October 30, 2015

[Review] Kisum - Love Talk (feat. Hwasa)

We may be on November's doorstep but this certainly screams summer. Ever since the days of Unpretty Rapstar, Kisum has been a busy rapper, with songs like "You & Me" and "3 Sec" accompanied by Jooyoung and Homme, respectively. This time she teams up with Mamamoo's Hwasa to deliver a cute hip-hop track that stays true to Kisum's style.

Mamamoo just never stop working. From "Girl Crush" to the special features, everyone in Mamamoo continues adding to their resumes. Hwasa's charismatic voice makes another delightful appearance. She works well with the smooth jazz tunes and it's pleasant seeing another side of her ability. Her English is also pretty perfect, too. Hwasa does a good job at portraying the caring unnie role to Kisum...until you realize Kisum is actually older, ha. Speaking of, Kisum continues to impress with each and every release, though I do wish she'd stop saying her name prior to every rap. Nobody really should have to do that, and Kisum is certainly unique enough. Personality, flow, charisma? It's all there. Mix in some singing and the combination with Hwasa's relaxing vocals and it's quite a powerful duo. Sometimes you forget that despite the ferocious character seen in Unpretty Rapstar, Kisum is just 21. If Hwasa does a good job at being the "unnie," Kisum too does her part in the youthful girl in love. The lyrics, naturally, reflect this stance and is definitely a feeling / scenario many people can relate to. The final chorus is a happy joint effort between the girls, with Hwasa and Kisum's adlibs / chants working in harmony with each other. Hwasa also properly got more emphasis since she's handled the choruses anyway. Say no to the ending English though, that "I love you boy" made me cringe.

All in all, this is a great song that while slow, has many moments. However, I can't help but get the feeling that this wasn't quite the season for it. Had this been released say, towards the end of August, I for sure wouldn't feel this way. Maybe Korea still has tolerable temperatures outside right now, which would make me extremely jealous. Nonetheless, "Love Talk" romantically helps expand Kisum and Hwasa's libraries and is a go-to jam on a warm and lazy afternoon. Here's hoping we still get a few of those before winter rolls in.

[ Overall: 90 / 100 ]

October 27, 2015

[Review] f(x) - 4 Walls

We've come full circle. All of the S.M. roster has now officially released something in 2015. The last to do so is f(x), the experimental group that just last year suffered the loss of Sulli, who left for greener pastures(?). This should result in serious potential for the current roster. Victoria and Amber should see better line distribution, and Luna can really come into her own after her incredible performances on King of Mask Singer. Note: I came into "4 Walls" with no exposure to the teaser so I really had no idea what to expect.

"4 Walls" wasted no time at all and drags you right into the sick beat. The tempo of this song is so good! It's chill enough to be relaxing while being flashy to support the dance / electronic nature. The vocals of f(x) are rather distinct, but they sound more unified here than compared to past songs. Even though Luna continues to be underutilized (which should really be a federal crime by now), everything fades to the background because Krystal does an incredible job. Her light and airy voice is an amazing compliment to the lovely instrumental, leaving Luna as main support providing adequate power in her lines. If you want to talk about perfect vocal runs, then Krystal in "4 Walls" might be one of the most impressive yet. Seriously, words can't describe how much I love Krystal's work here.

Unfortunately for Queen Victoria, the struggle continues. She got maybe 15% of the song and that's already a generous estimate. I'm really hoping that she'll have the dance break to herself or something because she's getting more irrelevant as time goes on, and that breaks my heart. With Sulli out of the picture, Amber walks away as the biggest winner, taking healthy portions of the song with her (previously established) good voice full of feminine charm. Of course, she also has a nice 15 second rap, which really gave me Zico vibes (imagine my reaction when I saw that Zico is actually a feature on one of the songs ha). Her English was a little unclear, or I'm deaf because I didn't recognize there was English until I looked at the lyrics. But if she can remind me of Zico's style then more power to her.

The bridge of "4 Walls" is half-good and half-bad. The segment from 2:17-2:33 is out of place, as the instrumental does a 180 and sounds like a different song entirely. This also happened in Red Velvet's "Dumb Dumb" and it's still a mystery why S.M. struggles with these transitions. In terms of establishing a buildup to the final chorus they also used the prechorus anyway. I don't see why they couldn't have cut from the instrumental break to the prechorus and then final chorus. Oh well.

If you can tell me what's going on in the MV for "4 Walls," I'd love to know. There's neat transitions between members throughout the video, along with location jumps from inside a house to the woods, to a suspicious body of water. In the woods the f(x) members find frozen copies(?) of each other. Luna cuts her foot on glass (why aren't they wearing shoes?) and Victoria submerges herself in the tub because of how few lines she received. But then we're back to the beginning of the video and they try to stop the teacup from falling / breaking. Perhaps there's some time and dimension travel involved? Like I said, kinda lost. Honestly for a song regarding walls, they sure spent plenty of time outside, heh.

"4 Walls" is mechanically sound, except for the awkward segment previously mentioned. Krystal takes a surprising MVP of the song, while Luna and Amber put out strong performances. This is one of those songs which are really good from the get-go, but will remain in the background of some other songs that have more pizzazz. Rest assured though, this is a beautiful track, and if "4 Walls" is the type of f(x) we're going to be seeing from now on, they'll be right back in the girl group race in no time. Just give Victoria some more lines, please!

