[Review] G.NA - G.NA's Secret

G.NA’s new title song sounds like something out of Secret, for, well…obvious reasons. G.NA’s career to me has been a rollercoaster, mostly on the downwards trends with more cutesy songs that aren’t appealing to her voice. Outside of her debut, I can’t think of another title track that has ever floored me. We’ll see how “G.NA’s Secret” fares.

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Vocals: 8 / 10

G.NA is a talented vocalist simply underutilized. That’s how I’ve phrased my common opinions on this girl. This song starts off as no exception but does have some good quality moments like the bridge, and the chorus itself isn’t even too tilted on the aegyo side of things. This may be the closest I’ve ever seen G.NA attain the “balanced aegyo” that A-Pink seems to do so flawlessly song after song. Her voice is a natural blend of purity and power, and this song is a very good representation. Even with that said though, the collection of cutesy giggles and such don’t help this score.

Dance: 7 / 10

I was originally not going to mention the choreography and split the vocals and MV into 25 points each but then I realized there’s actually quite a lot of dancing going on in this. As for the dance itself, it doesn’t deviate too much from G.NA’s norm. I liked the choreography of the 2nd chorus where she brought out a little Wheesung with the male and female counterpart backup dancers (I don’t really know how else to call that, so coining it a “Wheesung” will have to do). This is, however, a dance that needing bacup dancers is a must, as it’s a pretty uninteresting dance when done solo.

Music Video: 7 / 10

Consistency is a very good aspect to see in this video. Come to think of it, most of G.NA’s videos are pretty solid in this department. Extremely disturbing, awkward, and unnecessary were both the male salesman and whoever was playing as the bunny. I don’t see how you require a bunny suit to just hand out fliers advertising a party. Is that what people are doing these days? At least the party seems to go smoothly. The pervy disturbing moments actually mess up this score a lot, as it would’ve been a very sweet and generic MV otherwise.

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Overall: 74 / 100

How amusing that G.NA and Hyosung matched scores with very different songs. While Hyosung played to strong choreography and minimalist vocal requirements, G.NA relied on her consistent vocals and decent-enough music video (which could have been so much better). This song does manage to hit that sweet spot of aegyo that won’t make me turn down the song like mentioned before, but does leave much to be desired out of G.NA’s vocal potential. It’ll be very interesting to see how Jiyeon measures up.

[Review] Hyosung - Goodnight Kiss

We’ll start coverage of the Dube Sidekick solo releases, in chronological order, so we’ve got Secret’s fabulous Hyosung. While known best for her body, Hyosung more than holds her own as a support vocalist to Jieun. Will her solo debut play to her strengths or fall flat?

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Vocals: 7 / 10

Hyosung is more than able to get the job done. Breathy husky vocals which provide a sultry sound which we’ve seen past glimpses of in “Poison”, and given the soft sounding lullaby feel this is quite a good match. The problem is the choice of awkward breaks that make me cringe and add no real value to the rest of the song. The “K-I-S-S-I-N-G” chant during the prechorus was for a lack of a better word weird. It does fit in with the title of the song but I’m getting memories of an elementary school chant instead. The chorus itself is quite good if not for that horrible “Boom boom zoom zoom” English that was thrown in. Also of note is that Hyosung’s English is quite solid. I don’t think many of the words used were very difficult for Korean speakers but credit where credit is due. Pretty much every bridge was awful and should have been removed, otherwise this would have been a fairly good song.

Dance: 9 / 10

This dance is furious! Note that I didn’t say “all over the place”. I haven’t seen any lives of this song yet but this is some seriously impressive choreography. Hyosung might be the “lead dancer” on Secret but Secret’s choreography has never been this intense. Even when compared to “Poison”, which is the closest equivalent to the dance in “Goodnight Kiss”, the former seems way more tame. Excellent job here.

