Now with "Let's Not Fall In Love" out of the way, we have another tacky song and just from the Youtube thumbnail alone, you knew we were in for some weird stuff. GD&TOP as the subunit ha been inactive for a good while. The last time we saw this duo was in 2011 with songs like "High High" and "Baby Good Night." It'll be nice to see them return with some refreshing raps and interesting videos. How...unlucky? Inconvenient? Awkward? Not sure what the word is, but it's a shame this shares the same Korean title with BTS' "Dope." Obviously they're entirely different songs, and you're bound to eventually have the same title as someone (and this has happened many many times already), but for both groups to have a title track with the same name is unfortunate.
I don't know how to talk about this video. I really don't think I can. I couldn't keep up with all the bizarre shenanigans going on. From the bathroom, to the freezer, to cameos, to...whatever the hell T.O.P is doing at 2:14. There's just so much arbitrarily random stuff happening I don't know what to say. G-Dragon's section makes a little more sense with the gambling and that's when a majority of the "cameos" show up. T.O.P is killing pigs and cooking and drinking or something. They're pissing together and dying together, getting high as balls and drinking happily, dancing like idiots and driving away without a care in the world. This is one hell of a video, and I can only nod my head in some sort of approval.
The rapping is charismatic yet powerful. It's very reminiscent of the original songs from GD&TOP where all they did was rap aggressively in songs like "High High" and "Oh Yeah" and their ability to replicate that is good. Given that this subunit straight focuses on the rapping of the pair, "Zutter" probably has the best rapping out of any Big Bang song so far, if nothing else than for how well the style compliments the goofy instrumental. While in the last review of "Let's Not Fall In Love" I mentioned that the rapping out of GD&TOP sort of mesh together in my memory, it's obvious that the only exception is from "Zutter." And thankfully so. It'd be a problem if the rapping in the rap-based subunit wasn't memorable.
"Zutter" is a revival of GD&TOP after 4 years and an exercise in how combining smooth rapping with a silly instrumental is sometimes all you need. The MV where nobody knows what the hell is going on is just an added bonus. It's a confusing bonus, but a bonus nonetheless. The final verdict of this Big Bang comeback is that there were certainly some losers (heh), but the average song is quite good and makes for perhaps the most influential comeback of 2015.
Okay, here we are. I've neglected and delayed reviewing these songs for long enough. Now that it's the end of August let's wrap up with Big Bang's releases. The group as a whole has had a pretty extensive and decent comeback with the series. Some songs have been great, some have been the opposite of great. Let's see where "Let's Not Fall In Love" lies.
The video is cute and happy. Romantic moments shared by couples for everyone involved. It's nice seeing that nobody is left behind, and every member has their own girl ha, and nobody is left out. Seungri seems to be having the most fun though, did you see how much air time he was getting on the trampoline? I can't even remember the last time I was on a trampoline. I would not recommend spending that much time out in heavy rain though. They should all probably go to the doctor's and get some rest. You're idols, can't be getting sick now. This certainly wasn't the most flashiest video, but the romanticism and happiness induced serves the purpose.
The simplicity of this song is awesome. It's perfect for those lazy summer afternoons where you're just relaxing. Taeyang and Daesung continue to do the bulk of the vocal work while Seungri is probably at his best here out of any previous songs. Not to be forgotten though, G-Dragon and T.O.P do a good job at the chorus with their lower ranges and the dual chorus seen in "Loser" makes another welcomed appearance. The tempo is excellent and the raps don't distract too much. At this point, I've reviewed so many Big Bang songs that all the rapping is blurring together but I definitely liked T.O.P's aggressive style to add some power while not taking away from the pace of the song. G-Dragon also has a solid set but despite all that, it's certainly the vocal trio of Daesung / Taeyang / Seungri that are to be highlighted. Excellent all the way, from start to finish. Considering how rare of a feat this is, I can't overstate that enough. For a song to not have any major faults is good, for it to go from beginning to end consistently is even better.
Big Bang have ensured that while they may be known for the wacky high-energy songs, they still have extremely impressive slower songs. Especially with "Let's Not Fall In Love" and "Loser," these are perfect song to lay back and just enjoy without getting crazy. I think "Loser" is still slightly better, but we'll see how the scores matchup. They are certainly the spotlight of this comeback either way.
