[Review] BASTARZ - Zero For Conduct

Block B's first subunit BASTARZ would consist of U-Kwon, B-Bomb, and P.O. First off I like the idea of showcasing the less "famous" members of the group in this subunit. Zico and Taeil have plenty of talent and exposure under the belts so getting the other boys a shot will probably be good for Block B overall.

"Zero For Conduct" (or "Conduct Zero," whichever you prefer) is a powerful song and you can tell right from the beginning with the alarms / sirens and deep instrumental kicking in immediately. P.O is a capable rapper who has essentially existed under Zico's shadow with Block B, but here he gets to be the center character (at least in my opinion) and while his hair has been questionable the last couple of videos, he does a really job with the rap with his voice and execution. I do have a little gripe about the "ready go" butchering in the prechorus: it sounds too much like "let it go" with terrible English but nothing can be done about that I suppose? The chorus is similar to "Catch Me If You Can" by Girls' Generation, in that it's mainly there for dance purposes and there isn't much going on otherwise. The instrumental does the bulk of the work and makes you just want to dance along, which means "Conduct Zero" has accomplished the goal of any dance track.

I won't comment too much on the MV. It's the generic video with dance scenes and solo shots with girls in lingerie and...? Not really sure about the outfits. It's not nearly as interesting as past Block B videos are, and as such I'm left wondering if this is a good thing or not. Oh and there's that creepy set of clips with their faces molded in something red or whatever. I don't know what's going on there but I didn't like it.

There's a few different ways to approach a subunit. Subunits like Orange Caramel take a completely different style of music their mother group usually performs, which shows how flexible the members of said group can be, while a subunit like Girls' Generation-TTS can reveal how filler other members can be in comparison to the main. BASTARZ might be in a category of its own. While the music doesn't stray too far from the standard Block B formula, the members each do an admirable job with their parts and the song as a whole is quite good. However, one could imagine what this song would be like as a Block B release, with Zico mixed in per usual and Taeil adding some extra vocal power. BASTARZ makes a loud splash for the debut but can't quite manage to bring it home.

[ Overall: 80 / 100 ]

[Review] EXID - Ah Yeah

After finding themselves launched into stardom with "Up & Down," EXID makes a return and an important one at that. If they can keep gaining ground with "Ah Yeah" they will probably go down as one of the fastest rising girl groups in contemporary years. The question would of course be, can they pull it off?

And we're off to a creepy start with the "Where do you live, do you live alone" whisper as soon as the song begins. Now I don't know what this contributes, but for the sake of the song I like to pretend the lyrics are "Where do you lift, do you lift alone" for shits and giggles. It makes the few times the lyrics show up funny rather than creepy. I immediately fell in love with the verses. Hani and LE provide a delightful contrast that is just fantastic. Hani's sweet and composed vocals cut right into LE's frantic and aggressive raps. LE has plenty of good material out there but this is some of her best work to date. This contrast and flip is not only played out in the verses and voices but the characteristics of the girls in the video. Hani acts coy and almost shy, carefully approaching the person of interest, while LE isn't afraid to get up in his face and spit some lyrics at him. Hani's pure white work attire is the opposite of LE's black (and red) outfit(s). Other aspects follow suit, showing a perhaps classic office / work setting for Hani's lines and for LE the same set is used, but the lights are flashing violently, and the static effects on the screen tear and distort vision in the 2nd chorus, while Hani's scenes have stable lighting and camera.

Unfortunately we go right into Junghwa's super awkward prechorus. I know she doesn't have a very good voice, but the filter / extras certainly don't help her much. The general sound is just awkward, no other way to describe it. Her parts in "Up & Down" were also just as awkward. Thankfully it's short and we're blessed with some glorious chorus from Hyerin and Solji (mostly Solji). The chorus itself is short but strong, similar to "Up & Down." The bridge is surprisingly good at building up into the final chorus and would have been better without the creepy English. Anyway, I'm glad Solji continues to get efforts to showcase her skills because she has a powerful voice that we'll get to see more of as EXID continues to grow in popularity.

