As expected, Hyorin receives a perfect for the vocal work in “Lonely”. Everything is excellent, from the pacing, emotions, verse structure, and even English usage and pronunciation. “Lonely” is a word that is ripe for error from a Korean standpoint, so Hyorin surprised with smooth enunciation. How the word “heart” ended up, however, I’m not that comfortable with, since a blend between “heart”, “her” and “hurt”. All in all everything is pristine and I could not have asked for better.
Music Video: 22 / 25
Hyorin definitely does look “Lonely” in this MV. She seems to be enjoying herself though, at least during the shots in London, if I recall correctly. That certainly looked like plenty of fun to be roaming around the streets al for this video. Hyorin is rocking the new shorter cut (and colour, too) and the plethora of outfits matches well given her figure. All the other shots were a balance of carefree bright scenes and darker emotional scenes, which I found enjoyable. Like the vocals, I’ll keep talks short and sweet: it’s a good MV. Not as superb as the vocals, but hey with this MV score perhaps it doesn’t need to be.
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Overall: 94 / 100
Seems like very impressive vocals have been a trend the last couple of weeks, not that I am complaining in the slightest. I do love me some excellent vocals, and definitely love some good Hyorin ballad. It’s just at the right speed of ballads that I tend to really find myself addicted to, and the chorus has just the sort of hook and sinker. We’ll tackle “One Way Love” tomorrow, and then lead into the “Best Of 2013”.
Jongdae. Jongdae. Jongdae. (Yeah I’m never really gonna be able to call him “Chen”). Thank heavens this song was made for him to be the star of. He does the bulk of the work and is the highlight of the “trio that isn’t an official subunit but only has 3 members”. D.O is also really good for his parts, and if “What Is Love” had to have a more balanced lineup and even better vocals at the cost of a slower pace, “Mirales In December” would surely be. Luhan has never really impressed before this song, so there’s bonus for that. Baekhyun is quality in the Korean version, and a little on the mediocre side during the Mandarin version if only because of his lackluster Chinese skills. I almost deducted a single point off this, but thankfully Jongdae more than makes up for Baekhyun’s subpar Chinese pronunciation.
Music Video: 15 / 25
Hmm. This music video… There have been plenty of music videos with this “structure” but almost seems excessively crowded with clips for all 12 members. Other than that, there’s not much else to say. This is a ballad, so there are no choreographies to show off, or a plethora of charismatic solo shots, nor extra “scenes” to draw off of considering there are only three main members. The box scenery is quite lovely, keeping up to the expectations from anyone under S.M., since their company is so versed in this regard.
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Overall: 80 / 100
This is a beautiful ballad from EXO. Both versions are just as good, while a mediocre MV won’t deal a devastating blow to the score. Seems like EXO (and / or S.M.), however, is only capable of this high standard of ballads when the whole group isn’t involved, as “What Is Love”, “Angel”, “Baby Don’t Cry”, and now “Miracles In December” are very impressive ballads that only utilize the talented vocalists. Whether or not this is a good thing, I leave up to you to decide.
During this past January when I talked about some of the best vocalists, I mentioned Narsha in the “Wild Card” category because of her sweet and innocent voice, something that sort of betrays her age. This song is no exception. Narsha’s bright and lively vocals last throughout from start to finish, which make “Tonight” a very enjoyable listen. There’s nothing extraordinary, but everything is certainly above average (good!). The English in the Korean version is solid, but what’s truly impressive is the English version. I didn’t know what to expect since Narsha isn’t known for being fluent in pronunciation, but holy this blew all expectations out of the water. Soothing, sweet, appropriate vocals earn Narsha a perfect score.
Rap: 10 / 10
It’s hard to put down Miryo’s talent, and this is a pretty good reason why. Miryos tame ferocity compliments Narsha’s sweet vocals and since the distribution is about half and half (or possibly 60 / 40 in Narsha’s favor), there’s good balance and a back and forth exchange between the two voices. Just like Narsha and her vocals, Miryo’s rap in both versions are splendid, but again, the English work is what really surprises me and is what I enjoy the most about “Tonight”.
Music Video: 5 / 10
I know the MV was essentially a teaser or preview of this new subunit, but man this was disappointing. Yeah there’s plenty of eye candy, but that’s literally the point of this MV. Oh well. Say, is that the same lollipop from Miss A’s “Hush”? Guess those are popular or something, now. I knew this was gonna hurt the overall score, so let’s see how badly.
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Overall: 83 / 100
Alright, so the MV didn’t murk the score the way I thought possible (given past songs with outstanding scores outside of the MV). But that’s great news, since “Tonight” is a clam refresher that was executed superbly between Miryo and Narsha. Good work, and I’m anticipating future releases from M&N and other possible BEG subunits.