Alright so I haven't been "busy" per se, but there has been some interesting entertainment for me lately, with Hearthstone's Archon Team League Championship and Team Fortress 2's Insomnia55 competitions. Nonetheless, I've made good progress the last few months with the sheer number of reviews so before I probably wrap up August with Big Bang's series we'll take a look at Hyuna's recent comeback with...uh...
I'm a little confused as to the title of this song. Supposedly there is "Because I'm The Best" and "Roll Deep" for the English titles. The former is more or less the translation from the Korean, so I'm not too sure where "Roll Deep" came around. I'll just call this "Because I'm The Best" since the music shows have been calling it that. Anyway, this song is a dance / club track at heart. Everything from the electric instrumental, colour palette, constant spam of "hey," and the chant-like chorus certainly fulfill this characteristic. The song isn't particularly bad, but it does suffer from the whole multi-song syndrome, where parts of the song seem too different than (the) others. Just comparing the chorus to the break at 1:16. Neither really take away from the dance theme but they are different enough to where it's noticeable. Bringing up that segment is important because Hyuna's English is really bad haha. I'm really having a tough time believing the English lyrics. "You can't touch me, don't touch me" sure sounds like "You can touch me, don't touch me" which I was gonna criticize for being ridiculous. "Sorry I'm a dope girl" and "baby I'm bad all day" is also highly suspect with her pronunciation of "dope" and "bad" just being way off. Hell, even some of her Korean isn't very clear. For example, some of the lines at 0:48. Speaking of, that section is extremely hard to listen to based on how she's squeaking those words out.
When I reviewed Hara's "Choco Chip Cookies," I mentioned how Giriboy's rap feature helped the song stay relevant as opposed to being a strength of the song. Here, we have BTOB's Ilhoon who does an absolutely fantastic job with the rap but whether it's good enough to make the rest of the song good remains to be seen. I'm definitely impressed though, considering the last time I saw Ilhoon feature was in G.NA's "Oops" which was over 2 years ago. Seems like he has gone through rapid improvement since. He also shows up rather prominently in the music video, which is a nice show of Cube team support, though I'm not sure why he had to remain hidden earlier.
Honestly, black will always be the dominant hair colour for Hyuna. She doesn't make the blonde look bad or anything, but black is way more fierce which is sort of what this song was going for. Speaking of fierce and aggressive, Hyuna once again pushes the envelope and she isn't even subtle about it this time. I mean she's literally dancing in a bra. I'm 100% positive this choreography will be modified for the live performances and maybe even the lyrics. This is Hyuna and Korea we're talking about. The video is pretty standard. As mentioned earlier Ilhoon hangs around and there's a variety of colour and settings. Even some whips here and there. There are also some parts where they show Hyuna in a bunch of quickly changing outfits. It wasn't really that cool when f(x) did it with "Danger" and it's not really that cool now. I suppose you can't blame for trying, or reviving an old thing that happened in another video.
All in all, it seems Hyuna took a decent gamble with "Because I'm The Best" and didn't really win. The song is loud and fierce but fails to live up to the expectations set by "Red," which was also racy and charismatic. The only true strength of the song is the rapping, but if that's the prize of your song (as a soloist especially) that isn't a good quality. She'll receive praise and criticism alike, and there will more than likely be modifications on the song and choreography. It's just not quite as powerful as past hits.
"You Think" was shaping up to be the dance track of the set. There's a few reasons why this is a good thing. "Party" and "Lion Heart" are already established as pop songs and having a 3rd would just be unwarranted and crowd up the album. There also aren't that many "pure" dance tracks in competition right now, the only one being 9MUSES' "Hurt Locker." It's a prime opportunity for Girls' Generation to dominate the charts with a catchy dance number.
You know, for a dance song, these vocals are really damn good. There's plenty of extra "oomph" added to make the song sound as good as possible. However, the flaw of the vocals are similar to those in TTS' "Holler." Tiffany and Taeyeon often sound strained, people are reaching for their notes, and aren't hitting them all too gracefully. This is particularly true in the chorus. Sunny, however, is absolutely glorious and her work in this song is by far the most impressive, even though Tiffany's opening is quite strong, too. This is perhaps the most lopsided I've ever seen an SNSD song in terms of line distribution though. Sooyoung and Hyoyeon got placed into the rap (more on that later) and poor Yoona got pretty much nothing. I thought that losing Jessica would free up more space for the other members and while that had been true as of the past couple songs I guess "You Think" was too serious to stray away from that option.
