UPDATED 9/6/09: Super Junior - Sorry, Sorry

(the edit on September 6, 2009 is at the end of the post.)

I haven't reviewed any full-length albums since I started the special so now's the time to start, I think - with this album in particular.I'm starting to really, really like this boy band not just because of the songs(although that's the main reason) but because of the choice of members. All over the Korean pop circles, I've seen people complain about the fat guy in Super Junior. I wouldn't call him fat, chubby maybe and I actually like the fact that he's there and isn't a marginalized member which is easy to become because of how big the band is. He gives the band a new dimension for me and proves to everyone in other countries killing themselves to get thin just so they can do what they want to do that you don't have turn into what the industry dictates you to be. Of course you'll get a lot of slack from it like I said but at the end of the day, Super Junior has had two number one albums and has sold over half a million records in Korea alone over the span of three albums - people learn to accept him.

I honestly really, really respect this boy band for that. Heck, they even make me feel a bit better about myself.

I'm really, really relieved that I found a few insanely brilliant Korean songs without rap parts - it makes this special even better. When I first heard Sorry, Sorry it was live without the processing and everything else a recorded song has and I wasn't impressed at all, I thought 2PM's Again and Again was better. So a few days passed and I couldn't get the hook out of my mind - 'Sorry, sorry, sorry' was threatening to take over my brain. So I dug up the video, listened to the whole song and by the end of it my jaw dropped open - it was more amazing than I first thought it was. The chorus/hook is monotonous and repetitive, I think that's what makes it stick in your mind. The words are repeated three or four times to a chorus that only has one note and the melody is only varied a bit during the second verse - it's main mission in life(excuse the pun) is to annoy an amaze us. I'm not a gigantic fan of songs like this but as I always say, if it's done the right way and becomes a convincing package of a song - it has the potential to blow me away.

The next track, Why I Like You is as brilliant if not better than Sorry, Sorry. I can't really clearly compare it to a certain song but it sounds remotely like Moments that Matter mixed with the seriousness of Battlefield, the smoothness of Alesha Dixon's Colors of the Rainbow and a heap of the unmistakability of Korean pop - I could be wrong though. Again, what wins on this song is the chorus, you can't get it out of your mind but the most gorgeous and musically strong part are the verses. The verses are everything you could ever ask for, the instrumentals are subdued and they really let the melody get noticed. They. Will. Blow. You. Away.

Let's Not.. is a sweet ballad but like all the other sub-par ballads I've heard over the past few weeks, it's a little resonant on my ears. It's not as bad as some other songs and the melody is nice but I have my favorite Kpop ballad that set my standards really high - this is nothing like it. There are some good parts though. Angela is a bit perkier and it sounds like something that could easily fit into a Korean drama - it's happy but held back. The melody though is insane - it sounds so much like something a Western boyband could sing but it's so effin' Korean that the idea becomes impossible. These are the songs that I learn a lot about Kpop from and that I'm happy to hear because not only do I find out what Kpop is, it means that they know who they are musically and aren't afraid to show it. That's something my country doesn't do very often.

Reset is Usher-like at the start, that loop reminds me a heck of a lot of the guy. When the melody starts though, it turns into a completely different song. The verses are effortlessly gorgeous and the chorus turns Reset into lighter Usher-esque song. Monster reminds me of some of the later tracks on Rain's Rainism - the heavy R&B mixed with club-ish elements that sounds remotely Korean. What If is a pretty ballad, albeit still not good enough for me - nice try, guys.

The next two tracks don't interest me that much so let's move on. When you first hear the song, the start of Happy Together doesn't give the impression that the song is even remotely good but the chorus is so light and smooth that in it's own little way - it will blow your mind. Like a lot of other amazing songs, it doesn't hit you on the head(a big difference from Sorry, Sorry) and there's an appeal to songs like this - the second time you listen to it the verses suddenly make all the sense in the world.

It takes ten tracks, two of them ballads for Super Junior to give me a ballad worth listening to and even Dead At Heart isn't the best I've heard. It's still worth every second though - I love the contrast of the mild verses and the slightly sharp choruses. The album closes off with Shining Star, a sweet mid-tempo verging on ballad. It's another of those 'slap me on a Korean drama and I'll make the girls scream' songs - they can't seem to get enough of these types. Still, a nice way to close everything off - simple and light although I do think Angela's a better song.

UPDATE:

Late last week (I think. yeah.) I saw the poster for Sorry Sorry at my local (crappy) record store and I freaked. I rushed into the store and interrogated the first girl I saw - the album wasn't there yet but it would be within the month. I waited patiently and today I sauntered in, not hoping for anything and look what the crap I saw!Distributed by Universal Philippines, I assume the album's available in the major record bars (SM, M1, Oddesey, Astro Plus) and has been for a few days now. Priced at Php 355 (in M1 at least), the album comes with a free poster as well.

So now for the obligatory 'photoshoot'. I got a poster and the 'photo diary' thingy. YAY!


I've edited the sum-up as well to include the tracks from Version C! Edits are in bold and the rating is up! hahah.

So, to sum up the album:
Best Track: It's between Sorry, Sorry, Why I Like You and It's You
Better Tracks: Angela, Reset, Happy Together, Love Disease, Love U More
Least Favorite Track: The songs I didn't write about - Heartbreak and Club No. 1 didn't make an impact.
THE RATING: 4.6/5!!

FOR THE END OF THE SPECIAL: What is Kpop?

