June 15, 2014

[Review] Jiyeon - Never Ever


Jiyeon was the last of the trio of Duble Sidekick releases to premiere, and with this being Jiyeon’s first foray into solo work and curious teaser imagery, this was the song that needed immediate strong impact. Would such be delivered?
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Vocals: 9 / 10
Jiyeon has a very soft voice, and this was played to the best possible outcome in “Never Ever” (side note: I don’t like when songs have 2 distinctly different titles. Is the song name “Never Ever” or “1:01”? Neither are wrong or bad song titles, it’s just confusing to have 2 of them). There isn’t anything extremely fancy, nor would I believe such parts be possible for Jiyeon to pull off without serious strain but the song is pleasant on the ears and flows very well. The deep gasps and breathing that not subtle at all were extremely bizarre. They didn’t really add anything to the vocals or enhance the instrumental. / background. The English “I wanna be with you, but I will pray for you baby” seems a little odd at first, but I assume the praying is for the better of the significant other now that they are apart. This is a very memorable song with a strong hook without being overly loud or dramatic, which is impressive.
Dance: 8 / 10
I do enjoy some symbolic choreography and that’s what Jiyeon shows. The usage of a “mirror” and a backup dancer playing essentially an equal part to Jiyeon is quite excellent. The display of “one by one” in the chorus regarding writing letters is solid, though the other moments of the chorus could’ve been better. I’m not entirely sure what the pelvic choreography was used for outside of just pure fanservice, and the same could be said for the moves at the beginning of each chorus. Still, this style of fanservice is more aligned with Sistar’s work than the rather extremes.
Music Video: 10 / 10
What a beautifully crafted MV. I honestly didn’t expect this. The repitition and representation are all on the mark, while attention to detail like with the flowers and etc. were bonus points on an already polished video. I’m sure I wasn’t the only person who thought of Slender when the man’s face was empty / obscure, which added a clean touch to the “nightmarish” sense describe by the lyrics. I do question the necessity of having Jiyeon get wet other than, again, fanservice, and were there moments in that MV where it was raining inside? While questionable, still leaves us with a perfect MV score.
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Overall: 90 / 100
Based on score alone, Jiyeon is the clear winner but there’s really more to that. Jiyeon has a song that will loop in your head, with an artisticly and aesthetically pleasing MV. Above that, “Never Ever” shines in the areas that the other 2 songs have trouble: there’s no awful breaks or mismatching of lyrics and video in “Goodnight Kiss”, nor is there a lack of anything memorable or poor MV decisions in “G.NA’s Secret”. Jiyeon has made an excellent solo debut and I hope Hyomin’s is just as strong if not stronger.

June 10, 2014

[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.

June 1, 2014

[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.