a reference to their debut song, Mo Mo Mo. The bright feel makes this a very Summery song. (7/10)

4. SUGAR – The same comments for the above song can be applied to this song as well. Quite a sweet (see what I did there?) song, but it doesn’t have that level of appeal to make me search for this song listen to it. The vocal work was good though. (7/10)

5. Babyface – Babyface is a ridiculously catchy song. It also has a very quirky instrumental, which makes it quite interesting. The vocal work was also quite good in this song. I don’t have much to say about this song, besides that it is awesome and totally a song that I would go back to (9/10)

6. Plop Plop (퐁당퐁당) – Another song with amazing vocal work from the members. When I first saw the tracklist, I was surprised that they would go with a song with such a title. Being the mature person I am, I actually thought that they were referring to the sound of something (you should guess what) dropping into a bowl of water (again, guess what bowl). Never once did it occur to me that they were going for the “drip drop” sound of water. Anyway, the song is much slower compared to the rest, which makes it refreshing on the album. It ended a little too abruptly, which did disrupt the flow of the song for me (it should have faded out). (7/10)

7. Follow Me – While it does have a very generic name, this track is not generic whatsoever. One way to describe the song would be fluffy. It is quite catchy, with the chorus being the main hook of the song. I would love to see a stage performance of this song because it is a great song! (9/10)

8. B.B.B.Boo – Everything in this song sounds amazing and quite cool. The only thing I would change up if I had the rights to do so, would be the very boring verses. Comparing the chorus and the verses, it felt too different and with a very loaded chorus (in terms of instrumental), there wasn’t anything interesting in the verses. Also thought the song was cool and cute at the same time. (8/10)

9. Geeminy – Another great track that also adds to the cute sound that the girls went for in this song, however, it can also be seen as a mature sound from the girls. Compared to the previous song, I liked the verses here. The chorus were much better though, in comparison, as it felt more dynamic and upbeat. The overall sound was much smoother. (9/10)

10. Closer To You (지금 만나러 가요) – The girls finish their first album with a much slower song, almost ballad-like. It has a very sweet melody and adds an extra hint of freshness to the album. I love that elongated note that they included to lead into the chorus. Also thought the instrumental and vocals were quite nice. (8/10)

Overall Album Rating – 8/10

 

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Teaser Image

 

 

[Review] Happy – WJSN (Cosmic Girls)

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

KPOPREVIEWED 2016 Awards – Part 2

Click here to see the list of nominees for this year’s awards and scroll down to find out who wins!!!

If you have yet to see Part 1 (which also explains this corner) please click here.


BEST MALE ROOKIE GROUP

2016 saw a lot of new boy groups make their debut on the stage. Compiling the list of nominees for this section was extra hard because there were so many great debuts that just missed out on a spot on the list. The winner of the Best Male Rookie Group 2016 is Astro, who made continuous comebacks after their debut, pushing them into the spotlight. Honourable mentions are given to VRomance for their debut song, She.


BEST FEMALE ROOKIE GROUP

Like the male rookie group section above, a lot of girl groups made their debut in 2016. And a lot of them provided us with the hottest tracks of the year. WJSN, otherwise known as Cosmic Girls, made their debut with Mo Mo Mo and came back with one of the best tracks of the year: Secret. They are my pick for Best Female Rookie Group. Honourable Mentions goes to BlackPink and I.O.I (It was very hard to choose for this category).


BEST MALE SOLOIST

As every other year, solo artists are debuting and making comebacks. 2016 saw the long-awaited debuts of some main vocalists of different idol groups and the return of solo artists that we have known for a while. The winner has to be Zico (Block B) with his ballad track: I Am You, You are Me. This one track alone has been a chart topper and gave the rapper a new side. Honourable mention goes to Eric Nam and his surge in popularity this year with his releases.


BEST FEMALE SOLOIST

2016 was a very big year for female solo artists. Like the male solo artist awards, big names came back, while long-awaited debuts were made. My pick for the winner of Best Female Soloist goes to Taeyeon (SNSD). Her singles have been remarkable thus far. Honourable mentions goes to Hyosung (Secret), whose song is still being replayed, half a year after release.


BEST MALE GROUP

So many to consider. Can’t count with my fingers for this category and the next. But it has been a big year for male groups (and likewise female groups). Out of all the artists, I have to pick Seventeen as the group that stood out the most and hence are the winners here. As for honourable mentions, GOT7 takes it this year.


BEST FEMALE GROUP 

As mentioned above, girl groups have also had a very big year in KPOP. And there were too many to count as well. But my overall pick for Best Female Group has to be Mamamoo. 2016 has been their best year yet and I hope there are even better years to come. Oh My Girl receives honourable mentions for their releases of high quality and catchy songs.


BEST ALBUM

Now, I promised album reviews this year and my apologies, I failed to deliver. I asked you guys again (thanks to everyone who contributed to the survey) and album reviews are still something you guys want. I can’t review every one of them, but I will try my best to cover the main and biggest releases. As for 2016, Wings released by BTS as their 2nd Studio album is my pick for best album. I also thoroughly enjoyed the songs released by B.A.P as their third studio album, Carnival, which also takes Honourable Mention.


BEST MUSIC VIDEO

Many great videos were released this year. From amazing plots to great cinematography, or just the standard video that looks amazing, 2016 had it all. My picks for both the winner and honourable mention were videos that were long in length, but one focused on an action-packed story and the other for its complexity. The winner is B.A.P‘s Skydive and honourable mention goes to BTS‘s Blood Sweat & Tears.


