Tag: Z:EA

Catch Up Review #1 – Red Velvet, Nasty Nasty, Strawberry Milk

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I am back, and there are so many songs that I have missed out on. So the next few days (probably weeks), I will be writing mini reviews for a bunch of songs. These are going to short and they probably be quite brief. Also I will be playing around with the site in the next few days trying a new look (for a new me hahahaha…) But let’s go!!!

O.K. – Strawberry Milk 

The new subunit from Crayon Pop has officially made their debut with O.K. The rock instrumental is surely a winner here, cause it is what appealed to me when I listen to the song. Also the girls voices, were not so aegyo and actually is quite enjoyable. None of that really whiny stuff I keep hearing nowadays. The music video was also quite cool and their outfits look absolutely cute. Though, I am kind of weird out with the gigantic fork and knife. The dance is a little lazy, but these girls make it look really cute. Needless to say, I thought this was a really cute song and overall a really cute and pretty fun comeback. I’d give this a 8/10.

Knock – Nasty Nasty 

Ummm… I really don’t like the subunits name. Yeah… This subunit is made up of Kevin from Z:EA, Kyungri from Nine Muses and a trainee, Sojin. The three banded together for a “sexy” concept and the teaser made it seem that it lived up to the standard. Everyone literally thought that this was going to be a really controversial video and whatnot. But I was so freaking disappointed with the music video. It was not even sexy, unless sexy is a video about a guy dating two girls and that he has some split personality, but really, I expected something that made me uncomfortable and draw my attention away from the music. So yeah, the video was a tad dark, so for me, I couldn’t see that much. Maybe I need to adjust my brightness. Sojin should have gotten more lines and this subunit is Kevin centred a little too much. not that it is a bad thing, it just really disappointing. I liked the song and I thought the dance was nice with the “naughty hands”, just if only the music video could have been better… I give this a 5.5/10.

Be Natural – Red Velvet

A much better song than their debut to be honest, though this band is quite lacking. This song was a remake of S.E.S however it was rather mediocre. It was not appealing and it was not as great. To me it was monotone all throughout the song and that is what disappointed me. Their vocals were just so so and maybe the “sexy concept” in this case really should not have been applied. Maybe they should just stick to happy songs that get you excited, not diva type music just yet. As for the music video, I haven’t watched it yet and I am quite sure it is going to be boring after looking at so many images while trying to find good pictures for the top. As for the dance, it was something different with the chairs and it showed off their style. It liked the performance, just the song doesn’t seem quite right at this very moment. 5/10

To see the music videos of the reviews that I have mentioned, please click on the blue sub titles. Next set of reviews are all Epik High reviews. (As you may have noticed, I kind of a little problem putting these ones into categories, but from now on, each set will have a theme.

Breathe – Z:EA

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Z:EA is finally back with a new song. It has been their first official group promotion since The Ghost Of The Wind last year and also their subunit promotions for Z:EA Five and Z:EA 4U. It seems like some of the members have been quite successful, appearing on multiple programs since then. I have officially run out of things to say about them. I don’t follow them as much as I do with other bands. With some groups, I can do an introduction so much better, but with a band that I do not follow, I just don’t know what to right about them. Pity, because I really liked this song.

This song is pretty cool. I have been disappointed with their past songs and the band does not appeal to me. However, this song is quite different. The pop feel to the song really fits the band quite well. Though I do have complaints with the song, I actually liked it. It is pretty catchy and sounds really nice. My compliant is with the  line distribution. I know some of the members are weak when it comes to vocals and there are members that have quite strong vocals. However, when listening to this song, you can tell that the focus is on the members who have the strong vocals. Basically, in my point of view, those who have weak vocals (such as the rappers) get 1 line, while the main and lead vocalists get the bulk of the song. It is just so evident in this song. I am not going to diss the band for this, but I think some more equality is needed. But needless to say, the rapping was pretty good, however it should have been longer. The instrumental is pretty cool and the chorus is pretty catchy to me. The song, to me, was quite cool.

This music video, has to be very boring. The music video at the start looked quite similar to Beast’s Breathe, which I thought would make the video have some story line. But no, the girl is rescued and then the boys are happy. Like nothing amazing happens. No evil alien queen coming to skill them? No evil robot who destroyed the Earth is alive and trying to kill them? Okay, maybe not that extreme. I get the sense that planet Earth is destroyed and there is no oxygen to live on the planet anymore, but the buys (well mainly Dongjun) ends up going out and rescuing the love of his life, and then we get videos of the guys staring at her creepily when she was on planet earth and watching her sleep. Amazing hey. The video was “set” in “space” and to me, it just seemed like a Lotte World commercial. It looked cheesy and there was nothing appeal to me in this video.