The most obvious sign that this song was influenced or paying homage to "Up & Down" was in the choreography. The girls are practically doing the same dance which is either good or bad depending on your point of view. On one hand, making slight adjustments (like hopping / waving instead of pelvic thrusting) is cute and is just playing off "Up & Down," and on the other we could've seen some new choreography for this song. The dance overall is an average effort.

EXID have had quirky videos since before "Up & Down," so I'm not surprised that this song is sort of the same. Using censors was questionable and a little bizarre but I guess the idea was to poke fun at having previous work get censored by all the broadcasting companies that do this to everyone. Of course they troll all the viewers by revealing all the cute and completely innocent images on the walls and stick their tongues out and laugh it off. In the end, "Ah Yeah" is certainly the child song of "Up & Down." Despite that, it's a strong release that stands by itself without too much outside help. The contrast and bounce in each verse is exciting, and Solji's power vocals carry the chorus and end of the song. What I'm most curious is to where EXID will go from here, after brandishing the power of "Up & Down" and "Ah Yeah."

[ Overall: 92 / 100 ]

[Review] Girls' Generation - Catch Me If You Can

I've decided to put any long pieces on hold and just go with reviews for now, since we've got a fresh batch of songs to talk about. One of these is gonna be from reigning(?) queen groups Girls' Generation, who have fallen a bit off their throne with Jessica's departure and other shenanigans. While this isn't a Korean comeback, this is their first song since then. Some would say this is important.

Wait are you sure this is Girls' Generation? This group has balanced line distribution! I have never seen such a beautiful spread in any song with this many members ever. Why is this only happening now? Questionable! Anyway it's difficult for me to really appreciate any of the non-bridge vocals, since the instrumental is so set on being loud and in-your-face and the autotune is strong but close to grating. Still, throw in bits of English here and there and you have the standard S.M. dance track. Taeyeon is still marvelous as usual and Tiffany and Seohyun are not that far behind. The rest of the girls also make good work with their support lines, Yuri in particular standing out with her low range. Nothing too spectacular outside of the bridge, so I wasn't exactly blown away.

"Catch Me If You Can" is all about the dancing / choreography, and I must say...that's all? Hyoyeon is a bomb dancer but I felt this wasn't really in tune with her style and some of the moves just look kinda silly. The choreography here is nowhere near as impressive as in "I Got A Boy" which showcased strong dance moves. There's a lot of variety in this one, having a nice even number to split into subgroup sections (not as unique right after seeing this in EXO's MV) mixed the visuals up a bit, and I guess we can thank Jessica for that. As mentioned earlier though, some of the moves look too fluid and / or just don't match the pace of the song or instrumental. And that ending pose is just so awkward.

The video is curiously located in a construction zone. Why they are dancing there is beyond me, but I guess with their outfits they're workers? And clearly not doing their job unless that is what construction workers do nowadays and that would clear up why there's so much construction on my campus that never gets finished. Everyone is always dancing!

I won't say I'm disappointed per se, but I'm certainly not blown out of the park either. "Catch Me If You Can" does a decent job of capitalizing on the choreography, while extremely impressive line distribution for the girls is worth an ovation. Still, with the dance being the main focus, nothing else i the song sets itself apart, and it lacks the addicting chorus that past dance track "I Got A Boy" brought to the table. All in all, if this is just a teaser of the Girls' Generation to come post-Jessica, I am still invested in seeing how they do.

[ Overall: 77 / 100 ]

[Review] Mamamoo & eSNa - Ahh Oop!

Ladies and gentlemen, a rising star is about to destroy your favourites with arguably a top 3 song of 2015 thus far. Of course, they got a little help but Mamamoo is ready to continue climbing the girl group ladder at an astounding pace. A consistently solid lineup of songs since debut along with powerful performances on Immortal Song 2 have rocketed this group into the spotlight, and rightfully so. I've yet to see a group managed this strongly while displaying this much talent.