"You Think" collapses at the rap break. As noted previously, Sooyoung has been making leaps in vocal progress, so it's a shame she got placed into the rap. Her voice just isn't really made for rapping. Hyoyeon is the "de facto" rapper and she sounds much better than Sooyoung, but the biggest flaw with this rap is that it simply isn't a good rap. It sounds messy and doesn't exactly flow well either. Definitely breaks the rhythm and feel the song had going into this point. The following bridge tries its heart out to recover but man, they really didn't need a rap here.
Unlike "Catch Me If You Can," there aren't any awkward dubstep breaks in this song, and the choreography is much more impressive. It's a song that knows what to focus on, and so the videography caters to the dancing. We're presented with the standard MV which has many shots of Girls' Generation looking gorgeous accompanied with the various dance scenes. These are some curious set options, at least for the dance shots. The individual sets are all pretty and sparkly and magical, leaving the eye candy firmly rooted. But the tunnel and sewer-esque theme they have going for the other scenes are...unique. The tough question I'd ask myself is: would I rather a dirty tunnel set or a blank box set? Death to both I say, I'm sure the staff can come up with something interesting. After all we just had the videos of "Party" and "Lion Heart," though obviously I don't know what order these were filmed.
Girls' Generation ramped up this comeback. From the fun and bright "Party" to the feminine and playful "Lion Heart," "You Think" delivers fierce choreography and high impact vocals. Despite some reach, the song still sounds good enough purely for the dance factor. The dagger in this song's back is the clunky rap which makes for an awkward latter half of the song. At the very least I was correct in predicting the order of the songs, and "You Think" is certainly no pushover and the lives will surely be a treat.
Girls' Generation teased with 3 songs for their comeback, and we're now seeing the follow-up tracks to "Party." "Party" was predictably fun, but also predicted (by me) to be the weakest of their title tracks. I looked forward to seeing what "Lion Heart" and "You Think" had in store.
Apparently "Lion Heart" had in store terrible editing because in the opening 20 seconds we see a hilarious typo. It's Gilr's Generation everybody. We've been bamboozled this whole time. Anyway, the song opens with some smooth sounds out of Taeyeon and as a whole is very much driven by the vocal line of Taeyeon, Tiffany, and Seohyun. The adlibs are quite pleasant, and easily the highlight of the song (though the choruses are very strong in their own right). However, this isn't to say the rest are bad. On the contrary, SNSD has always had a rather impressive vocal lineup, and the weakest members (Hyoyeon and Yoona) have been on a slight improvement path since their debut days. Yuri and Sooyoung have certainly made the most out of training though, and they sound excellent in their support roles. Sunny is usually the wild card of the group in terms of how she sounds but no complaints here. Tiffany's pseudo-rapping is forgettable and everything following makes for a rather mediocre and unfortunate ending to an otherwise consistent song. Like, I understand Tiffany has a sexy-as-fuck voice and she's fluent in English but they really need to stop spamming her with random one-liners.
You know what I realized? Choreographies really don't impress me all that much (anymore?), and I realized why. Kpop is after all a product, and that primary product is the audio. Visuals, dancing, videos, are just accessories to accompany the audio. Having said that, "Lion Heart" is a good song with a misguided choreography. Some of the moves look rather awkward in general, and the spread at the 2nd chorus that is very reminiscent of Hyorin's "crab dance" in "One Way Love" doesn't fit either. The surprise upside is the segment starting at 2:48, where the girls pair up for some silly antics (especially Tiffany and Sunny). Of course this was clearly influenced by the similar antics in Super Junior's "Devil," nor would this have been possible with 9 members. Making the most I suppose. In a song that is very much pop and very much feminine, the choreography just fails to match up. Having the girls wear dresses also made for a weird combination. This provides a decent segue into the visuals. Yuri rebounds from her lackluster appearance in "Party" and takes the crown for best visual in this video. While Taeyeon and Tiffany provide fierce competition, Yuri's tanned complexion and styling cannot be matched. Seohyun still has the short end of the styling, and the only other thing I'll note is Sooyoung's goofy bright red pants which make her tower over the other girls.