With you guys and the world(well I'd like to think that way..) to see, I've spent the past few weeks submerging myself in Korean Pop - YouTube hopping, listening to albums, reading Kpop blogs and doing my fair share of research. I've discovered heaps of new artists and songs, shared my favorites with you guys and learned even more about this new music industry. In the end, exactly what really seeped into my brain?

Korea is insanely full of amazing music and talented people - people who aren't afraid to try new things with their music but still retain what defines them as a culture. They've adapted to the internet and used it to their advantage - they only have an album chart that counts sales figures, all singles are ranked by the TV stations' music shows(MBC, KBS, SBS and MNET). They've built a friendship with the internet and even if they take down a lot of videos on YouTube, albums hardly ever leak before the release date (at least I don't think they do..).

They also like Rap (hahah). A lot.

Their music industry works differently from the UK and the US and a lot of bands are manufactured to the point where the talent agency will force the band to go into another genre(Kara, the girl group.) but for some reason I don't mind. It's bad, but at least the transformation is done well - not lackluster or confused.

The music itself is not something that can be put to words but thanks to a lot of the songs I featured on the special, I got a clear idea of what it sounds like. You can't really describe what music of a certain country sounds like - you feel and hear it which is why I think ears and a brain to process it are the most important things to have when you're listening to music from an unfamiliar country. Above all the research and blog-hopping you do to get a feel for the industry, the only surefire way to know who a country is musically is to listen and feel. I've heard K-pop's musical identity - that's the most important think I can take with me. Even if I hear only the melody and instrumentation of a song without the lyrics and the language(the biggest giveaway), I'll know it's from Korea.

It would take me forever to appropriately answer what Kpop is. Heck, I haven't even answered what UK Pop is! For now though, I've answered a few of the questions that point me to that direction - not bad for a few weeks worth of music and reviews, eh?

So that's it - the Kpop special is officially OVER. Tomorrow I go back to my regular schedule of single reviews, promotional material and rants. With my knowledge of Kpop continually growing and my adoration for it staying - I'm optimistic about the next few months of blogging. (was that corny?)

A crash course in Korean Pop V 2.0.

Hold on, hold on. Didn't I say yesterday that the last K-pop special post would come today? Well I changed my mind. There's one last thing to do before I write up a sum-up post and that is revise my crash course post. Over the past few weeks I've found out a lot more about K-pop than I knew when I made that post and discovered the good songs from artists I didn't like previously so I think it's appropriate to make a newer version.

The gauge is pretty much the same except that I added 'insanely famous' between legendary and extremely famous.

LEGENDARY

INSANELY famous

EXTREMELY famous

REALLY famous

MODERATELY famous

Big Bang didn't move me until the tail end of the special - I wasn't much for an 80% rapping boyband but when I heard the instances when they actually sang, let's just say the melodies moved me. I've learned to overlook some of the rap but I've only heard a song of theirs with like 80% of singing once - this is it.

There are parts in this song that make me want to faint and scream like a fangirl - the whole thing absolutely gorgeous and it made me subconsciously smile the whole way through! That's a REALLY good sign. I cannot believe I just heard this song yesterday, if I had found it earlier I would've written about this the minute I finished watching the video. Heck, even their rapper/leader sings a line or two! This is what I'm talking about - why can't they make more songs like this? If they made even like 4 songs like this they'd be my absolute favorite boyband in the entire world right next to Westlife and they're practically gods for me. (INSANELY famous)

Well, well, well. Girls' Generation are back after a surprisingly short period since they finished up their last album - that seems to also be a norm in Korea. They sound a lot more grown up than they did with Gee but I think I'll really, really like the new song once I finally hear it.

This new teaser and the new promo pics have been causing all the kpop blogs to either freak out or feature the girls in some way, shape or form. Not bad, really but will SM Entertainment PLEASE let us all hear the new song for crap's sake?! I'm getting way too excited. (INSANELY famous)

OK. 2PM is JYP's attempt to create a singing, dancing, acrobatics-doing boyband. He's done well, thank heavens.

That's their new single/song their singing on all the TV shows (it doesn't have a music video, WTH?! hahah.) and during the first performance of this there was auto-tune all over which means that they were probably miming 40% of the time. That has stopped though because I hardly heard any non-live sounds identical to what the guys were singing - I heard one during the start of the second verse but I think that's it. (INSANELY famous)

Lee Hyori back when she was a little less slut-y. Of course you can't completely rob her of that quality (I think even when she was in a girl group she was like that..) because then Korea wouldn't have a Britney equivalent! I do love the song, it's so un-like what the horrid U-go Girl is.

She's been in a gigantic girl group, hosted a ton of variety shows, kissed a guy from Big Bang, been rumored to have dated Rain and accused of plagiarizing Britney's Do Somethin'. Not bad. (LEGENDARY)

So since Rain isn't under JYP anymore, Park Jin Young decided to get a new one. The guy isn't directly under JYP like 2PM and the Wondergirls - he's under Cube Entertainment, the subsidiary of JYPE, a nicer way of saying 'JYP doesn't care that much about you and you won't get that famous so he threw you into the small, unknown company'. I never knew subsidiaries of talent companies existed.

He doesn't show THAT much of his 'amazing dancing skills' on this video. Yes, it may not be an uptempo but even Rain had to dance like crazy to the occasional ballad - I though this guy was supposed to be 'the next Rain'? Apparently there are a lot of guys claiming that title so let's see who actually becomes 'the next Rain'. (MODERATELY famous)

Kara are the other cutesy girl group in Korea but unlike Girls' Generation, they used to be really, really serious. I mean serious to the point of Fin.K.L.. Wanna see that video? It's here. The one below is the cutesy song.