Music Video: 6 / 10

While Wheesung’s “Night And Day” video sort of had an open ending plot that could be pieced together, “Goodnight Kiss” is a difficult puzzle to keep track of. Is this an affair for the groom? Were they previously in a relationship? Nothing is very clear and the video just bounces between the “plot” and various shots of Hyosung (I don’t really have to comment much on this, Hyosung is gorgeous). What further complicates any understanding of the plot is that the lyrics do not match the video (or dance). At all. If you just looked at the lyrics, I could easily see a sweet ballad form off them, but instead we have this… I see many people comment on how Hyosung just can’t keep her hands off her lips the entire video, which while overboard, is some form of continuity since last I checked you need lips to kiss. If the plot were expanded upon, or if something that better matches the lyrics was shown, this could have been a really good MV.

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Overall: 74 / 100

Can’t say that I wasn’t a little disappointed with how poorly the audio of the dance breaks messed up the song. There was some promise from Hyosung but I think the unfortunate combination of horrible breakdowns and a confusing / misplaced music video keep “Goodnight Kiss” from being a breakout song.

[Review] Wheesung - Night & Day

Wheesung is back! You’ll notice I didn’t say “RealSlow is back!” because that name is too obnoxious. After military service, it seems he hasn’t missed a day with “The Best Man” EP. But let’s talk about the title track!

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Vocals: 25 / 25

If Wheesung had room for improvement, that’d be quite the sight. Wheesung is a clear master of the R&B / soul ballad, and his emotions and power are clearly felt from his voice.

Wheesung’s English pronunciations are pretty flawless, especially the crisp “knight” at the very end. Non-English speakers tend to leave off syllables at the end of words, but Wheesung does a fantastic job.

Dance: ?

So I could talk about the choreography. I could talk about how Wheesung’s formula of having alternating dances between female and male backup dancers has been since in videos prior to his military service. But there’s a problem. Wheesung doesn’t really actually do any of the dance. He’s pretty much sitting in the center of the choreography, making some efforts to stand up and or make dramatic movements, but…I don’t think it’s very viable to even rate this, so I won’t.

Music Video: 23 / 25

When I discussed Huh Gak’s “It Hurts” in [Spotlight], I noted how ballads have a platform to work off for their videos. Wheesung grabbed some promising idols in Yura and CAP and both acted quite admirably. Although I think CAP isn’t very capable of controlling or adding facial expressions, Yura is pretty smooth. The whole MV is filmed very well, although the slow motion reverse shenanigans may have been a bit drawn out. The ambiguous ending was…interesting. On one hand, it lets the viewer decide what truly happened or will happen. On the other, I enjoy videos who have straightforward and understandable plot.

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Overall: 96 / 100

Wheesung is back in force, with explosive and emotional vocals that haven’t been rusted by time in military service. He’s acked up by choreography he never actually dances, and the support acting from Yura and CAP who create an appealing music video. “The Best Man” EP is full of goodies, and “Night And Day” is just the start.

[Review] EXO - Overdose

So I checked the world of Korean entertainment today to see that Han Geng is filing a lawsuit against Super Junior. Wait a minute this isn’t 2009! Kris, however, doesn’t seem to care and if sources are correct, has already sued S.M. to terminate his contract. Now that we have that news out of the way, let’s go ahead and review “Overdose”, the long awaited comeback for all of EXO’s creepy fangirls.

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Vocals: 7 / 10

There’s a really evident problem with consistency in this song. The entire song is heavy on the instrumental and electronic sound, which isn’t even that good to begin with. The song has a tendency to jump from smooth to ragged, and not in a good way. The English is good where it needs to be: during the prechorus, and awful pretty much everywhere else. Speaking of the prechorus, that was one the best parts of the song. A rare moment where the lyrics, notes, and instrumental come together nicely, but then dives into the chorus which is very lackluster and has some odd arrangements. The bridge, too, is nicely done. Not quite the level of clarity that the bridge in “Wolf” had, but still worth applause. Line distribution is decent, and the Chinese version is inferior, but not by much.

Appearance: 8 / 10

EXO is looking like EXO, but their outfits (not the suits) are looking like f(x) and or SHINee. It’s actually obnoxious, given how “serious” the song sounds and the outfits we have seen in the past from. Even the clothing from “What Is Love” would’ve been more appropriate, Also, Tao can’t wear his hair down, ha.

