March 18, 2015

[Review] Minah - I Am A Woman Too

Girl's Day is coming back soon, and with the powerful cycle in 2014 they are jumpstarting this year's hype with Minah's solo debut. Minah is the star vocalist of the group, something I didn't fully realize until diving more into Girl's Day. The title track "I Am A Woman Too" was advertised as a dance track, but I knew that would be more or less misleading.

Make no mistake, this song is purely vocal-based. And unfortunate as it may be, Minah's vocal prowess is not utilized to max extent in "I Am A Woman Too." For a majority of the song she sounds like she is straining to reach the high notes for a sustained period of time. The ending sections of "I love you love you love you" is a prime example of this. Even when she isn't reaching for notes though, she doesn't sound nearly as good as the features she's been in or even Girl's Day releases like "Darling" and "Something." Maybe the song is quite bland, or maybe the support from the other Girl's Day members augments (distorts?) Minah's ability. I think it's more of the former, as she sounds much better in the other songs on the album.

I know the theme, sound, and even title of this song is representing a shift into the more mature direction for Minah, but for the girl with extremely killer eye smiles and general adorableness, I don't really understand why they had to push her in this direction. Minah is by far the youngest looking member, and is more "elegant" in this video than she is "sexy." The lenses bring out Minah's eyes (not eye smiles unfortunately) and when her hair is put up she's truly breathtaking. The outfits also try to shift towards the sexier side of Minah, but the dance doesn't reflect that. For a song titled as a dance track, this choreography isn't very impressive. The moves are really plain and don't offer much, and even the cute little body waves in the chorus are just that, cute. Though I do think the result is in part to the tempo of the song, which isn't really upbeat enough to pull off consistently powerful dance moves.

The rest of the video is also pretty dull, with Minah's close-ups being the highlight of the MV. If 9MUSES' facial expressions in "Drama" were awkward, some of Minah's expressions here are almost hilariously lifeless. She looks damn bored half the video. Maybe this whole debut was just to tide fans over until the official Girl's Day comeback, and if this was rushed then "I Am A Woman Too" is a valiant effort in such little time, but as it stands it's a little too high on Minah's vocal range to handle while choreography and visuals are kept basic. A good try, but better luck next time, Minah.

[ Overall: 75 / 100 ]

March 11, 2015

[Review] EXID - Every Night (Throwback)

The retro series is pretty much nonexistent on my blog. I wanted to use the retro tag for songs that have long been out of the spotlight, or even old songs that were never really appreciated. The only other song on my blog that's tagged retro is Psy's "Right Now," which I reviewed alongside "Gangnam Style" during that past time. It's only appropriate I take a look back for EXID, who have risen to great heights with the help of "Up & Down."

"Every Night" has all the right elements of a solid release. The rapping from LE is excellent (more on that later) and kept in check by the superb vocals in the chorus. The support vocals and instrumental also have good teamwork, the latter doesn't take away from the singing while the former is good enough to bridge the main points of the song: the rap and chorus.

An excerpt on LE: I'll try not to dive too much into her here as I have to write about her in the Girl Group Rapper Power Rankings, but she is really good here. Hani and her fancam may have brought them to fame but LE was probably the standout member from the start, even before superstardom. LE's rapping in "Every Night" is commanding but doesn't overrun the song in any way, something that tends to happen with other key rappers like CL and even Yubin. I'm not convinced that she says "booty call" in her opening rap though, I always thought the words were "pretty cold" before I looked up lyrics so it's been hard trying to convince myself those aren't the lyrics.

Solji is exceptional. I'm going to be making a Girl Group Vocalist Power Ranking sometime this month as well, and I can already tell Solji will have a high placing. She has a lot of soul and power behind her voice, and is the driving force behind the choruses in "Every Night" and "Up & Down." The amount of work she does here, especially towards the end of the song is incredible.

The video is interesting to say the least. The gas masks are pretty creepy admittedly, and the actors and actresses do a good job playing their part(s). However, I'm not exactly sure why we needed slow motion close-ups of them spewing liquids from their mouths. If that was added with intention to be funny, they fell quite short. Everyone in EXID looks great, with Junghwa and (of course) Hani in the lead.

All in all, "Every Night" has every right to have been the song which launched EXID's career but the remake apparently continued to fly under the radar. Explosive vocals from Solji coupled with dynamic rapping from LE make for a strong combination, and with EXID's visuals and a gloomy video as backup they scored high in all the right places. Here's to more magic out of this group in 2015.

[ Overall: 90 / 100 ]

March 8, 2015

[Review] FIESTAR - You're Pitiful

Like most people, FIESTAR flocked onto the radar last year with "One More." Pleasing visuals paired with an addicting song were good enough reminders from "One More" that when I saw "You're Pitiful" coming around I figured I'd see if FIESTAR was capable of landing another solid hit. Thus far, most girl groups that I stumble upon have had good staying power.

As it turns out, "You're Pitiful" is a really pretty song. The delicate instrumental is extremely supportive of the synchronized vocals that FIESTAR brings while being strong enough to give a hook during the chorus. The whole song is just composed well, and both starts and finishes strong. Nothing is out of place, and none of the vocals are out of place either. But please, give Cao Lu some love. I'm starting to think that only Chinese members that have a primary role are the ones trying to terminate contracts. Anyway, the rapping by Yezi is solid and is a shame that I wasn't able to include her in my revisions of the Girl Group Rapper Power Rankings. The rap in "One More" was too short and questionable at best. Yezi has definitely rebounded from that in this release.

The MV is actually interesting / contains a plot, which as you've heard me say many times is already extremely good as far as videos are concerned. FIESTAR apparently likes to have something unique in their videos. Last time with "One More" it was the bright and lively colour borders and frames. This time there's plenty of food everywhere. Perhaps acting as a reminder that they don't get to eat anything because diets. Also there's a random car literally out of nowhere during Yezi's rap. Why?

Apparently people are hating on the fact that Jei gets so much camera time, but they must be blind because they somehow don't see her acting in the MV. I don't know if something similar happened with Girl's Day's Yura in "Expectation" but all this merely supports the notion that I really need to stop reading Youtube comments. On occasion there's something funny or witty but 98% of the time it's just trash. Did that guy just try on lipstick? LOL what a loser. Something that caught my attention which I liked was the use of the set in both the choreography shots and the plot scenes. This little touch seemingly connects the dance aspect and the plot aspect.

Choreography-wise this will definitely get edited by the broadcasting companies because the amount of butt is too high for Korea and the Korean public to handle. I did think the usage of male backup dancers was neat at the beginning of the chorus but then they just turn into human coathangers which wasn't very exciting. With that said, I appreciated the shots of just the members moreso than the shots with backup dancers. The camera, however, tried to be as risque as possible with so much angle abuse. That one move where the girls bounce on the chairs behind the guys? What is sexy about that? I don't really get it. Anyway, attractive women dancing attractively. Probably better choreography than "One More" but certainly will be adjusted for live performances.

I'm really liking "You're Pitiful." It's a strong song with nearly perfect visuals and a good rap showing from Yezi. Extremely well-rounded, though with some curious (questionable?) decisions in the video, but said video has some semblance of plot which I have come to appreciate.

[ Overall: 92 / 100 ]