OK, that girl who sings the first line of the bridge can't really hit the high part live(she can't, I've watched like five performances and she can't hit the damn note.) but over-all the song will get stuck in your head whether you like it or not. Liking it isn't really an option because even if the song kind of sucks at certain places, it's so freaking catchy. This is what I mean when I say that if you're gonna go into a completely different and new genre, you better do it well - I honestly couldn't tell that they used to rap and all before this. (EXTREMELY famous)

Rain is obviously a very, very, VERY good performer but there was one performance in particular that convinced me and made me absolutely adore the guy. He may get a lot of negative comments but the guy has certainly made something of himself.

He doesn't have the best voice in the world even if it's ensured for $10 million but you can tell he tries - I've only seen one or two mimed performances, he hits the notes and he has some brilliant songs behind him. Look at it this way, if he doesn't have the songs he can't dance like that and do what he does - he'd just be a backup dancer for life. Smart decision, Rain, smart. (LEGENDARY)

2PM has I Hate You, Super Junior has It's You. They're both good songs but Super Junior makes the less processed, less padded and non-headache inducing songs. It's You wasn't on the version of the album that I originally had which is why I didn't know of its existence until it became a single(dammit. I could've predicted it! Ugh.) but at least I did!

It's one of those songs that don't sound American or British or non-Korean - I do adore it. I still wonder how all 13 members actually get a solo or if they do at all. (INSANELY famous)

For real this time, catch the last post in the K-Pop special TOMORROW.

ALL the songs featured during the K-Pop Special

Well, almost.

For sampling purposes and so you guys can hear the songs in HQ to really find out what you like and what you don't, I've put all the individual songs featured during the special and two tracks from all the albums featured - the lead single and my favorite non-single track into two handy .zip files! Hahah.

Below is the COMPLETE list of all the K-pop special posts with links to the respective pages so you can look back at the 20+ Kpop special posts (the songs with Korean titles/artists with Korean names have the characters in a parenthesis so when you download the file you know which is which). The post titles with * mean that I don't have that song and it wasn't included in the .zip file. The download links are at the end of the post. Enjoy!

A Crash Course In Korean Pop

Some Observations On Korean Pop

Rain (비) - Rainism

Brown Eyed Girls - How Come (어쩌다)

Rain (비) - In My Bed (내가 누웠던 침대)

SNSD/Girls' Generation (소녀시대) - Gee

SNSD/Girls' Generation (소녀시대) - Gee Mini-Album

Lee Hyori (이효리) - Sexyboy

DBSK - Mirotic

2PM - Again and Again

BoA - Milky Way and Atlantis Princess (아틀란티스 소녀)

Park Ji Yoon (박지윤) - In My Fading Memory (바래진 기억에)

Son Dambi (손담비) - Bad Boy

Rewind: Fanclub - Baby*

Rain ((비) - It's Raining

SeeYa - Hot Girl

Kim Jong Kook - Today More Than Yesterday*

SHINee (샤이니) - Noona Is So Pretty (누난 너무 예뻐)

Super Junior - Miracle

Se7en with Lil Kim - Girls

Super Junior - Sorry, Sorry

IU - Growing Up

Big Bang (빅뱅) and 2NE1 - Lollipop

Jewelry - Superstar

SS501 - 4 Chance

Sugar - Secret*

DOWNLOAD:

Part 1

(Rainism to Miracle)

Part 2

(Noona Is So Pretty Remix to Four Chance)

Watch out for the last post of the K-pop special TOMORROW.

Sugar - Secret

I just noticed something. It's like the girl groups in Korea came one after the other - there was most probably no period since 1998 that K-pop was without a reigning girl group. Look - Fin.K.L debuted in 1998, Chakra(this Indian-inspired girl group. Nothing special.) and Baby VOX followed in 1999 and in 2000 those three were the relatively big groups. In 2001 Jewelry followed while in 2002 Fin.K.L. split and in 2003 Sugar sprouted out. For the next few years they were releasing singles and all then they slowly started splitting up - first Baby Vox in 2005 then Jewelry went on hiatus in 2006. The Brown Eyed Girls started in 2006 and by 2007 a new generation of girl groups started. Girls' Generation, The Wonder Girls and Kara all debuted in 2007. 2008 came and Jewelry were back with two new members who formed another girl group - Jewelry S.

Phew. That was long - on to the song.

I completely forgot how I found these girls but it might've been while I was looking for Jewelry videos. All I remember is that the first time I saw them and the very start of the single that broke them into Korea(in 2004, same year as Jewelry..) I though 'these girls must've been Jewelry's rival girl group' and I was right. Although it does seem that Mnet Media spent a lot more money on Jewelry than Sugar's small-name talent agency, Starworld spent on them.

Plus, Sugar sounded a lot more pop-y than Jewelry even if it's the pop I'm not that crazy about. The instrumentals sound like they were lifted of a Britney track and the melody sounds like some American pop song I don't really like(can't remember which one though..).

The song might grow on me but in my books it'll never, ever be as good as the Jewelry song. It's the early BoA-type songs that I don't like - like ID Peace B or one of those. Secret doesn't have a melody that can make me fall at its feet and the instrumental doesn't do it any favors.

Relatively short review today. Hmm.

3.9/5

SS501 - 4 Chance

SS501 are one of those boybands in Korea that aren't insanely popular to the point of legendary like 2PM, DBSK, Super Junior and Big Bang but they've had moderate success in Korea and Japan - tickets to a date in their Asian tour were sold out in half an hour. They also happen come from the same talent agency that made Korea's biggest late 90's to early 2000's girl group - Fin.K.L. where Lee Hyori came from. Not too shabby, eh?