The dance is much better. Though this band is not that great as dancers, I think their dancing has improved since their last two comebacks. To symbolises “breathes” they move their arms in a way to represents “breathes” which looked awesome, and I liked the intro to the whole stage.

Not that great as a comeback when it comes their music video, but the song and dance were quite awesome. 7.5/10

‘End Of Year Music Festivals’ Favourite Performances

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Woah, 2013 is over (Soz, a tad late) and each year KPOP fans always end up looking forward to the end of year music festivals. These “festivals” are held on the final days of the year by the 3 major boradcasting companies of South Korea (ie. KBS, SBS, MBC). It is a stage where the artists who are active during the year can come together and celebrate by putting on some music and performing different stages from the ones that they had promoted during the year. So this means there are many different collaborations between artists or remix stages which would have fans screaming for. Because there happens to be little songs to review at this time of the year (end of Jan, don’t ask why), I thought I do this and release it in time for the Vietnamese (Or Chinese) New Year!!!!!

KBS Gayo Daechukje

  • Honestly, I was not satisfied with any of the collabs. They seem to be a last minute thing which made the show rather messy. They had good songs, but Iw as not satisfied with the way they were presented.
  • Crayon Pop’s Bar Bar Bar was a good stage. The start got everyone hyped up and when the song actually started, boy was the screams loud! It was rather fresh and different stage that everyone must’ve had enjoyed.
  • EXO’s Intro + Growl sounded amazing. Now if only they were not replayed 563495630295634092560 times this year and everyone talking about them, I would not think poorly of them. However the intro and the performance was really good.
  • APINK was one of the few bands to throw in a new instrumental for their “sexy version” of No No No. I enjoyed the dance and I liked the new mix.
  • Beast had a pretty cool stage as well. They kept their normal instrumental but made something interested out of it.
  • Sistar’s “femme fatale” Give It To Me looked really good. Minus the not so good looks of the dancers, I really liked their dance break and Dasom has my heart beating even faster.
  • Miss A’s remixes were amazing this year. I like them much better than the actual song. Amazing right?Well, honestly it is just a new instrumental over some parts and then the actual song itself. And Min, walking away like a boss and carrying on singing after getting hit in the face.

SBS Gayo Daejeon

  • First stage which I enjoyed was VIXX’s On & On and VooDoo Doll. I honestly thought that Hyde and On & On would have been a better match, but they still seemed to pull it off pretty well. I think I am turning into a fan. Damn.
  • Z:EA and Nine Muses collaboration stage with Ghost Of The Wind, Glue and finally hit song Bounce was another stage that literally got me into it. It is such a good stage with the two bands together, where it was Nine Muses first time and Z:EA’s second time since debut.
  • Another collaboration stage goes to Girl’s Day and APINK’s Expectation and No No No. Honestly, it seemed APINK had less airtime than Girl’s Day. Not sure about the detail, but it kind seems unfair. But both suited the stage every well singing each other’s song.
  • Crayon Pop’s Bar Bar Bar was pretty good. But the camera work destroyed the good stage.
  • T-Ara had a lot of hate, but I seemed to enjoy this stage. Number 9 but vampire version. Not much change to the song, except for really creepy dance breaks. And BOOOOBSSS!!!!!
  • 2NE1 had an alight stage. Though they just sang Missing You and Do You Love Me?, this still had remarkable stage preference.
  • Taeyang and G-Dragon seemed to had some fun on stage. I liked the lineup of songs they had coming. They sung 1AM, Crooked, Ringa Linga and Bad Boy. Considering that the whole group as not there, they did a good job filling up 3 other parts as well.

MBC Gayo Daejejeon

  • Miss A’s classy club mix for Hush sounded the best and probably has to be my most favourite stage out of all the stages listed here. It sounded to sexy and cool all at the same time.
  • T-Ara’s Number 9 and What Should I Do was a great stage. They combined the two songs into a club beat kind of song which flowed pretty well, considering the two extreme opposites for each song.
  • Ailee’s rapping before her performance , U&I, was da bomb.
  • F(x)’s Rum Pum Pum Pum was pretty good as well. Was not as impressed with the original version though.But the instrumental and ending of this stage was awesome!!! And finally F(x) gets a stage remix for an end of year festival.
  • B1A4’s rock remix for What’s Happening? was also a pretty cool performance. Literally got me going with the beat.
  • Infinite brought a new thing to the stage with Destiny remixed with the instrumental of Deception. Something that was quite unexpected but sounded pretty good despite the two songs sounding completely different.
  • Give It To Me by Sistar was pretty cool as well if the little bit of dubstep (I think) mixed in the song as well. Hyorin’s intro with Sweet Dream was pretty cool.
  • Kara’s medley of songs was pretty good. And considering the departure of two members, it fitted the occasion. They performed Lupin, Step, Damaged Lady, Mister and Honey (not sure about the last one though.