BEST DANCE/PERFORMANCE

And as with every year, KPOP groups and solo artists have amazing dances that should be commended. There were so many top contenders, that it was quite hard to compile the list of ten. But nonetheless, my pick for best dance would have to be GOT7‘s Hard Carry and honourable mention goes to The Eye by Infinite.

 


BEST SONG OF THE YEAR

The hardest award to decide for. Hahaha… I put down 22 songs for this award. 22 amazing songs. And now I have to narrow the list to just 1. The difficulties. That being said, I won’t announce it words. Just watch the video below. But before that, let’s look at the honourable mentions that I manage to narrow down from that list of 22. Hover over the pictures to find out who and which song were picked. Note that these honourable mentions or the winners are not chosen via the end of year charts, but my thoughts alone.

And my pick of Best Song of 2016 goes to……

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VERY NICE – SEVENTEEN

Congratulations to all winners, honourable mentions and nominees. Everyone in general!!

[Review] I Wish – WJSN (Cosmic Girls)

Cosmic Girls, otherwise known as WJSN, have made their return to the stage with I Wish. They made their debut in 2016 with MoMoMo. A few months later, the girls made their first comeback with Secret.

I Wish, to me, is a combination of both their debut song and Secret. It had the seriousness of Secret but also the cutesy and brightness of MoMoMo. It is also a perfect song to lead from Secret. Honestly, it is a song, that as you listen, it gets better and better. Let’s look at my criticisms of the song. The sounds in the song aren’t hard. Nothing is overpowering, even the vocal work is performed at a higher pitch than their past songs. But that is a problem. It makes the song forgettable. It just made the song fluffy and too light on the ears. The rapping was okay. It’s just everything was sung at a high pitch and then Exy’s deep rapping voice comes in. Can’t really blame her for that, though. I also watched those line distribution videos for the song and it seems like Yeonjung is more favoured. I like her voice and all, but I feel like she is overshadowing some of the group’s other vocalists (slowly remembering names). I know for a fact, through this song, that the other members have great vocals. Let’s look at the highlights of the song. A moderately catchy chorus, a very upbeat (and interesting) instrumental for this season and nice use of autotune during the chorus.

The music video is a mixture of weird and Secret. My assumption with the video is that it is about dreams or our imagination. Only dreams would appear that wacky. And since the song is called I Wish, it makes senses. Kind of. It would make more sense if it was titled as I Dream. Anyway….. There is one thing I noticed about this video and Secret. It’s just they zoom out a lot during the choreography scenes. There are some closeups, but when I watched this video, it was the only thing I could remember from it. For this video, when they zoomed back in, they went quite close to the girls, which made it feel somewhat uncomfortable. Maybe I am just being a little harsh and naive there. Moving along, I do hope Cosmic Girls continue with these videos. They make you think about what is going on here and I always return to try to figure out what is going on.

The dance is okay. Not that impressive, but matching with the cutesy and bright vibes I mentioned earlier.

Rating – 7/10 (This review was meant to be released a few days back. But it has been so hot where I live, I could not function properly).

 

[Review] Secret – WJSN (Cosmic Girls)

WSJN (Cosmic Girls) have returned to the stage with their brand new mini-album, The Secret. This is their first comeback since their debut. It is also Yeonjung’s first time performing with the group. She was previously a Produce 101 trainee and was also chosen to be part of the lineup of I.O.I. She had taken time off from I.O.I to promote with Cosmic Girls and will return to the temporary group once her promotions (for Secret) with her group are over.

I freaking love this song. I am in awe. I am amazed. I can barely contain my excitement while I write this. Because everything in this review will be praising the song and the entire comeback. For those who don’t remember, I was not  fond of Mo Mo Mo (their debut track). This is definitely an improvement in all aspects. I loved the funky/retro instrumental that I would have associated with Space and the universe when I was younger. The vocal work (especially in the chorus) was superb. The rapping here is 100% improved from their last release. There was a nice kick to it this time that really drew my attention to it. The song was catchy and addictive. As soon as I heard it, I fell for it and this song has been replayed every day ever since it was released. I was satisfied from start to end and I have no complaints about anything in the song.

That Space sound that I mentioned before, it was definitely incorporated and reflected in the video. The video reminded me of  Lovelyz’s Destiny for the camera angles and the way the video was shot. It also reminded me of Brown Eyed Girl’s Brand New World for the futuristic and universal concept. I am not saying that they copied the mentioned videos, just it reminded me of them. Anyway regarding the content of the video, I have no idea with what is going on. It seems like they are wishing upon a star (hopefully) or doing some weird astrology mashed up with witchcraft. There was an air of mysteriousness in the video, which looked really cool and I also liked that a lot. Even though the majority of the video was shot with a green screen and some shots were cheesy to watch, I thought it was a nice looking video. I am not disgraced or disappointed by anything in the video, though. I love the choreography scenes a lot. While I am quite sure they shot that in a studio with the green screen (I may be wrong), they made it look so much like outside but with an artificial component to it as well.

Dance wise, I loved it. A lot of likes and love with this review. Since there are so many members, it is very hard to get everyone proper screen time and the movement around the stage is always hard for a group with many members. But Cosmic Girls have done it effortlessly. I love the start of the dance, where they split into groups and strut out in diagonal lines. Also liked the chorus dance as well.

Final Rating – 10/10. I will recommend this to anyone who wants to get into WJSN (Cosmic Girls).