Their leader(I still don't get why boybands and girl groups need 'leaders') is more famous for being the mysterious musical guy in the Korean F4 - this insanely rich and bratty group of guys then the cold and even more insanely rich leader falls in love with this poor girl. It's been remade as a TV series in Taiwan, Japan and Korea - talk about repetitive but when I was a little kid I adored the Taiwanese version even if I didn't know what the crap was happening in the story and now it's extremely lame.

Even if they got a 'sub-unit' - a bunch of guys who took the band name and promoted a new single while the original members were out earning way more money and becoming really popular on their own in 2008, the original group does have some brilliantly made pop songs under its belt. They came back this year with a new Japanese album filled with quite good songs and the title track was a capella - it's honestly not as bad as I thought it would be. Not as good as Westlife, I have yet to find a boyband who can do it better than them but SS501 singing a capella is pretty good, I'd love to hear what they sound like live.

4 Chance is one of those songs that I don't like when I first hear it but because it's a pop song I kinda force myself to like it and it works, sort of like Girls Aloud. Of course my first impressions on these songs are always wrong because once I actually like the song I get the album and curse myself for not hearing it earlier. Me and my stubbornness.

It took me some time to notice this but it has become a rarity over the past few weeks - THERE IS NO RAP PART. Rejoice! My ears are thanking these guys. haha. The melody is less repetitive but extremely catchy - the type that makes you want to hum along by the end of the song.

The structure of this song has been driving me to insanity ever since I first heard it. So you have your standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus-dance break-middle 8-dance break(One is enough for heaven's sake! Unless you're Rain and you NEED more than one dance break to properly do yourself justice.) structure for the first 2 and a half minutes or so but then what sprouts out of nowhere after the second dance break? ANOTHER VERSE. What the effin' crap was that? First the song has two dance breaks and now this?

I'm going nuts trying to figure out why the songwriter put another verse at the friggin' end of the song. It could be to accommodate 5 solos but you can make the verses 2 stanzas long(which he/she already did), split them between two members and make a different guy sing the middle 8 - it's been done but noooooooo, the third verse HAD to put in AT THE END so the 'leader' gets 2 stanzas worth of solos on the song. Makes no sense.

Oh but I do love the melody. Hahah.

All the music videos of the song on YouTube can't be embedded so this is a live performance. If you want to see the video, it's here.

4.2/5

Jewelry - Superstar

It's only hit me now that I've found over twenty K-pop songs/albums worth writing about and featured them all - that's a lot of new music and yet I'm still looking for more. This special is ending in the next two weeks or so, I'm afraid. There's so much other stuff to blog about and so many things I haven't done because of this and I originally said it would last for more or less a month.

OK so this is an older song around 2004/2005 - the album was released in 2005 and this song was the lead single from it. Jewelry were part of the girl groups one generation after Fin. K.L and Baby Vox(although Baby Vox were 2 years into their career when Jewelry showed up.) and they took about 3 years to actually become gigantic. Unlike Kara who used to be very serious then became cutesy later('ll get to them in the next few days), these girls used to have the cute/sweet image and I personally thought the songs were really bad but then in 2004 they came back with this really seriously amazing pop song and everyone fell to their feet.

They kinda wasted their hype though 'coz after the release of the 2005 album that launched them into superstardom, two members left and the other two launched solo careers - the group was put on hiatus. They came back in 2008 with two new members and a cover of this European dance song(not sure which country but I'm pretty sure it's European) and the success of that matched that of their 2005 album. So back to that album - I'm getting carried away.

I'm not surprised at all that this song was made in the same year that Rain's It's Raining was. Apart from the obvious similarities in the video, the feel of the whole song makes you want to go and listen to the Rain song. At least that's what it made me do when I first heard it!

It's very girl group-y, the song and the dancing. This is what a lot of girl groups in Korea were doing around that time while all the ones in the US and UK were either split up, splitting up or on the verge of splitting up - Atomic Kitten had their greatest hits out in 2004 and Destiny's Child followed suit the next year.

The feel of the song reminds me a lot of early Girls Aloud mixed with the 'real' guitar sound that Just A Little from Liberty X had and some song off the soundtrack of a Disney superhero/save the world-type show. The melody didn't amaze me right away but over time I began to really, really like it - it has its strong points.

4.4/5

Big Bang and 2NE1 - Lollipop

Big Bang are the rapping boyband in Korea - they live for it but apparently a lot of people are also really attracted to the genre. Hm. 2NE1 are the female version of Big Bang and the biggest new girl group in Korea, why not just advertise it to the whole effin' universe by making a video with the two? Genius, YG Entertainment.

The song is everything I hate - repetitive to the point of negative annoyance, way too much rap and excessive processing but a few things about Lollipop make listening that much bearable. It sounds really Korean, to start - they've subconsciously created something I can clearly equate to Kpop.

The first thing that makes this song bearable is the fact that one of the girls from 2NE1 has a gorgeous voice for someone in a girl group - take that Hyoyeon of SNSD(she's the one who dances..)! She really gives the song and the band another dimension - she sings lead during the chorus. Here's a live performance of a Big Bang song and I'm pretty sure there's no processing here - it's on a radio show! The girl I'm talking about is on the far left and is the first one who actually sings.

