[Recap] 2015 January-April: Debut

As May begins, I thought I'd introduce a new series that would be both light and reflective. Every 4 months (I'll call them trimesters), I'll compile and look back at all the reviewed songs in the months prior, and arrange them in a list from lowest to highest. Then I'll go through and talk about some of the songs, comparisons, placements, critiques, etc. It services as a nice recap of the releases / reviews thus far, and adds another type of writing on my blog.

January - April 2015 Rankings

14. miss A - Only You (70)
13. Minah - I Am A Woman Too (75)
12. Girls' Generation - Catch Me If You Can (77)
11. Amber - Shake That Brass (78)
10. HIGH4 - Day By Day (80)
9. BASTARZ - Zero For Conduct (80)
8. 9MUSES - Drama (80)
7. Rainbow - Black Swan (83)
6. Sonamoo - Deja Vu (87)
5. Mamamoo - Ahh Oop! (88)
4. FIESTAR - You're Pitiful (92)
3. EXID - Ah Yeah (92)
2. EXO - Call Me Baby (92)
1. 4minute - Crazy (93)

As far as placements and rankings go, this looks pretty accurate of my opinions per song. I'm a little surprised that "Catch Me If You Can" was better than both Minah and miss A's releases if only barely. The #11 through #7 area is just as I expect, and I'll talk more about the competed slots (tied scores) in a bit. The other surprise is that "Deja Vu" and "Ahh Oop!" were close in score. While "Deja Vu" was a solid release for Sonamoo, the Mamamoo girls (and eSNa) did a fantastic job with "Ahh Oop!" and probably deserved more points.

The only song that I think I underrated was Amber's "Shake That Brass." It's still a good song around the 80 mark but because I did a dance project on the song I kept the replay value low. On the other side, I think "Ah Yeah" is a slight step behind the other songs with 92 points but at this range calling something "overscored" when the actual difference is like 1 point doesn't really matter, especially since I no longer have specific categories for various aspects of each review.

HIGH4 is the weakest of the trio at 80 because it didn't offer as much in terms of both song and impact. "Drama" was more important as it represented 9MUSES' return after hiatus and had to prove themselves with yet more roster changes. BASTARZ falls in the middle for reasons explained in their individual review. Funny note is that all 3 songs had subpar videos thanks to acting: no acting, bizarre acting, and awkward acting. I'll let you guess which is which. As for the 92 trio, EXO had the cleanest song with good vocals and slick choreography which put them ahead. "Ah Yeah" is more addicting than "You're Pitiful," but the latter is a far more delicate and beautiful song. At current I'm more on the search for upbeat music and so EXID marks above, even despite the EXID hype train,

I believe the only April release that I was interested in covering that I didn't was "Joker" by Dal Shabet but I'll try and cover it under May right before the Big Bang releases. The first set of 2015 looks really solid so far, and as more high profile groups are making their returns (like the aforementioned Big Bang), this year looks to be really good as we near the midway.