I didn't particularly like Messy Little Raindrops, but like Ken, Jio and Kat, I believe, I did adore The Flood. I mean, what's there not to love?
As much as I really REALLY want a Nicola solo album (which I've heard is ALREADY IN THE WORKS! *dances around room*), Cheryl's proved herself "the popular one" - you really can't deny that she's done a gazillion times better than Nadine, the only other GA member who has attempted a solo package.
Messy Little Raindrops was literally a mess of an album, if I may say so. There were album tracks that were perfectly fine (2 to be exact.), but as a whole the album one, went right through me, and two, had absolutely no clear direction. It's like a bunch of random tracks were thrown together for the sake of Cheryl putting out an album - one minute she sounds Brit, the next like a wannabe American R&B starlet.
The Flood, thankfully, was one of those Brit-sounding songs. It has a very simple arrangement and a simple melody, but surprisingly, it's the execution that makes the song really stand out. Cheryl's learned quite a few tricks since GA "paused". I honestly never thought I'd say that for a Cheryl song, or her in general, given I like the other 4 girls better than her when it comes to vocals.
The thing is, the hook of the song really sticks, but it's one of the most melody-intensive songs on the list. You listen to it and Cheryl has managed to try and make something that would probably appeal to the American audience, while sounding very Brit - I hear hints of American-ized elements here and there, but the song as a whole sounds Brit all the way. That's more like it!
.. or songs I haven't talked about yet but so want to.
I still haven't found/though of a decent title for these posts with a few singles thrown together here and there. Although, in an attempt to make things a little spiffier here (emphasis on the attempt) and fill the archives with more posts now that I'm far too busy to write music show recaps, I'll try and write these more often. If you have any suggestions for a name whatsoever, the comments section is all yours. And I'm in dire need for them.
But before I start with all the songs, it's time, once again, for me to lay down my schedule for the next few weeks/months. My birthday's coming up (YAY!), among other things, but this month and maybe even next month, I'll be in "training" for this national speech contest I have to represent my school at. Why I was chosen for it is completely beyond comprehension at this post. BUT ANYWAY, me being "in training" means that I'll obviously have less time than the little time I have now, and when I do get the time, I might just go sleep or laze around reading fan fiction. Add the fact that I'm flying to China in November (And there's no Google there, so I've heard. Boo.) AND preparations for my senior yearbook, the last few months of 2010 are going to be hectic as hell. I'm starting to put together that "best of" list already, so don't worry about that, worry about the regularity of my posts! But now that we've cleared my schedule for the rest of the year, let's finally get to the music! I rant, I know, but you guys seem to like it so whatever!
Cheryl and Nadine Girls Aloud both have new leaks out. YES, THIS IS ONE OF MY MANY ATTEMPTS TO UPDATE MYSELF WITH NON-KPOP RELEASES. You should be proud of me! Cheryl's got Promise This, and Nadine's got Insatiable. Promise This is very Cheryl - very commercial and generic but well-produced. It's got what I presume is French in it, and it's catchy without going overboard. Solid effort, but nothing new or ground-breaking. I'm not feeling Insatiable that much though, even if I do think it's got a lot more character and conviction than the Cheryl song. These songs just don't appeal to me that much, but Nadine does sound fantastic. WHERE IS MY NICOLA SOLO ALBUM?!
Jaejoong, Yoochun and Junsu's rather controversial theme song for Yoochun's drama Sunkyungkwan and Scandal (they added and "and" to the title after it premiered - I'm so not used to it) is finally out in all it's glory. It's a nice, cheery, happy song with a pretty melody and a sweet piano line - a contrast to what's happening to them behind-the-scenes. I don't wanna talk about it. I won't. Their voices were gorgeous on the song. See? I'm not talking about it.
The Wanted. I never talked about them here, right? Well now I am. I. LOVE. HEART VACANCY. I really do. It's epic in all the right ways, but once again, it doesn't hit you over the head when it does get epic. Bring on the album - I'm in dire need of some Western boybands, and they might just do the trick.
It's now time to profess my love for the new The Sats video for Higher. I love it, I really do. What seems to me like choreography during the first chorus, the whole "we're a girl group, we're fun" vibe (that really should be mandatory on a girl group video) mixed with the brilliance that is Higher has just, successfully, made me want to start listening to more British stuff again. A girl group video at it's finest. With GA in limbo and all the members out doing their own things (like a certain Korean boyband.. *sniffles*), The Saturdays are probably they next best thing. And they're pretty damn good. ;D
Aaaaand we're back to Korea. My beloved BEAST released a ballad last Friday, and although I'm not head-over-heels over it to the point of me listening to it for entire dayS, it is a gorgeous song. And I mean it when I say gorgeous - it's still a risk for a band like them, I think, a risk that has worked. Even if it sounds a bit like a theme song for this romance drama on KBS, they pull it off rather nicely. At least they have the chops to do it. I'm slowly starting to like these guys, after their decent attempt at 4-part harmonies towards the end of promotions for Shock, they're safely my third favorite boyband.
