I may have been looking forward to the nostalgia trips of 2011 and 2010, but it never dawned on me how difficult ranking may have been. Forget that 2010 was a tough year - not only did it seem thin on hits, but of course, my memory isn't as efficient going that far back. Great songs were still found, so the list must be made. Either way, this is the last stop in the Best Of series, at least until December rolls around and I do the list for this year!
#12. G.NA - I'll Back Off So You Can Live
G.NA has been mostly a miss during her career - which is quite awkward to say, given her career is basically over or on indefinite hiatus at this point. However, her debut was what caught my attention for being a really pretty song that framed her voice nicely. This song was probably one of the best debuts for a soloist I didn't know about. Unfortunately, subsequent releases from G.NA failed to live up the expectations she set for herself with "I'll Back Off So You Can Live."
#11. 2AM - I Can't Let You Go Even If I Die
Korea loves ballads, and 2AM is one of the best at delivering them. They were the premier ballad idol group and their long history shows their pedigree. "I Can't Let You Go Even If I Die" is a lengthy title, but who cares? The voices of 2AM are beautiful and each member got to shine in their own way. This was the song that really stood out to me in terms of both their individual talent and working together with each other for harmonies.
This…is something different. I would like to say that for this instance “different” is a good “different”, but…it’s not. I tried my hardest to like this new Taeyang, but either I’m too nostalgic for my own good, Taeyang was too strong with his old solo stuff, I don’t like the autotune and dubstep nature of the song, or any combination of the above, and for that I had a really tough time with this song. The introduction had me feeling pretty good, but between the heavy autotune, bizarre-sounding high-pitched background voices, awkward and quick shifts from the lower range verses / rap to the higher prechorus, nothing really came together. Which is a shame, because like I mentioned earlier, Taeyang’s previous solo work didn’t disappoint. Even “I’ll Be There”, which has the most similarity to “Ringa Linga” was way more enjoyable than this. The saving grace is absolutely the bridge, which trails back to more of Taeyang’s roots as a solo singer (and really nicely, too), which keep this score from getting a measly 2.
Appearance: 6 / 10
I remember when Taeyang had such short hair that he couldn’t even do anything extra with it. Hell, even in “I Need a Girl” or “I’ll Be There” there wasn’t much variation. But there was more changes in this music video than all of the previous releases combined. Anyway, it’s the “standard” faux hawk but in blonde, which doesn’t look bad, but with some shots where he has really long hair (or extended) Taeyang looks pretty silly (like a lion with a mane or something). At the same time, Taeyang’s a member of Big Bang, whose style and such shouldn’t bring much of a surprise anymore with how wacky and weird some of their stuff has been.
Dance: 10 / 10
Just about the only thing going for “Ringa Linga” (more on that later) is the beast choreography. Taeyang has always impressed with his dances and this song is no exception. There’s a mixture of high energy moves and more simple or “medium level” stuff. I don’t even know enough to feel right commenting about this. Really awesome work Taeyang.
Music Video: 5 / 10
Most of this MV was choreography-centered, so I cannot fault the score too much. But between the weird outfits and costumes and colours, bright lights and the glow-in-the-dark shenanigans, it’s just about a mediocre MV at best. Anyone else not surprised that G-Dragon found his way into the MV? I’m sure I wasn’t the only one. Taeyang is also of course, shirtless at one point in the video, which is eye candy for fangirls everywhere. All in all it’s just about the standard Big Bang-esque video, but not to the same quality as something like “Fantastic Baby” was.
~
Overall: 50 / 100
I hate to say that “Not impressed” is how I feel about “Ringa Linga”, but “not impressed” is exactly how I feel about “Ringa Linga”.The vocals are subpar, the chorus is subpar, the autotune is too strong, the rap talking is mediocre at best, and the transitions were lacking. The dance is definitely amazing, but you don’t hear the dance when you’re only listening to the music. We’ll see if Taeyang’s teammates in T.O.P and G-Dragon can impress further with their latest releases.