The video starts with the girls lounging around eating pizza. Hmm, how suspect. I wonder if the pizza is even real, and if it is, are they sponsored by (or sponsoring) that pizza company. "Mr. Pizza" is obviously just a cover. The MV / plot seemed pretty innocent enough at first, with the only issues being how nobody found the man with a lion mask creepy at all and instead being swept off their feet by this mysterious stranger. Anyway the girls hopelessly fall in love with Mr. Lion until they realize he's actually a scumbag. There's some bonus footage at the end showing the girls getting revenge, with Sunny getting the best kind of revenge - getting a new man (albeit another animal mask-wearing man) and Hyoyeon...kills him...? Damn that's brutal. But then they realize it was just a dream...until they wake up around the lion. They scream and panic and don't actually do anything to get away or get rid of the douchebag. Some mediocre acting overall, at least a little bit improved from "Party." I guess the imagination aspect explains how in each member's solo scenes they're shown wearing different outfits. I'm guessing one for scenes with Mr. Lion and the other without but I'm far too lazy to check back at this point. It's a pretty decent video and isn't just gratuitous fanservice, so I can respect that.
In contrast to "Party," which was a decent song with a few errors, "Lion Heart" is more consistent but really takes a tumble at the end. The choreography is also out of place, but the video (typo and acting aside) is interesting enough and keeps with the theme to give enough bonus points. I have some high hopes for "You Think," which should be the strongest title track of the series.
Another girl group giant awakens from their slumber. Following Eunjung's quiet but good solo debut, the whole group is back again. Last comebacks graced us with the dance-tastic "Sugar Free" and "Number Nine." Would T-Ara continue the trend of electronic dance tracks or go more retro / pop?
The answer is most certainly the latter. While not as infused with the pop as say "Lovey Dovey" or "Roly Poly," "So Crazy" is still influenced with those attributes. The vocals are lighthearted and the instrumental is casually fun. Soyeon continues to carry the vocals, sure, but the same synchronized T-Ara sound is still there. Hyomin graces with the opening and a rap sequence, while Jiyeon gets more time to shine with the bridge. I know I've called out Boram and Qri on being mere filler for most of T-Ara's lifetime but man this song really puts them in a corner doesn't it. The line distribution is biased heavily against them, with generous parts going to the holy trio of Hyomin / Eunjung / Jiyeon.
I'm very glad to see that I won't get exposed to a seizure-inducing video from T-Ara in 2015. There is something resembling a plot on this video. The T-Ara girls are working hard as general faculty members of some facility (it's actually called T_Ara cafeteria) frequented by sailors / military / pirates. Okay maybe not that last one. T-Ara duties are cleaning, cleaning, looking pretty, cleaning, etc. There's also some other lady who is either just more personnel or their boss, who is apparently hot shit with the men. Then some beauty pageant gets held and T-Ara pull an underdog(?) victory because surprise - everyone in T-Ara is gorgeous. Except Boram. Poor Boram got shafted in the line and appearance departments as those bangs are not doing her any favors. It always sucks to have that odd one singled out but unfortunately that's Boram this time. There are some questions I'd like the answers to though. If this is T-Ara's place why are they doing all the laymen work? Why aren't they the boss(es)? Do all the members have to share a single bunkbed? Who is sleeping with who? Seems like they left out the important details. Either way, it's a pleasure to see more content put in this video because...
The choreography is honestly really boring. Past T-Ara hits weren't necessarily focused on for the dancing, but the moves in "Number Nine" and even "Sugar Free" were a plethora of positive adjectives. Good, interesting, elegant, etc. The moves at the chorus where they stand there pointing fingers upwards is just so bland. Even the "highlight" move of the butt-shaking only shows up twice. Oh and by the way, the first iteration of the butt-shaking sequence with the finger teaser? AOA and "Confused" were way ahead of you (at least that's the usual dance I think of whenever I see that). Sidenote: going off the chorus, the song title should've been "So Startled" haha, considering how surprised they look when they do that part.
The title of this song is misleading as "So Crazy" isn't really all that crazy. After all that rightfully belongs to 4minute and their "Crazy," but anyway the song is lighthearted fun combined with an equally silly and carefree MV. The song really loses power from the weak choreography, and on a battlefield with some strong dances and other more memorable songs, T-Ara finds themselves a step behind in the girl group game.
