[Review] G-Dragon - Crayon

Vocals: 6 / 10

I think compared to “One Of A Kind”, there are even fewer lines which are being sung, so again there’s a matter of weighing this the same amount as the other categories, but this is marked low for one specific reason: the various filters that sort of autotune or muffle GD’s voice throughout the song are really irritating to my ears and severely hurts the overall pleasantry of the song. If it was just one sort of muffle that was consistent it wouldn’t be a problem, but it’s multiple. Had it not been for them, I could probably listen to the song on repeat but as it stands I can only listen to the rapping sequences whenever I load up the song.

Appearance: 8 / 10

Considering this is a sequence of appearances by G-Dragon in short succession, I can’t really elaborate too much (I mean I could, but it’d be stuff I said before). G-Dragon looks more or less the same compared to his appearance in “One Of A Kind” and “That XX”. I saw glimpses of Zelo with his hilarious / wacky facial expressions while he was in the bathroom, and from the haflway point of the song and onward the faces he makes are nothing short of extraordinary. Although I will comment on how people thought the girl in the TV scene was GD in a dress, but I don’t think it was since I’m pretty sure his arms are splattered with tattoos of various sorts.

Rap: 10 / 10

“If I were to rank Korea’s top five rappers, G-Dragon would easily be in the top three if not top two. With nearly every release, he continues to showcase his dominance and talent. This song in particular is a little weird since it’s got a slow intro that suddenly picks up into a blitz.” Does this sound familiar? Well it should, the rap style and sequence is a little like that of “One Of A Kind”, where the tempo is mostly slow but still rather erratic and unpredictable, but this is the style that G-Dragon excels in. If it worked for a previous song, it’s still going to work now. Excellent work all around.

Music Video: 10 / 10

Talk about an exciting music video. If you thought “One Of A Kind” was clever, this smashes that to the ground. G-Dragon has many many friends, and they’re all here to party and not lipsync very awkwardly. The sets get even more bizarre and the outfits more intriguing: being the DJ / person inside his crazed self, fighting / dancing in puffy sumo-esque suits, literally going insane on the dance floor, etc. The use of camera angles were also really nice and helped emphasize G-Dragon getting his “cray on.” Did you see the creepy / cheeky grin when the girl butts were shaking behind him? Extremely serious.

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Overall: 85 / 100

In the end, I have given “Crayon” a handful of listens but I may just try to find a condensed version where it’s only the raps strung together. The autotune and muffles are really distracting and hurts the replay value of the song by so much. While I would say this is the weakest (use the term loosely) of the three releases thus far, it’s by no means a bad song and has some great rhymes and hilarious music video.

[Review] Secret - Poison

Vocals: 9 / 10

Secret is one of those (girl) groups that have always been decent in terms of vocals but happen to house a power vocalist so impressive it just strengthens them by so much. In this case, it’s obviously Ji Eun carrying the others on her back. Sunhwa and Hyosung (Zinger?) are by no means poor singers and they fit the verse sections quite well, both girls have soft voices which are out of place in the loud and emphatic choruses. Thankfully, Ji Eun saves the day, and completely dominates the last 45 seconds of the song with expressive belts ranging from low and powerful to high and shrill / emotional. Ji Eun’s vocals match this song so perfectly that I have to rate the vocals a 9, instead of a 5 if not for her presence and excellent performance.

Appearance: 9 / 10

Wow, they have undergone a complete 180 turnaround from the last time we saw them! The cutesy, aegyo, and pretty Secret have gone, and in place are four extremely beautiful women. Secret is a group which isn’t too skinny to the level where it can freak people out (thank you, Hyosung). This music video gives the girls the flashy old-school appearance and each of them look great. Hyosung and Sunhwa are their usual selves, with the side note that there aren’t enough eye smiles from Sunhwa (understandable, due to this song’s more serious nature) and Hyosung looks like Gain with her short cut. Ji Eun stands out a little odd, the hairstyle not really complimenting her face very well, she was much more flattering with her hair dropped and / or in bangs. I honestly think Zinger is the highlight here though, with the long hair and streaks looks, give amazing compliment to match the fierce raps. The outfits for the plot MV were very nice and flashy.

Dance: 8 / 10

<This information has been removed by the Korean Commission Of Youth Protection> Yeah, have you seen live performances of this song yet? You don’t really see any shots of anything lower than the waist. Now to my knowledge, the original choreography has not been altered, but definitely focusing cameras up there to avoid…yeah. The risqué movements / touching are definitely pushing it and the camerawork of the music video certainly didn’t help. KARA and Sistar have signature butt choreographies but this blows those out of the water. It’s honestly uncomfortable to talk about the dance. Let me put it this way, if Secret wore long pants for the dance, I’d still find the dance too provocative.