If you watched the performances, which one did you like? Honestly, when I was watching the performances on YouTube, all I thought was that it seemed too much like a normal music show rather than something to be called a “End Of Year Festival”. I think these stages are losing their purpose. But anyway, still a fantastic line-up and amazing stages!!! What were your favourite stages of the three nights?

Ghost Of The Wind – Z:EA

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Source: http://upload.enewsworld.net/News/Contents/20130806/49184270.jpg

ZE:A recently made their comeback with Ghost Of The Wind after successful promotions of their subunit groups. Ghost Of The Wind was released on the 9th of August and was the comeback to realize that I have typed their name wrong all along. So my question is: why are they named ZE:A and Children of the Empire? The name doesn’t really make sense. Sorry. Always a question which I never got the answer to.

I find the song quite boring. I never was a fan of the band, but I do like the song, but I find it quite boring to listen to. There is nothing amazing about the song. It seems like they kept the same note and tone throughout the song. They were singing at a very high pitch, but it seems they did not go any lower or higher. The instrumental was like a 10 second track,, on repeat. There was nothing to make the song that interesting. It was basically the same thing over and over again. The rap was okay, but it did not fit the feel of the song like what I had expected it to be. It is much better than their previous songs and i like the more serious side of the band, but they could work or choose a more different song that let them add their own style to the song.

The music video is quite dark. It is mainly filled of their dancing, but small snippets of a little side story, which I don’t really understand. So I really cannot say anything about the music video as well. It is quite boring, as well. I literally watched it once. But not the full 3:52. I watched a bit and skipped to another bit and then the music video finished. I did like the lighting of the video and the guys do look creepy, but overall, I found the whole music video quite boring. I think this song is like a play on that movie of “Girlfriends of the Past” or something like that. It seems like the guys are quite frustrated that the girl just goes on after breaking up. As if they were ghosts and non existent. I am quite disappointed with this video.

The dance is interesting. I like that jumping bit and the choreography overall is quite cool to watch. Though it did feel fancy pancy just a little bit, I think the dance is quite well done compared to Aftermath or Phoenix from last year.

4/10. I tried, but I find this band remarkably boring, if you have not got the jist of the review yet.

The Day We Broke Up – Z:EA5

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Source: http://www.mtviggy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/k_zea_5_voulez-vous1.png

Z:EA is the next group into the whole subunit ordeal in the KPOP world. This group has already officially debuted in Japan, I am just not particularly sure if this was the exact song they debuted with. Anyway, this comeback is okay, not the best, but okay. Though I am completely 100% that this subunit won’t have a chance at winning an award, but they still stand out for their good reasons. The subunit itself consist of 5 members of which I don’t remember the member’s names: Siwan and Dongjun or something like that + five other members.

The song is not what it seems. At first you see the song title, and think ‘oh well, it is just another sad ballad’. Hands up if you did that? Yes? Okay. But no, we were trolled. This sounds more of a pop song rather than a ballad. The start had its ballad feel to it, but as we get to the chorus, the song changes. Not sure about the start of the song though, the guy just seems to yell out that “they’re back”. Hey, you guys just debuted in a subunit. That is not a form of coming back. The songs itself keeps on repeating itself to me. There is not much of a change to the feel of the song at all. But beside that, the guys sang wonderfully and the rap was pretty good. Okay, the rap did not fit the feel of the song, but it did help flow the song. But sadly the song did not cut it for me. Not for my liking. Hopefully yours?

The music video on the other hand, was quite random. Oh did I say quite random? I mean wrong on so many levels. Hahaha. No but seriously  I am not particularly sure about the setting of the music video. It makes them seem to be loners. You know the type of forever alone. Which may mean they are horrible at love. Question! Why is there a piano in the middle of know where? It is not like they grow on trees or something? Anyway, carrying on with the music video. Did anyone notice that they ‘invited themselves to a random’s campsite’? How rude of them! They start eating other people’s food? Like seriously? The food they ate did seem like they came from some kind of fast food chain around the corner. The map that they were seen holding looked like a brown piece of paper. They wore suits, and what was with the big letters which spelt out “PRESENT” at the end? Oh wait, it makes sense now. They were camping in the backyard. Yeah that why… oh wait… maybe that is not the reason why they were wearing suits.

The live is pretty good. Not sure about the stage though, those trees branches and those big mushroom things are a big no no. They sound fine and the dance is okay. Not as addictive.

Yeah, umm.. 5/10. Don’t kill me though.