Wonder Girls are back! We've heard that line before many times but weren't expecting a return given the events of the past year. It's another roster change for the girls, with Sohee and Sunye's departure and the return of Sunmi, Wonder Girls comes back as a quartet with "I Feel You," which was set to showcase some instruments, along with some absolutely brilliant teasers.
If you thought the Wonder Girls couldn't get any more retro than past hits then boy are you in for a surprise. "I Feel You" has retro written all over it, in gigantic font, too. From the breathy vocals, universal outfits, colour scheme, flashing lights, etc. I'm not claiming I know what music in the 80's or even 90's sounded like, so I won't try and draw any comparisons there, but it's obvious that given the flashy top-notch production videos of modern Kpop, this is a throwback for sure.
Yubin's rap is passable. She's certainly not excellent and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed in the showing, but strangely similar to Erin's rap in "Hurt Locker," it's definitely good enough to not hurt the song. But the short bursts of rapping at the end of the first and final choruses could've been done without. Like the unnecessary chant-esque lines in Mamamoo's "Piano Man," the similar lines here could've been removed.
The problems I have with "I Feel You" boil down to some pretty obvious ones. Firstly, the instrumental break popped up one too many times for my liking. It shows up at the very beginning, very end, and after the initial chorus. It's not exactly exciting, and when used that many times, makes the song drag on. There's no reason for the song to not end with Yubin's final "baby" but instead we get another repeat. Secondly, I dunno what happened to Hyelim but her parts do not sound good. Hyelim has previously shown a stable, richer undertone. Her voice is lower and generally sounds more "full" in songs like "2 Different Tears" and "Like This." Having her with this breathy reach ruins her lines. I understand they were probably aiming for the breathy voices from the start, but the difference is that Sunmi and Yeeun are naturally geared towards that end of the spectrum (think Sunmi in "24 Hours"). Forcing Hyelim down that route just wasn't a good decision. The last "major" issue I have with "I Feel You" is that some of the lipsyncing just looks lazy. It's like they weren't even really trying. Kind of upsetting given Wonder Girls have been in the industry for forever. Oh, and that damned "JYP" spam is back after however many years of dormancy.
It's exciting to see a previous Kpop titan once thought to be gone forever, resurrect itself and with an intriguing band concept at that. But the lives haven't been impressive thus far, and the retro concept is a familiar but curious choice among the tidal wave of comebacks. I definitely would've liked to see more focus on the instruments. Maybe for another track later down the line. At least this comeback pushes the need for a Wonder Girls vs. AOA band competition as soon as possible. Make it happen.
Okay. To be honest, Hara was one of the last girl group members I would have expected a solo debut from. Based on my predictions at the beginning of the year, I thought we'd see debuts from the likes of Taeyeon and Soyu before Hara. Even within KARA, Seungyeon or Gyuri seemed like logically better (smarter?) choices for a solo start. Well, I guess let's see where DSP takes this.
Bubblegum pop isn't really in my tastes. Hara has a sweet voice here, and is probably suspect in terms of how much tampering was done behind-the-scenes, Still, even outside of extra editing she has been on a natural progression with her singing abilities so try not to judge too hard in that regard. The major flaw with this song is that it's just not very memorable. The supposed "hook" of the chorus isn't that catchy, and there's simply nothing that interesting going on. Giriboy's feature does help a little, but ultimately only helps the song keep relevancy rather than push it towards something better.
In contrast to the vocals, the choreography of "Choco Chip Cookies" is very mature. The movements are subtle but it's a very different feel compared to the singing you hear. The inclusion of a couple dance was a nice touch, especially when you take the MV into consideration. I'm not too sure, but if the male dancer partnered with Hara is the same in the video shots as her boyfriend then well done. I always look forward to the smaller things found in MVs and there's nothing standout in a video with emphasis on Hara's looks and dancing.
As far as eye candy goes, Hara is a top girl group visual and has been for a long time. Her tanned complexion looks really good and there isn't much to talk or complain about regarding her appearances. She's enjoying her solo debut, enjoying the company of a significant other, and enjoying the fun shenanigans with summer.
"Choco Chip Cookies" delivered a surprise debut out of KARA's visual. It's a pop track with very sweet vocals out of Hara. Coupled with a good showing from Giriboy and more mature choreography, and you have a decent song. Amidst some powerful summer comebacks though, Hara fails to standout with this romantic summer song.