Rap: 8 / 10

Zinger shows a fair amount of presence in this video, much more so than “Love Is Move.” Also contrary to “Love Is Move”, Zinger brings a fierce and powerful set of raps, which is her specialty, compared to the cutesy rhymes of the group’s previous release. While I absolutely love and enjoy seeing more variety in Secret’s songs: where Zinger gets some more of the spotlight than what is considered “the usual” (for a rapper, anyway), a problem I have with the rap is that none of the segments really have a solid conclusion to them. Sure, Zinger comes in, spits some sick lyrics but then it just kinda abruptly ends and goes right into singing. If anything, the powerful “What” at the end of her final segment is…really awkward sounding. Oh well, some solid rapping and powerful charisma nonetheless.

Music Video: 8 / 10

Perhaps this is the first review I’ve done where the music video has some sort of noticeable plot to it. That said, I’d like to just ignore the other half of the video, you know, the stereotypical sets and attractive outfits / design, the dancing with backups in various rooms, the cars, the lights, all that. Hyosung’s bout with the detective(?) is traced through the girls’ work at locating / infiltrating a safe, and use cheeky predictable methods to do so, but they seem to stand around awkwardly when they actually reach their destination and get ambushed (poor Sunhwa). Hyosung shows up to rescue everyone with some rather hesitant shooting (did you see how long it took for her to shoot the second guy?) and they all grab the goodies and peace. A little bit confusing and open if you ask me. Perhaps I wasn’t paying too much attention to the Hyosung / detective parts, but that’s not a good thing for me to say regarding a music video. In the end though, the fact that this isn’t a boring as hell room video is good enough for me.

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Overall: 84 / 100

“Saranghae move move, saranghae move move~” Oh wait. Wrong song. That’s how I feel about “Poison”. It’s a great song, but it’s not particularly memorable, save for maybe drooling over Hyosung, unlike “Madonna” or “Love Is Move”. Additionally, the song is much too repetitive which really turns me off. I’ll find myself often starting the song and just skipping to the end to hear Ji Eun’s glorious vocals.

[Review] G-Dragon - One Of A Kind

Vocals: 7 / 10

This song is more heavily centered on the rapping and sing rapping than singing, but there are bits and pieces throughout playing around with GD’s vocals, and they’re decent enough. G-Dragon in my opinion has never had that good of a voice, but he makes use of it with help from the autotune. The various vocals towards the end of the song are more random shouts and noises than anything, so it doesn’t require too much vocal talent to do that.  It feels like I’m having unfair balance again, where I’m rating GD’s singing the same amount as say the rapping or the music video, but it helps me write the overall reviews so I’ll take it.

Appearance: 8 / 10

G-Dragon is back with the blonde and boy is it more bizarre than ever. G-Dragon’s hairstyles typically speak for themselves, so there’s no need for me to comment on anything regarding that and honestly aside from that, there really isn’t much more to talk about. The crazy appearances and outfits are pretty much a staple of GD’s (and to some extent even Big Bang now) that I’m sure most people weren’t really shocked by anything they saw. Did you see all those cute little kids and punk-looking thugs though? Quite the contrast in a single video.

Dance: 9 / 10

This dance is pretty neat. The fluidity (especially when the backup dancers have their backs turned and all have the dragon on their sweaters) and just the style matches the song quite nicely. I feel like the purpose of  the song could have been reflected more heavily on the style of choreography, to emphasize it being “one of a kind.” Doing so would require less of the common hilarity in the music video to be exchanged for more dance scenes / sequences, something I wouldn’t mind in future G-Dragon videos. But then again, if that was so it wouldn’t really be a true G-Dragon video then, would it?

Rap: 10 / 10

If I were to rank Korea’s top five rappers, G-Dragon would easily be in the top three if not top two. With nearly every release, he continues to showcase his dominance and talent. This song in particular is a little weird since it’s got a slow intro that suddenly picks up into a blitz. G-Dragon’s rapping voice for the most part is low which is good (in contrast to his singing voice). I’m kinda surprised I can’t really think of much more to write about the rap, it’s solid and pretty easy to listen to, if you can keep up with him, that is.