[ Overall: 90 / 100 ]

October 24, 2015

[Review] IU - Chat-Shire EP

Another solo artist returns, this time it's the lovely IU, fresh(?) off of news about her relationship with Jang Kiha. Moving on, "Chat-Shire" seemed to tease a fairytale world / concept, so let's see how she executed by taking a look at the mini album. Brief note about the links, I'll obviously have them available when I first publish the review(s), but if in the future they get taken down I'll just have to either not include them, or have like the lyric versions of the videos or something. Hopefully the sources / accounts won't get banned too too quickly.
1. New Shoes
"Chat-Shire" starts off with the inviting "New Shoes." Everything about this track screams chill (perhaps not screaming, ha). It's a perfect match for the season as the weather turns colder. Upon my first listen I thought there was more English sprinkled in the lyrics but thankfully I was just mishearing things. IU alternates back and forth between the charismatic verses and clean runs in the chorus. I'm still not a fan of layered vocals in the background but when you're a soloist you need that to help out. "New Shoes" has arguably the strongest bridge in the album, with the fake key changes and how comfortably she takes on some of those long notes. It's a shame the bridge couldn't be longer. This song sets the stage to style of the album, and does a damn good job.

October 19, 2015

[Review] TWICE - Like Ooh-Ahh

Continuing with the curious song names, we have JYP Entertainment's newest group Twice. Looks like girl groups are taking interesting notes from Mamamoo. Anyway, while I didn't watch the survival / reality show Sixteen, I did manage to catch some of the teasers (to my frail heart's dismay) and there's of course the rich history of their girl group sunbaes. Before this debut though, my honest opinion is that Twice doesn't have to try very hard. Miss A has yet to establish themselves as a top tier girl group, plus the general inactivity has left a gaping hole in JYP's girl group roster. Anything from a decent to average song will suffice.

October 17, 2015

[Review] Lovelyz - Ah-Choo

Woollim debuted Lovelyz towards the end of last year. Lovelyz was the epitome of bubblegum pop, and "Candy Jelly Love" made that obvious. Everything from the vocals, the video, and even the title itself screamed pop. As you've heard me before, extreme pop isn't my cup of tea, and they certainly kept up the heavy pop-infused songs like "Hi~." However, Lovelyz also released "Goodnight Like Yesterday," which was a beautiful ballad that flew under the radar for me, as I only discovered the song a few months back. Now with all their members available (something about Jisoo, bullying controversies, and recovery), the group returns with "Ah-Choo."

October 13, 2015

[Bonus] Best Of Younha Revisited

About 7 years ago, I discovered Younha and fell in love with her music. This would eventually lead me to other Korean artists and my journey into Kpop. About 3 years ago, I wrote a "Best Of Younha" piece, highlighting her finest work. This was early on in my blogging career and the first "Best Of" that would eventually spawn future series. Now that another 3 years have passed by, let's revisit my favourite artist and see how her new content has fared, as well as if the songs of old can retain their spots.
10. One Fine Day (NEW) (Just Listen)
"One Fine Day" is the first of the new songs to make the list, at does so at the simple #10. This song is rock / pop rock and has Yoon Dohyun written all over it. The laid back guitar and drums, emphatic harmonica, and Younha's energetic voice drives through the chorus. "One Fine Day" gets extra character to the song through crowd interaction during the final minute of the song thanks to the simple yet effective chants of "oh oh" while Younha belts her heart out. This song cleanly took over some of her older pop rock tracks.

October 8, 2015

[Review] Taeyeon - I EP

Today I'm gonna try something different, something new. Let's try to talk about an album. And what better album to discuss than Taeyeon's very own solo debut mini. It'll probably be a quick rough jumble of words as I try this out but we'll see how this goes. This is a solo debut that has been sought after for at least 4 years now. Taeyeon is Girls' Generation's prized vocalist so suffice to say, the expectations for this debut were high. Upon release, "I" delivered. Containing 5 songs, the album has already been doing extremely well on the charts, but more time is needed to see if Taeyeon has the staying power to keep dominating October.
1. I (feat. Verbal Jint)
The title track "I" brings us lively vocals along with an equally lively instrumental. Right at the beginning, Taeyeon stuns with a lovely run of "sky" which will show up plenty more times in the chorus. Just as quickly, we're whisked away to Verbal Jint's feature on the track. This established veteran drops a quick rap that packs a bit of punch in terms of narrative. Also helping the track along is an active instrumental. There's about 12 seconds of break before the bridge, which is mainly for the purposes of the music video but you get to hear more of the instrumental during that window. The final chorus is where Taeyeon truly shines, mixing high notes and adlibs, with background vocals before ending the song on a clean low note.

October 6, 2015

[Review] Ailee - Mind Your Own Business

Ailee returns while fighting a leg injury and graces with her first studio album "Vivid." Boasting double title tracks, Ailee looks to capitalize on the mediocre releases of soloists thus far. At the very least we'll see how "Mind Your Own Business" fares, while praying that she has a speedy recovery, as well. Ailee sure loves her serious titles: "I Will Show You," "Don't Touch Me," etc.

October 2, 2015

[Review] GOT7 - If You Do

I'm kind of sick of the boy groups already but I'll give GOT7 another chance to impress me. While "Girls Girls Girls" was a good debut they haven't released anything close to par since, and "Just Right" was all kinds of awful. The teaser for "If You Do" looked promising, and I know that from experience, JYP teasers are slightly more trustworthy than say S.M. Seemed like we'd be seeing a return to a dance-oriented song and video.