Believe it or not, when the guys from Big Bang actually sing notes they get some of the most brilliant melodies. If they rapped a lot less and added verses with actual melodies they'd probably be one of my favorite boybands - there are some songs on their album with minimal rap and they're divine. Seriously, it's such a relief to only have one line of rapping on a Big Bang song. And may I say that Daesung(guy in the neon orange vest top who sings the last line of the middle 8 of Lollipop) has an amazing voice.

Same goes for this song - the middle 8 is probably the best I've heard on a song with rap.

Moving on. While reading up on Big Bang history and getting familiar with the members, I came across something so brilliantly amazing that I can't keep it unwritten and un-raved about. BIG BANG WRITE THEIR OWN SONGS. Never in the few weeks that I've been endlessly YT-hopping have I seen a boyband/girl group who write their own songs. I guess I just found it. And the fans seem to really like the songs I assume - why are they so big in Korea? That's another thing these American and British record companies should learn from the Koreans - LET BOYBANDS WRITE THEIR OWN SONGS. Is that so hard to do? NO! Because if it was, why can Big Bang do it and still be so effin' famous? Heck, even Lee Hyori adores the guys(random, much?).

I don't know if they wrote this song but heck, if they write even 40% of their material I'm happy - things like this don't happen everyday.

4/5. The rap still weighed everything down I'm afraid.

Note for my friend(Aljibe, ikaw kausap ko - alam kong binabasa mo 'to.) who I told that it's just a matter of time before I got into 2NE1 - Ayan ha, adik na yung kausap mo nung Friday. I publicly admitted to all my friends and readers that I think super ganda ng boses ni Park Bom. Masaya ka na? Sabihin mo na rin kay Pauline - maloloka yung babae.

Sorry about that, I just HAD to put that it.

IU - Growing Up

Yes, the girl's stage name is IU. Strange but that can be forgiven.

This girl was fifteen when this album was released. When she finished promoting what I think was the first single(her live performances were quite good as well..), her record company forced her to change her image - she went from gorgeous ballads and somewhat serious music to fun, perky bubblegum pop. The album is like two of those genres crossing, some songs got it right some completely wasted it but I always have ulterior motives for writing reviews - you'll find out soon enough.

The album begins with that I assume is a cross between her earlier serious/ballad-based style and her later perky, mindless bubblegum pop thing. There are points where it can seem like there's no end to the song but there are moments and the melody is worth two or three listens at the very least.

The second track was the fun, 'young' image song I was talking about a while ago - Boo. When I first listened to the song without knowing what she used to make I thought she was a sweet girl and that the whole thing is cute but after some research and more YT-hopping I found out that this song had a video that was a complete rip-off of Kylie's Come Into My World. When the record company found out that people had noticed it, they completely stopped all promotion for the single. Sad, really. If she had gotten a different video her venturing into the fun side of things would've been quite popular. I don't know what happened after the promo stopped but this girl seems to be posting a lot of covers on YouTube. Let's see where it'll take her.

A not so bad ballad follows and at this point you won't be able to tell what she used to sing. It's the light ballad with not that much heartbreak and revenge injected in the melody so I assume this was also her record company's doing. After a confused jazz-sounding track comes along, Every sweet day - a gorgeous, gorgeous light R&B-influenced song bursts out of nowhere and when I first heard it my jaw dropped wide open(literally). It's sweet and light-hearted but there's a part of this song that tells you she's NOT a little girl singing about butterflies and rainbows(Even if I don't really know why she's saying. Whatever.) even if the melody is a bit like that. It's confusing in the right way, I think.

So the next song was the infamous serious ballad she had during the early, early days of her career. The first time I heard Missing Child I thought it was gorgeous - there were moments in the song where I just wanted to burst but it wasn't like the other songs I had featured. Most of the other songs I featured had made me want to write about them from the minute the vocals kicked in. So with a new song discovered but not blog-worthy, I moved on. Then hours after I thought of giving the song a second chance - that's when something worthy of my time and effort came along.

This is not the most gorgeous thing you will ever hear but it's close. The best part is the very start before the extra instrumentations kick in - it makes me want to pull my hair out.

The song that follows this has a nice melody and more of the light instrumentals but it's nothing special, there's nothing that makes me jump out of my seat. The ninth track(don't know what it translates to in English, sorry) reminds me a lot of Every Sweet Day and they're tied for my affection at the moment so much that these two are probably the only songs I'll listen to for the next day or so.

The remaining tracks don't make an impact to me - there's another jazz-y thing and a ballad with an OK melody that turns into a jazz-y thing(what is with all the jazz-y stuff?), a bunch of remixes of the songs I don't like and instrumentals. Even if the album is not the best in the world and there's so much I can start attacking her for, I wanted you to hear IU for one reason and one reason alone.

This is how a fifteen year-old should sound - slightly squeaky, a bit vulnerable at certain registers and not completely mature(kinda like me.. hahah.). I've been told that a fifteen year-old who sings like a fifteen year-old is harder to find in the pop music industry than a fifteen year-old who sings like she's in her late twenties. People think that just because someone has a voice that makes them sound like an old woman, that voice is exceptional and beautiful. Most of the time I don't agree with them - does it mean that if you make someone look older than they really are it's beautiful as well? I don't think so.

Beauty is an opinion - what you find beautiful and ugly is none of my business but you're reading my blog with my opinions.

I'm sick and tired of hearing Charice's voice. She may be from the Philippines as well and people have told me to be proud of her but how can I be proud of someone I don't like to start with? She's probably a very nice girl when you talk to her but what's really important in music - personality or vocals? Vocals. I don't like her voice - I never will because I myself don't think it's beautiful. It's big and deep, yes but to me it's not beautiful. She doesn't sound like a sixteen, seventeen year old - she sounds like she's forty.

