Saturday, May 23, 2009

Girls' Generation - Gee EP/Mini Album

A little note on a terminology - apparently in Korea and Japan(not so sure about Japan..), EPs are called 'mini albums' and they're not attached to a full-length album or anything, they're released like full-length albums. Usually(well from what I've seen..) there's one carrier single with a music video that they go around promoting and all, like an actual album.
So it's been a day since I first heard a song from these girls and I'm already hooked - I cannot believe this. I think they have a right to be worshipped and adored(wait, did that come from a song?) for making such brilliantly pop-y songs. If yesterday's rambling about the carrier single from this EP wasn't enough, I'll ramble on about the other tracks. 

NOTE: You HAVE to hear these songs, they're absolutely stunning.

There's this other Korean girl group called the Wonder Girls but the main reason why I don't like them is because they're not fun, they're not pop and they haven't made a single that has blown me away yet. No great melodies, no above-par voices, nothing to make me shut up and listen. Girls' Generation has done that so my main point of comparison are the Wonder Girls.

So obviously Gee is extremely fun, techno-ish pop but what I noticed after listening to it and watching the video a hundred million times more last night(I'm not kidding!) is that if you slap on English lyrics, it'll still sound Asian. There's something about the way the melody and instrumentations were made that'll always sound Asian and I find that really, really good in a song like this. Oh, and that's one thing the Wonder Girls lack - all their songs sound like they can be American or European, there's nothing that makes them themselves.

Way To Go has got this rock-y thing going on but that 'fun' that Gee has is still there. It still makes you want to jump off your seat and start jumping and banging your head to the song. It's also got a gorgeous, gorgeous melody - I'm dead serious. It's like something straight out of an early Lindsay Lohan Disney movie and it's got that 'you can do it' feel to it(although if translated, the lyrics are kinda 'we made it this far'..).

It's widely known that the real test if an artist can sing or not are the ballads. Dear Mom(corny title and I presume the lyrics are corny as well..) is the obligatory ballad on the album. When I first heard the vocals on this track I was a little surprised by how much these girls voices can morph from cutesy to serious - I can honestly say I'm impressed. It's all-in-all a beautiful song.
Destiny is something like a Liberty X single - it sounds serious and boring but then the melody comes in and you're spellbound. A lot of processing with the vocals but I think it goes with the whole feel of the song. It's kinda like that Brown Eyed Girls song I talked about a few weeks ago, serious but brilliant. The last track, Let's Talk About Love is more like Gee - fun and springy. It sounds like something that could be on a Korean TV show soundtrack - it's that light and brilliant.

5/5!!!(My first perfect review in a while, mind you.)

NOTE: If anyone wants to hear the whole thing, tell me and I'll give you the link to where I got the EP. hahah.

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