February 24, 2015

[Review] Rainbow - Black Swan

 is back! This group has toggled between sexy and cute for the last couple of years, with nothing really able to stand up to the raw power and success of "A" and "Mach." This comeback and "Black Swan," however looked promising in terms of visuals and music, so let's see how they delivered.

Can we just appreciate the instrumental for a moment? It's very simplistic in nature but works really well to bring out the vocals of Rainbow, and is genuinely powerful. No one in the group is a power vocalist, so keeping the instrumental basic definitely helped the song. Hyunyoung sounds really good, and honestly has the rest of the team on her back. Jaekyung and Jisook have nice supporting roles but it's really Hyunyoung who is the star of the show in pretty much all aspects. The vocals by itself aren't anything too impressive, but with the crazy good instrumental, the lyrics sound much better by association. The combination of velvety voices and killer instrumental make for a pleasant combination.

However, the song starts to falter in the 2nd half. Nothing new is introduced and the drop for the rap by Woori was underwhelming to say the least. It was pretty much on Woori to put on a strong showing and have a good lead into the final chorus but she didn't deliver. The rapping was too slow and despite Hyunyoung's best attempt at recovering with the lovely belts the last minute or so just doesn't measure up to the beginning. This was Woori's last chance to show me some convincing evidence to put her above other rappers like Hana (psst! Updated Girl Group Rapper Power Rankings are coming in March!) but it's a shame that didn't go through.

The video is pretty much all we expected out of the teaser. It's creepy and beautiful, scary and elegant. Rainbow looks the best they have in a while, ever since the rather peculiar appearances of "Tell Me Tell Me." The entire MV is essentially fanservice and pretend peekings at their inner selves, some of which are apparently serial killers playing with blood? How eerie. The dance during the chorus is just your usual leg-revealing butt-shaking dance, but man does Hyunyoung look really damn good doing it. Must be all those hours spent at the gym.

In the end, what Rainbow showed with "Black Swan" is that they definitely have the potential to be a strong girl group contender. But, when you consider this was their strongest release since the days of "A" and "Mach," that doesn't look very good on your resume. Still, it's a catchy electronic number that unfortunately weakens in the latter half of the song.

[ Overall: 83 / 100 ]

February 16, 2015

[Review] Amber - Shake That Brass (feat. Taeyeon)

Continuing with S.M. Entertainment's entourage of solo artist releases, Amber finally gets her time in the spotlight. The undermarketed rapper of f(x) would surely deliver something lively and funky along with solid vocals and good rapping.

Unfortunately, "Shake That Brass" is a really...dull song, considering that Amber is involved. Even for f(x) standards this song is pretty mediocre. The rapping overall is pretty simple and easy to follow along, though it's still better than most anything Amber has rapped under f(x). The few parts where she sings is not that impressive either, and we've seen how smooth and pretty Amber's voice can be, so if the rapping was subpar I was hoping they'd make up for it with better vocals. Though I guess that's why Taeyeon was involved. Taeyeon's parts receive a score of 50%. Her "actual" feature towards the end of the song is divine and everything that you'd imagine. However, using her for short little bursts throughout was really weak and they could've used pretty much anyone in that position. Or better yet, just omit that part entirely, since those parts were obviously the weakest links. If Taeyeon had been limited to her parts at the end I might have claimed this to be the best utilized feature in 2015, and clever timing given Taeyeon's getting solo work soon. However, the mediocre insertions in the earlier parts of the song mar this potential masterpiece of a feature.

Now the video on the other hand is equal parts colourful and fun. Amber's sassy charisma is on point throughout the video and her "Whatever / YOLO" eye rolling at 2:56 is just what you'd expect from her. Box sets are plenty but the laundromat gave a nice change of setting, as did the shots with all of Amber's friends. Shame it was recorded in a literal blank box. I wanted to see more of the antics with all these superstar cameos (miss A's Jia, Rainbow's Woori, GOT7's Jackson to name but a few), because all we got was already seen from the teaser(s). Still, it's a good MV without a doubt.

I would hesitate to call Amber's "Shake That Brass" the weakest solo debut out of S.M. thus far. It's lively, fun, and has beautiful work from Taeyeon towards the end. However, everything else out of Amber is just average, and Amber's reputation is not about being average, and when compared to the smooth heroics of Zhou Mi's "Rewind" and Jonghyun's stellar "Crazy," Amber does find herself looking in from the outside.

[ Overall: 78 / 100 ]

February 9, 2015

[Review] 4minute - Crazy

4minute is back and praise all that is holy because this comeback is truly 4minute. Last week they released "Cold Rain" which was a ballad / general teaser to the album I suppose, but while Jiyoon and Gayoon make "Cold Rain" an amazing song, the rest of 4minute can't really do ballads. Thankfully, "Crazy" is certainly just that: crazy.

Some logistics before getting started. The choice to have the video in black and white has strengths and weaknesses. Letting Jiyoon's green hair standout more is good, but I would've liked to see the other members utilize that, too (or backup dancers, even). However, for a song that's about being crazy (which the video definitely was in terms of transitions) I think a more bright and vivid palette would have helped exemplify the craziness. Having members' names on their snapbacks is nice I suppose, to help introduce newbies to 4minute, how thoughtful. Wait those weren't even snapbacks. Why didn't they use snapbacks? What was up with the effects on Gayoon at 1:45? Didn't seem like that really added anything to the video, made me more confused than anything. The instrumental was also rather messy at times, especially noticeable during Jihyun's part.

Anyway, onto the song. Hyuna's pronunciation of monster as "monSTAR" was clever if intentional, Hyuna as always been hit or miss with me, but she follows up on her performance in "Red" and stays strong and ferocious here. Sohyun's place in this song is much better than in "Cold Rain," serving as transition into Gayoon's absolutely powerful climb into the chorus. The chorus itself is rather repetitive and worms into your head, and it'll drive you crazy (pun intended). Jiyoon is everything she has been for 4minute, and her charisma, rapping power, and energy are on point. If you ask me, her rap was too short to really sell her skills, because I think she's constantly been underrated and underappreciated in 4minute (for obvious Hyuna-related reasons). Jihyun's effort in the last half of the song is rather weak. It was the only portion of the song that didn't sound like it belonged with the rest, and prior to her part I was getting worried if she'd have any lines at all, which I guess was planned ahead of time? Thankfully, Gayoon's carry vocals are so good I don't really think much about Jihyun. Hell, even Sohyun put in admirable work that I can overlook Jihyun.

When it comes to 4minute, I haven't seen anything of this caliber since the days of "I My Me Mine" which is still their best song. However, the craziness in "Crazy" is pretty much perfection. The pure ferocity and charisma from Hyuna and Jiyoon, the delightful power in Gayoon's vocals, and of course the nearly out of control eye candy in the choreography and video all come together for a very strong title.

[ Overall: 93 / 100 ]