I like this girl because she sounds like a fifteen year-old. I think her voice is beautiful because she sounds her age and because it's really gorgeous. Her voice will change over the years(hopefully we hear more of that change.. here's one of her more recent live covers), by the time she's in her early twenties the squeaky-ness will be replaced but I have a very good feeling that when it does morph it'll be just as beautiful if not mind-blowing.

No sum-up. I'm lazy and I've written way too much.

3.9/5 For the album as an album.

BUT

4.8/5 For IU's voice.

Se7en with Lil Kim - Girls

I'm not extremely excited about Koreans trying to break the US mainly because I don't think it's superior to breaking the UK or an artists' own country - it doesn't change who he/she is. I am however curious about how different countries and companies in Korea approach breaking the territory. BoA's US debut wasn't my type - I found the lyrics disturbing and I'm not someone who looks at lyrics very often, Rain's debut has mainly been acting-based so nothing especially interesting there and Se7en - I never really noticed him until recently.

A little background on the guy - whenever a new solo guy singer who emphasizes the dancing element of the equation comes along, he is always and I mean always compared to Rain AND Se7en. For valid reasons - because of the explosion of the two around 2002(Rain) - 2003(Se7en), every company that ever existed in Korea has sought out to create their male-singing-dancing machine to counter them. What I've observed is that dozens tried but in the end Rain and Se7en showed that they really were worthy of the hype they had created - they survived long after the average shelf life and were actually good at what they did. His last full-length album was in 2006(but the singles from it weren't really that good..) and from what I'm reading he's been working on a US debut since then.

This is what he came up with.

That's more like it. I mean, if you're gonna make a song that's tailored for the US market (although I'm with Craig David on this issue - I don't see why an artist has to change to crack another country..) - you better do it well. With the BoA song being odd and Rain getting a role in the flop of a movie that was Speed Racer and a role in a movie whose release date keeps on being pushed back(Ninja Assassin) - I'd say this guy isn't doing that bad in the 'cracking the US' movement.

The song is somewhat generic but he has the style and genre correct - I'd say it'll reach the top 15 with enough promotion and airplay(although who am I to judge?). He's almost got the English thing, apart from a few parts with an accent(which aren't that bad as well..) the vocals are strong. The hook is short and repetitive, I've come to know a lot of number one hits that have that element. Melody-wise the song is competent, it's not something to faint over at the start but listening to it might give you the sudden urge to dance - not bad at all. The more you listen though, the more you like - it's a slow burn which may or may not be good for him.

A slow burn could mean that it'll take time for the Americans to like the song so it'll start low but once it hits them it might do well OR it'll take too much time for them to like it so they move on.

Then of course there's another name in the song - Lil Kim. I personally think it's a good strategy because the Lil Kim fans might get curious about this mysterious new guy singing with her so they'll hear the song - possibly like it and possibly buy it. Smart YG Entertainment, smart.

4.6/5

Super Junior - Miracle

Sorry for the abundance of boybands but I haven't discovered this many since I did the special! It's astonishing how these South Koreans just make the Americans look lazy.

Super Junior are the male counterpart of Girls' Generation and as I've said many times, they're the world's biggest boyband. They were patterned after a Japanese girl group by the name of Morning Musume - the members were supposed to change every few years but I don't think that happened. From what I know the guys who were there when the group debuted are still there, they just added a few guys.

For some reason this song sounds very Japanese to me. I don't know if it's the instrumentation or the melody itself but I think a boyband like Exile(who I kinda like for making the video linked and have a heck of a lot of members as well..) wouldn't have a hard time slipping this into an album or a single. What I do love about this song is that even if the melody has the possibility of sounding really sharp on the ear, it doesn't. The higher parts during the chorus are surprisingly light - it has to be their voices that do it.

The verses, oh dear, the verses. I could spend months just talking about how brilliantly beautiful and 'we've made it this far - we're not giving up'-ish they are but I'll keep it short. Wait, I just said what I liked about it, dammit. So there, it definitely sounds like something a band would release on their fifth anniversary or something(this was the last single off their first album, makes a little sense..) and you know I have a soft spot for songs like that. But it's genuinely a great song with an absolutely to die for melody.

And the music video just does wonders to the song, the good cinematography and the dancing make everything fall into place for this song. Absolutely fantastic.

4.7/5

SHINee - Noona Is So Pretty (Replay)

Note: Noona is used by Korean guys to address an older woman.

After all the heavy, serious R&B songs I've heard from the boybands it's nice to hear something different from them.

From what I'm getting, SHINee are the younger boyband in Korea - they're probably just a little younger than the new US boybands(just found out, one of them is 15 - FIFTEEN. My age - I'll be 15 this year.). The first video of them I saw was Juliet which is surprisingly a cover of Corbin Bleu's Deal With It. Judging by the two videos I've already seen, my guess is they're also the sweet, light boyband who can really dance(isn't the video on top enough proof? If it's not - see this. It's the dance cut of the video and it's just as brilliant.)

For some strange reason they so remind me of the new boybands in the US - I don't know if it's the video or the vocals or even the dancing but the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the video were NLT who are gone., V Factory who're finally getting somewhere - the video for Love Struck was out a few days ago and Varsity Fanclub who lost a member and replaced him with a guy who has the same name. SHINee just released a new mini-album(their second) and have had a full-length album out within a year. What's that to say about the boybands of the world?