2NE1 really pulled out all the stops for “Missing You”, which I haven’t really seen since the likes of “Lonely” and “Ugly”. Every member does work, and what I enjoy the most about the song is the balance between line distribution and appropriate parts. The light background further enhances the vocals, which is another plus. Each member seems to embody / put in a different aspect for their voice in this piece, something I really enjoy. CL has the wavering emotion, Dara the serene fragility, Minzy the innocent power, and Bom the vibrant colour. Everything is in place, from the assignment of verses, minimal use of good Englsh, and simple chorus. The ending of the song is very confusing and misleading, though, as I thought we’d be going into a final powerful chorus (especially with the instrumental in crescendo).
Music Video: 17 / 25
This is a tame music video to accompany a serious and emotional song. The video is simple, but refreshing. Is that car the same one from “I Love You”? That would be some incredible consistency if so. Dara looked stunning in the pinned up blonde (the chess set shots), and I think Minzy is due for a different style soon, but she’s rocking the current colours. Bom…is still an enigma between doll-like beauty and doll-like creepiness. I’m choosing not to comment on CL’s scene, but it’s refreshing to see her back in black. By the way, I totally didn’t miss the “21” in Roman numerals on the ground.
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Overall: 84 / 100
2NE1 has been all over the place. They’ve wanted you to “Go Away”, not cared (“I Don’t Care”) and felt “Lonely” and “Ugly”, while toggling between loving and hating (“I Love You”, “Hate You”). Now, they’re “Missing You”, and it’s a quality song having amazing vocals that is supported by the light MV. 2NE1 can certainly do 2NE1, but this impression is just as strong.
Now that finals are over, we’ll embark on “The 12 Days Before Christmas”, where I’ll be putting out reviews almost daily leading into the “Best Of 2013” series, which will end on Christmas Day. We’ll start with one of the more personally anticipated comebacks in 9MUSES
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Vocals: 9 / 10
“Glue” reminds me of “Gun” quite a lot, between the line distribution (as best as it could be for such a large group), quality work from the lead / main vocalists, and very strong synergy. The addition of a really solid bridge and extra vocal treats from Kyungri at the end help boost the score further. However, “Glue” isn’t getting the perfect score that “Gun” received. The main reasons are because “Glue” lacks in power, even despite the additional belting from Kyungri. The whole song sounds much softer, which is both positive given the nature of the girls’ voices but is also negative with the more harsh instrumentals. Sungah and Minha really step up in this song, while Sera and Kyungri are as good as ever.
Appearance: 9 / 10
Hyemi. Erin. Sungah. The three stood out way more than the others, while Hyuna, Kyungri, and Sera would comprise the “middle” of the pack. Minha also looks stunning, and Sem continues to be sort of a “baseline” for the group. She doesn’t really stand out, but she has this very basic style of beauty that is probably thanks to her fierce eyes and facial features. There are two “topics” that prevent this from being perfect. The first, is Eunji. While she’s absurdly skinny, I’m concerned about the hair. The pinned up style is gorgeous and extremely flattering, but the short hair let down in the other solo shot frames her face awkwardly. The second, as some friends have shared sentiments about, are the atrocious red outfits for the dance solo shots and the like. I don’t know why these red outfits happened, but they really shouldn’t have. I’d be willing to bet 9MUSES would’ve looked fantastic if they were wearing black or white throughout.
Dance: 7 / 10
Nothing really stands out in a positive or negative light regarding 9MUSES’ choreography. If that sounds familiar, it’s because I described the choreography of “Gun” and “Wild” that way, and the same continues to hold true for 9MUSES in “Glue”. There’s nothing wrong with having average choreography, considering the group’s strengths is in their vocalists and star rapper. That being said, 9MUSES did mix stuff around this time. They split the dancing at the chorus into two teams, which give both an illusion that there are some backup dancers on the stage and put the emphasis on the right half. The positioning during the rap sequences was also more custom and based on having a center fanning out in all directions. These little “tricks” made the dance look better than just your average Kpop dance, but it did hurt one of 9MUSES’ strongest dance skills: synchronization.
Rap: 6 / 10
This would have been perfect if it was Erin rapping alone, but while Eunji’s work in “Wild” was on par, her lines in “Glue” leave a lot to be desired. So much that Erin gets a perfect score for her half of the rapping whereas Eunji gets a single point. Erin seriously continues to impress and is en route to be the top girl group rapper for 2013, with enough sass, energy, and has the voice. It’s a shame Eunji got such terrible lines and mediocre execution. I would’ve liked to see Erin carry Eunji out of this terrible score, but I have to treat this the same way I did with the vocals in Sistar19’s “Gone Not Around Any Longer”.
Music Video: 5 / 10
This is a standard music video, which would have normally gotten extra points for the glorious eye candy (since that’s all the video is to begin with) but the red outfits and equally obnoxious background / box for the red outfit scenes bring the bonus back down. All that spinning around the solo shots though, made me feel a little dizzy.
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Overall: 72 / 100
While “Glue” was not the most impressive comeback, it’s still a solid release added to the long line of 2013 releases that 9MUSES has thrown out and will only continue to grow in popularity. With all this group work, I would be delighted to see some subunit appearances out of the group for 2014.