"Ahh Oop!" continues the trend of Mamamoo, which is a lively retro and jazzy sound backed up by superb vocals. Hwasa brings the sass, Solar the power, and Wheein the glue. Having eSNa as a feature is brilliant since she is just as if not more sassy and charismatic than Hwasa, and their work as a combo is so delightful and adds more playfulness to the group. In terms of the song structure, "Ahh Oop!" is not as catchy as previous releases, as there is no distinct hook (during the chorus for example). But, given that the whole song is strong from start to finish I think that this works as a positive. The mixture of singing and talking is good and balanced, which brings up Moonbyul's rap as a highlight of the song. This is awesome for her, she is rather obscure the rest of the song. Moonbyul absolutely killed the rap (in the good way!). She sounds extremely clean and brings out more of her husky voice for short bursts and I simply cannot contain my feels. Hwasa is still my favourite though, and Moonbyul needs to stop saying her own name in front of her raps, it's getting old.

The music video is also lively and bright, with the girls wearing retro colourful outfits. Solar's summer dress is uniquely hilarious as she looks a little silly doing some of the moves at the chorus. eSNa is the only one dressed without colour or anything special. If not for her "madam ringleader" look, I'd have thought she was the 5th member of Mamamoo. I just love the goofy and playful nature of the MV with the salon theme, though it does tug at my heartstrings a bit as Ladies' Code's debut video was also similar. Hwasa and eSNa's acting is on point and they're simply lovely, while Moonbyul, Wheein, and Solar also do an admirable job. Something small that I enjoyed was having the male actor lipsync a few of the lines where a man would be talking: "Aren't I pretty?" and "Trust oppa." You don't see this very often in lyrics of this nature. The choreography is more lax than previous releases but this makes sense with the song not really picking up until the very last chorus. It's a shame they didn't incorporate eSNa for the dance, as she looks rather awkwardly placed in lives and more a prop than a feature vocalist.

I think of "Ahh Oop!" as a continuous climb, almost a perfect representative of Mamamoo and their rise to stardom: a pedestrian start but one with colour and potential, slow increase with vocals that only keep improving akin to the Immortal Song 2 appearances, leading to Moonbyul's punctual rap and Solar's explosive finale. All the while filled with sassy character and stellar singing. Except for Mamamoo's career, they will go much farther than a simple high point. While I was expecting a bit more, Mamamoo certainly know their niche and how to market that extremely effectively.

[ Overall: 88 / 100 ]

[Review] EXO - Call Me Baby

The boys of EXO (or EX10 as I like to call them heh) are back. After losing Kris and Luhan, they're here to promote "Call Me Baby" with more pelvic thrusting and crotch grabbing than ever before. But don't worry, they're still legal.

This is something that I wish EXO released before all the contract controversy that accompanies every S.M. boy group that isn't SHINee. "Call Me Baby" is a dance track through and through, despite the song name suggesting otherwise. The instrumental is good, perhaps even underrated but this combined with the vocals make for a solid background. The choreography is sharp, focused, and coordinated. The dance moves themselves are slick outside of the move at 1:19, and there is ten times the crotch grabbing for all the insane fangirls to fangirl over. Hooray? Visually, it seems that the members who used to look awkward now look pretty good, and the members who used to look good now look awkward. For example, Suho and Kai can't work the hair they have, while Lay and Chanyeol are swagged out. Xiumin needs to cut his hair, and Tao and D.O always hilariously look tired and angry respectively. EXO continues to love playing with the camera for transitions, and I doubt they'll stop until they get sued for doing that so many times it causes headaches.