Dance: 5 / 10

This dance was…all over the place. That head bobbing is so ridiculous and other various movements like the swinging and zombie claws (wolves?) in the chorus and throughout just seem so random. I have a hard time following the dance, which is troublesome for a group with so many members and such potential as seen in “Growl” and “History”. I think that if they had stuck to original choreography like shown in “History” or even “MAMA”, this would’ve been so much better.

Rap: 7 / 10

Chanyeol? Excellent. Kris? Good. Everyone else? Bad. And so an average score is given. Xiumin tries his best for the Chinese lyrics, but I’m still confused why he isn’t a vocalist. The only rappers in EXO-M are Kris and Tao. If you’re going to make another rapper for the Chinese lyrics just have Chanyeol do it. I’m honestly not seeing Sehun’s potential, and he’s fast becoming the “Dasom” of the group, and with a deteriorating choreography, he has less chance to shine. Then again Kai usually has the spotlight there.

Music Video: 5 / 10

Specific box sets with fluid / various “interactive” camerawork and additional flashy special effects. This is most certainly a S.M. music video. Why does everyone seem so angry in this MV? Aside from Kris and D.O who always look angry haha.

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Overall: 64 / 100

Well, I thought S.M. was turning stuff around with Soshi and Super Junior M’s work, but was only a curveball since this lead song from EXO is pretty mediocre. There are high highs in the bridge and the lead rappers, but low lows in the choreography and below average instrumental. With this and Kris’ incoming lawsuit, it’s going to be really hard for EXO to rebound.

[Review] HIGH4 & IU - Not Spring, Love, or Cherry Blossoms

Ballad and IU sounds like a sweet deal to me, and with rookie group HIGH4 making their debut, supposedly with a few members knowing IU, sounds like a good recipe for a tasty ballad.

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Vocals: 9 / 10

Gotta hand it to HIGH4 and their management. If you’re gonna debut with a ballad, enlisting the help of IU is pretty genius. IU is one of the premier ballad masters with her sweet voice, and is perfect for the song and lyrics. On the flipside, the male voices from Myunghan and Sunggu provide rich lower ranges that provide a simply delightful combination with IU’s airy high notes. I have no other words. Absolutely. Delightful. The lone mark off is due to a lack of anything that stands out and says “Wow” which might be expected towards the end. Still, the phrase “Not spring, love, or cherry blossoms” has never sounded sweeter.

Appearance: 7 / 10

IU looks sweet, adorable, pretty, etc. As always. She is simply immune to aging, an ability others in the industry also share. I have no problems with the looks of HIGH4, and in fact I could instantly discern which members were the rappers through looks alone, but what’s up with the highlights / coloured hair? Just seems they chose random colours and the whole process is questionable. Since their debut song of choice was a ballad, having bright colourful hair seems out of place and they look very goofy.

Dance: ? / 10

Um. I guess there was something of a dance at the end. I’m not weighing this at all, of course, as there was as little choreography as there was actual dancing shown in the MV.

Rap: 4 / 10

Meh. I’ve seen better, I’ve seen worse, but the main problem with the rapping is that it’s just out of place in this ballad. Not necessarily saying that raps have no place in ballads, because that’s not true. There are a handful of ballads with excellent execution of rapping (LeeSSang’s “Tears” and EXO’s “Baby Don’t Cry” are just 2 examples), but this falls rather flat. The voices of both Yongjun and Alex aren’t exactly the type of voice for rapping, and they remind me of BTOB’s “Ilhoon” at best, with slight nasal tones. Despite the already swayed opinions, I think the rapping pair could do better with a different type of song.

Music Video: 6 / 10

Okay, so I admit the set was cute, and allowed for some fun “interactions”, if you will. The rapping members in the car, heh. Other than that though, there’s not much going for this video. For a song about couples and “love, spring, and cherry blossoms”, I only saw the cherry blossoms (which, might I add looked like snow at some points). There were no other couples to be looked at or sought after, and I never thought that the set could be considered in springtime. Alright, I guess.

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Overall: 66 / 100

That rap, man. Absolutely murdered this score. Ignoring that, this ballad is very sweet. The mesh of voices between IU and HIGH4 is quite divine, and since the song is a ballad, everything is even better / more amplified. Just goes to show how much weight one category will pull, and more importantly how execution of rapping can be so crucial.