The song is a nice mid-tempo song and the chorus very American - something Usher-type singers wouldn't have a problem singing but the verses are very Korean(of course I can't clearly say what's Korean and not yet but from what I know..) - I can't imagine any other country coining the style. The middle 8 is short but sweet, I love it. As a whole it grows on you - the first time you hear the song you'll think it's nice or OK but as time passes and you have time to notice every single detail, it will blow your mind.

Another thing that really made me want to write about this song - did you notice? THERE IS NO RAP PART. There's talking at the end but that's under the vocals so it doesn't really count as a rap part. Just goes to show that these boybands can make a song without rap.

A few days after I first heard this I got curious so I listened to the remix that comes with their first mini-album and it's even better than the original one. It's not one of those dance-y remixes where they just stick in a lame, over-used trance loop behind the a capella version - they completely restructured the instrumentals and made it into a song that leans more toward the Mirotic-esque songs of the world. For crap's sake - THIS BOYBAND IS BRILLIANT.

4.8/5

Kim Jong Kook - Today More Than Yesterday

I haven't written about that many guys so I suppose now would be a good time to start.

A little info - this guy used to be in a duo(forgot the name, sorry.) and he's widely known for his high-pitched voice. At first I was kinda iffy about him but the song is too beautiful to be overlooked.

At certain points his voice gets a little annoying for me and I don't find the high-pitched thing special - the song has it's quirks. It's a cutesy, light-hearted song, something you'd want to put as the background music for a vacation or something like that. Sweet, I think that's the right word for it. But it's not sweet to the point of our ears overflowing with it - it's a song you'd want to listen to over and over again but not because it's banging into your head.

Probably the best part of this song is the start, it's nice and light and there's nothing much happening with the instrumentals - the melody makes a big impact. The chorus is nothing to rave about but it's competent and somewhat good, enough for me.

3.8/5

SeeYa - Hot Girl

One thing you should know about this song before anything else - IT DOESN'T HAVE A RAP PART! Finally. That's one amazingly good thing about this song.

For some strange reason the three girls in a girl group singing fun, perky uptempo songs thing reminds me a lot of a certain band we call Atomic Kitten(In particular, Right Now). Heck, one of the girls even reminds me a bit of Tash(the one who sings first? kinda...)! Whatever. Moving on.

I'm against processing but like I said - if it's done the right way like Son Dambi's Bad Boy, it can give a good song another dimension that makes it even better. I don't bend for processing that often though so if I do, the song is either really, extremely well or there's something about it that I absolutely adore. Hot Girl is both.

It's dance but it's the type that if done the wrong way with an absolutely whacked out melody and unnecessary talking can sound really, really, really, really cheap but this sounds more like a remix of a top ten hit playing in an LA club or something. At least that's the impression I get. The chorus even sounds like something you'd put in an ad for a music channel or a cellphone, it's hip, young and the hook makes you smile but there are moments that make it round a bit 'retro' and disco-y in my books(of course I haven't heard a lot of disco but from that stuff I've heard, this is kinda like that..). 

The middle-8 is nothing special - I don't hear the magic that the chorus has but it's acceptable. Not a big fan of it though.

Also, it sounds much better in HQ - a lot of the backbeats that surprisingly give it a lot of groove for a dance song and make it an absolute pleasure to listen to got lost in the YouTube version, I'm afraid.

4.3/5

Rain - It's Raining

I'd have to admit, this wasn't one of my favorites when I first got hooked - I saw nothing special in it but for some strange reason I suddenly had the urge to listen to it a few days ago. Needless to say, I dug up the video and probably every existing performance on YouTube and I'm hooked, big time.

It's Raining was the song that changed everything for him, it was the song he used to take Asia by storm. Rain needed something like this to break him out of Korea and into Asia because frankly, being famous in Korea only was getting a little too cramp for him. This song took him into a new but inevitable direction - he had to make a song like this to tell everyone he wasn't just another singer/dancer but a performer and someone who could make music far longer than a lot of other acts.

The song isn't the absolute best in the whole wide world but it's infectious and the loop behind the melody is extremely catchy - you'll be humming the whole song by the end of it all. This is what 'world domination' singles should sound like, unafraid to try something new and sure of themselves. The industry needs more songs like this - songs that you don't know whether they're pop or R&B or hip hop but don't care because you're hooked from the very beginning.

As much as I don't like JYP for what he did to the Wonder Girls, what he did for Rain is beyond my imagination - how someone could keep on making songs that surprise us for over five years is unimaginable. So I kinda like the guy more now.

4.3/5

Rewind: Fan Club - Baby

This was the band Rain was in back when he was still known at Ji Hoon and before JYP turned him into Rain and I must admit, he wasn't half bad in the band.

The video might be crap with the guys wearing all these oversized shirts and strange dresses and the rapping might get on your last nerves but the parts that actually have a melody are actually quite good. It sounds like something a boy band now could even attempt to sing and that's a good thing.

Plus aren't a bunch of guys who look like they're 14 or 15 but are actually 17 or 18 dancing and singing a bit the type of band that sells? They had two albums before the company 'controlling' them dissolved and they split.

3.8/5

Son Dambi - Bad Boy

I didn't show much interest in Son Dambi while I was putting together the 'crash course' post - I had already seen two of her videos and neither of them caught my ear. While I was looking for a dance-y track to review though, I came across Bad Boy:

(just a side comment: I don't know why they're calling her the female Rain when his songs are nothing like this)

Bad Boy isn't as 'retro' and somewhat stiff in the wrong ways like Saturday Night is and it's the kind of dance I quite enjoy, actually. Surprisingly, it's got a bit of groove for a dance track - I could feel my foot tapping unconsciously at certain parts of the song.