The vocals in "Call Me Baby" is yet another piece of evidence that Baekhyun, D.O, and Chen (I've given up using his real name, as silly as I still think it sounds) carry all of EXO on their backs. Now, this isn't to say that the others are bad. On the contrary, I'm still a fan of Suho's voice and Lay impressed with his reach and falsetto, but the true EXO subunit is essentially Baekhyun, D.O, and Chen. As long as S.M. keeps those three they can still have a successful "EXO," a la Girls' Generation-TTS. Strip away the instrumentals and other members and what you're left with is excellent stuff from these guys. The bridge is also really good and transitions into the dance break / rap rather well, something that EXO has historically been strong with, as "Wolf" and "Overdose" bridges were also highlights.

Chanyeol was already one of the best rappers from S.M. and this is a good rap to prove that. Tao is sort of in the same realm, but Chanyeol's voice is far more suited to rapping than Tao's. Unfortunately, the inclusion of extras (Xiumin, Sehun) hurt the rap in my opinion. Not that the short jumps in weren't appreciated (since they had so few lines otherwise), but the cringeworthy English is terrible and should never be used again. "Never don't mind about a thing"? Sounds like normal English, but isn't. Stop. You ruined Chanyeol and Tao's solid rapping.

To say I'm pleased with "Call Me Baby" is an understatement. The vocals are superb, rapping on point, choreography smooth. The camera transitions are so routine for this group I almost can't be upset about them, and a variety of structure in both the singing and dancing makes the song all the more enjoyable. If S.M. could manage their groups like they do their music it'd be an entirely different story.

[ Overall: 92 / 100 ]

[Review] Miss A - Only You

It's getting to that busy time of the semester, where life just swarms me and I try my damnedest to get stuff written on a regular basis. I promise the revised rapper writings are coming. But hey look! Miss A is coming back. Let's talk about them for a bit. Miss A's most recent release was the strong "Hush" which was only held back by the not-as-stellar video. Can the bright "Only You" do better?

I'll admit, when I saw this title I immediately though of the hook from 9MUSES' "Drama," but thankfully the chorus of this song is in Korean. Musically, this song is an intermediate between past releases of "Hush" and "I Don't Need A Man." It's not nearly as intense as "Hush" was in terms of the instrumental and sound but isn't as cute and quirky as "I Don't Need A Man" either. Whether or not this is a nice medium between those songs remains to be seen, I'll have to listen some more before I form an opinion. Back to the "Drama" mention though, I was rather disappointed to find that like "Drama," there was no extra power vocals at the end of the song, despite the group not having a star vocalist. This and the combination of not having a rap was questionable, since Jia is a potent rapper and the song definitely could have used a little more punch. Taking the rest of the song into account, Jia probably could have had a rap inserted into the song somewhere, but I appreciate that she was given part of the bridge to sing, since she would have been underrepresented otherwise without a rap segment.

Don't get me wrong, miss A still sounds very good as individuals and together. They may not have their own "Eunji" or "Taeyeon" but Min does a good job leading the pack. Suzy and the rest have nice support vocals. I wonder how many times I've said this about this group. It's a bad sign, since it means that their music never does anything extraordinary, and that this has been a recurring formula for whatever reason. The last time I thoroughly enjoyed a miss A song (concerning vocals) was probably "Goodbye Baby." That was a long time ago.

Why is there are a 12+ rating on this video? Outside of the drinking(?) at the club set, I thought the drinking age in Korea was 19. If it's the creeper / angles and body visuals, Korean MV's have seen far worse. The outfits that aren't pink were rather pleasant. Now I am a man that can appreciate some pink, but was a little too much, that or the outfits just weren't that good to begin with. Perhaps the outfits also contributed to my lack of impression on the choreography, which seemed rather bland. At least the dancing in "Hush" and "Goodbye Baby" was interesting.

At the end of the day, I'm rather disappointed in "Only You." The vocals are average at best and nothing really helps drive the song. The video and the numerous scene changes are nice, but the creeper creeping on the girls is rather awkward and the part where they dance at the creeper is even more awkward. There's nothing impressive in the choreography and Jia misses out on a chance to impress, even having a mediocre rap a la Woori in "Black Swan" might have been better than nothing at all.

[ Overall: 70 / 100 ]