Music Video: 9 / 10

This music video is everything you’d expect a G-Dragon video to have and a little more. From the wacky hairstyles, to the pseudo-creepy backup dancers (both male and female), to the animals, to the strange sets, to the graphic hats, this is definitely one damn good music video. Unlike with 2NE1’s “Can’t Nobody” and the random dog, GD actually has a bear when he’s talking about it and the tiger matches with the fancy stripes GD sports. The children’s cameos throughout the video are also a cute addition, especially in the beginning where they’re talking to teach other through the cup phone. G-Dragon also reveals to us that he’s probably as athletically capable as a brick, since he gets destroyed in boxing and made me laugh seeing his tennis form. Taeyang’s appearance is…strange though. Taeyang doesn’t have any lines and is just there to kinda loaf around (he doesn’t even do any of the choreography) and lipsync G-Dragon’s lines, it’s actually quite confusing to me why he’s there. If anything, include the rest of Big Bang, not just your childhood buddy. Also, the Barbie section is hands down the best and funniest part of the music video.

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Overall: 86 / 100

“Yessir, I’m one of a kind.” Indeed you are, GD. Once again, you’re setting yourself apart from every other rapper and every other male singer out there in Korea with a nice beat, smooth lyrics, and a quality music video. But next time, leave Taeyang at home, okay?

[Review] KARA - Pandora

Vocals: 9 / 10

Most people wouldn’t really think it, but KARA possesses one of the best vocal lineups. Seungyeon, Nicole, and Gyuri all do wonderful work while Hara and Jiyoung pull their weight via support roles. While Seungyeon has never quite impressed me in the past, her lines in this song are fantastic, and her bridge buildup / belts near the end of the song reminded me of Gayoon, which is good because she emphasizes a very distinct / unique sound. Hara’s support vocals have continued to improve and I was surprised at how well Jiyoung’s singing matched the song. The “mood” of some of the vocals is a little strange, though. The song / instrumental and music video are upbeat and powerful, and the chorus heavily reflects that. However, there are various lines which sound “cute”, most notably, “up and up ah ah~”. Considering that this song is upbeat and frantic, the cute sound seemed out of place. I feel that the cutesy vocals were more suited for a slower song like “Step”, and this song required more energetic vocals, similar to how “Lupin” was. Speaking of, considering how frequent “up and up ah ah~” was, the pronunciation could have been stronger. The first time I listened to the song I honestly thought the line was “Open it up ah~”, which would have been kinda relevant in terms of Pandora’s Box. In the end, it’s a solid performance which I cannot complain about.

Appearance: 10 / 10

Speaking of being at the top, KARA is one of the few groups who have consistently been super attractive all the time. Seriously, look at them! Hara, Nicole, Seungyeon, Jiyoung, and Gyuri are all stunning in this video and in general. KARA’s eyes have always been a trademark / highlight and this song is following suit. Jiyoung’s appearance continues to fool me into forgetting she is a 94’er, and Nicole is quite the bombshell in blonde (did you see the eye makeup during the middle portion of the video though? It looked pretty awful). Gyuri and Seungyeon are more or less the same, which is quite impressive to begin with. Hara wins the standout award with the new colour and messy bangs style. And here I was thinking Hara looked the best with long straight hair. While the sets between “Pandora” and “Step” are fairly similar, the colours for the former are darker and more serious, an appropriate touch in comparison to the brighter friendlier release. Oh, and have I mentioned how attractive KARA is?

Dance: 10 / 10

If you thought the “Halla halla halla” / “Lupin” choreography was sexy, the dance for this song ups a whole new level. All the swaying, fierce looks, etc. match perfectly (perfectly match?) with the lyrics and upbeat tempo of the song. Like with some other groups, I’d hope to see some dance breaks in the future, although one could argue Nicole’s rap segment is considered a dance break. Regardless, KARA has a group of solid dancers and while their choreography may not be the most intense or difficult, it certainly is flashy and they look amazing doing it.

Rap: 9 / 10

Somehow I feel that it has been ages since I’ve seen something even remotely rap-related from KARA, even though Nicole is already quite talented in spitting out lyrics, and Hara is also half decent, I definitely did not expect a returning collaboration of rap from Nicole, Hara, and Jiyoung! It’s very well done between the three of them, and it’s a perfect compliment to the rest of the song. Other groups should try using collaboration rap sequences, since KARA pulled this off with good success. Honestly, there really isn’t much else to say. Excellent rap and hope to see more of this in the future!

Music Video: 7 / 10

…well, it was good up until this point, haha. It’s a generic Korean pop music video, what else is there to say? The MV has all the basic components: flashy set designs, fashionable outfits, neat lighting effects, an expensive car, all sautéed to crispy state with some amazing vocals, choreography, and rap for additional taste and you have the traditional KPop video!

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Overall: 90 / 100

Honestly, I was really into KARA back when in the days of “Mister” and “Lupin”, but since the Japanese promotions and “Step” came after I haven’t been paying attention to them that much - due to my policy of not really following Korean artists’ Japanese expansion save for a select few. However, KARA has once again rebounded into my heart with “Pandora” and it’s a extremely good listen and I can only wish they ride their continuing success for the future.