Unlike a lot of other songs, the processing on this one actually makes the song quite good. It's wasn't done too excessively(or tastelessly..) and the right parts were processed - you can tell that it's really something to play at a club but at the same time something you can actually listen to without your head exploding.

The hook(when the subtitles say 'I fought to the point where it became wearisome' until 'you are my bad boy') is true to its nature - it's catchy enough that I was humming along by the end of the song. I'm not an expert when it comes to dance songs but what I've noticed with the ones I've heard is that I almost always only remember the hook. It's also extremely good - the melody is brilliant and like I said, the processing isn't annoying, I'd want to listen to this again.

The verses don't fail to impress me even with a brilliant hook - the minute I heard the first verse I knew this was the dance song I wanted to write about. They're verses, not as catchy and strong as the chorus but I think the point of this was to get the chorus stuck in as many heads as possible and get people to remember the song as a whole. They're not second-rate though - the verses are fantastic at their best and you can't go wrong with verses that do their job.

I'm so fed up of rap parts at the moment to tell you the truth, I haven't heard this much rap since ever.

4.5/5

Park Ji Yoon - In My Fading Memory

The world is overflowing with ballads, some beautiful some annoying and some boring. For me to notice and remember a ballad it has to be gorgeous, first and foremost but there also has to be something that makes it stand out from the sea of ballads I already know and like. It took me some time before I actually found something like that in Korean pop but I think I have my representative Kpop ballad now.

I listened to a lot of ballads before I heard this, mind you. Most of the ballads I heard didn't have the melodies to keep me interested and were way too sharp on my ear - there was always something wrong with them. This one in particular though is absolutely beautiful in all the right ways.

I class a song 'heavy' if I feel like I might get a headache listening to it or if I actually get one and I class a song 'light' if when I have a headache, I listen to it and the headache doesn't get worse, gets better or disappears completely. This song is the lightest of light but it won't make you fall asleep if you don't want to. If you do though, that's a completely different story.

The vocals are sweet, the girl doesn't bang you in the head with them(like a lot of American ballad singers I know..) but you know she has a gorgeous voice - she doesn't need to scream for you to realize that. The smoothness of her vocals lend a lot to why I love the song, the verses are so flow-y and lullaby-like but when she hits the chorus it's like full speed ahead.

The song is simple in itself, there's not much going on with the instruments and the melody isn't very distorted and processed with a lot of vocal gymnastics but that's what makes such a big impact. The girl sings the melody and it's enough to make people like me listen - you don't need more than that, actually. May I also add that the middle-8 is so friggin' floaty that it literally makes you want to go lie down on a cloud at that very moment. I'm not kidding. At all.

You have to hear this is HQ so if anyone wants a copy of the song, tell me.

5/5

BoA - Atlantis Princess + Milky Way

There were two songs from BoA's 2003 album Atlantis Princess that to this day continue blow me away. These two songs are the reasons why I still respect BoA as an artist even though I think Eat You Up was a complete disaster of a song.

Atlantis Princess is more than worthy of being the albums' title track simply because it's a stunning pop masterpiece.

It's edgy enough to be danced along to, it's got a gorgeous melody and it's a pop song - perfect.

I have no complaints about this song whatsoever so to spare everyone of me rattling on - let's proceed.

If I was to enumerate the best pop songs made in 2000 up to now, Milky Way would probably be in the top three - I'm dead serious. I mean, this song isn't just nostalgic for me because I got addicted to it during what was possibly the best year of my life, it also happens to give me goosebumps from the first chorus all the way to the end - isn't that a good enough indication that it's one of the best, remarkable and brilliant pop songs of the 2000's?

The melody has the right mix of sugary-sweet and hip hop/dance-worthy elements and although I think the middle 8 is sub-par, this girl just delivers the verses and the choruses like she was meant to sing the damn song. Then you see the video with fresh-faced BoA dancing and just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, you lose your ability to talk because of it.

For any hard core pop fan, this will really, truly blow your mind. Heck, it throws Girls Generation completely out of the water and they're probably the closest thing Korea has to fun, carefree pop.

For both songs, 5/5.

2PM - Again and Again

This is a little more current than the other tracks - a few days ago on KBS's Music Bank it went head to head Super Junior's(if you remember I said during the 'crash course' post that they're the world's biggest boyband with 13 members..) current single, which in reality isn't as good as this track:

See what I mean when I said it's dance or rot and die for these types of boy bands?

I don't think it's as good as DBSK's Mirotic but for what it's up against at the moment, it's outstanding. I tried listening to a few 2PM tracks before but apparently I was listening to all the wrong stuff because like the Wonder Girls, I liked the idea but didn't find the songs special.

Well this is certainly special.

I still don't like the rap parts(although the one in the DBSK song isn't that annoying..) and that hold true for this song - I don't see the relevance of it when they could've just put in a brilliant middle 8 instead of the rap - oh well.

It actually does have probably some the best verses that get overshadowed a bit by that (sometimes)annoying loop that refuses to stop and give us a break but I think if I ever get the chance to hear an a capella version of this, it'd probably be even more fantastic than it is right now. One thing JYP knows how to do really well is make a melody I'd absolutely adore(I assume he's behind all my favorite Rain songs and his own material since that's how he was credited on those albums..) so kudos to him for writing this.

4.2/5