I heard the JoJo mixtape,Can't Take That Away From Me, WAAAAAAAAAAAAY back, but I was far to busy to write anything about it. And you guys know how big a JoJo fan I am - she's practically the reason why I'm writing about pop today. I have my favorites from the package, and let me tell you, I'm head-over-heels for them, but there's a part of the mixtape that I'm not liking. Yet. They're the types of songs that take time to grow on me, but when that time comes you'll be the first to know. My clear favorites right now are Running On Empty, Can't Take That Away From Me, the Travis Garland duet, and Boy Without A Heart. Brilliance I say, brilliance. If you haven't yet, download the mixtape here (for free!) - and I suggest you do.
...and this time it's a heap of random new stuff, mainly because I've been so out of the loop lately to bother. lol. So these are random tidbits I've stumbled upon since the start of the year, if you've already heard of it don't kill me. ANYWAY.
Let's get this over with. Cheryl Cole's third single is Parachute. Boring as hell, once again. My attempt to review 3 Words failed miserably.
JLS have a new single. It's One Shot. I have, once again, predicted a post-album single. I'm getting REALLY good at this. After all the kpop, I find it odd watching a boyband dancing AND singing in English at the same time. But then again I'm waiting for pure genius from these guys.
New album from The Ting Tings due sometime this year. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
C.N.Blue are a new Korean band - no, not boyband or girl group - BAND. You know, Korean bands sound like Filipino/OPM bands. Not the crap ones, the slightly better and edgy ones. But once again, THERE IS RAP. Really, what do these people like so much about rap? But the hook is pretty catchy and the melody's novel. I won't necessarily listen to it on a regular basis but it's not bad.
Ke$ha is taking over the world. I have a draft lying around here somewhere with what I think of her but it needs a lot more tweaking. Should be up this week so wait for it.
After getting sick last weekend, I have caught up with music here in the Philippines and let me tell you, it's pretty pathetic. What's playing almost every 15 minutes? Empire State of Mind, For Your Entertainment, TiK ToK, Party In The USA, I Wanna Know What Love Is (yes, Mariah), that Tokio Hotel song and the list goes on and on and on. UGH.
Now lastly, this has something to do with kpop (again) SUPER JUNIOR IS/ARE COMING TO MANILA. THEY'RE GONNA BE BREATHING THE SAME AIR AS I AM. IN APRIL. TICKETS COST A TON (and I mean a ton). And I'm not even sure if I can go, but I'm not fainting over it - I would be dead right now if it was DBSK but it's not so no. Hahah.
Has anyone noticed that these past few months I haven't been doing any bulleted posts - they've all been paragraphs and paragraphs of me ranting on and on about trivial things. I thought for a while that I could pull off the all full review thing but I can't right now - there's too much I wanna talk about.
SO, here's a quick run-through of everything that's been going on in the world of pop I'm interested in. If there's something I didn't mention here but you think I should know of, SPEAK UP. I've been so behind on stuff lately it's pathetic.
The Saturdays' Workshaker has been out for a while but I haven't been able to listen to it 10 or 20 times straight - there's too much new stuff coming out! However I do have my favorite songs and Mel was right in saying that I just needed to digest it a little more. When I first heard the whole thing the excitement made me fall in love with it but then immediately after I felt that the album would go right through me when I heard it. After not listening to it for some time, it's quite good! A review to come SOON, I promise. School has just been the biggest pain EVER.
Cheryl Cole's Three Words (the song) has ALSO been out for quite a while. I don't like it - end of story.
Amy Pearson's Butterfingers is BRILLIANT. Apart from the talking/pseudo-rapping/chanting, the song is so damn brilliant I could fall apart. I swear, you wouldn't believe this was Amy until you actually watch it 'till the end - it's so hard to believe she's the same girl who sang Don't Miss You.
From the world of K-pop, f(x) and SNSD are both endorsing a cellphone via 2 different arrangements of the song Chocolate Love. What do I think of it? The girls sound crap. No really, Tiffany and Taeyeon SNSD and Luna f(x) who're the strongest voices of all 14 girls sound like the crap voices (won't name them anymore but you can probably guess who) - there's no difference because EVERYTHING WAS AUTO-TUNED SO MUCH. And the song really isn't that good. Yeah sure it's catchy but really, once you think about it that's all the song will ever be - catchy.
Now SHINee, my beloved SHINee. I heard Ring Ding Dong and I personally thought it was a little too confused with the instrumental and the auto-tuning but the more I think about it, this is the logical direction for them. SHINee need a song like DBSK's Rising Sun and Super Junior's U to take them away from being the SM newbies who everyone loved and make them an established boyband - they have to mature. Ring Ding Dong reminds me a LOT of SuJu's early 2009 hit Sorry Sorry with all the repetition and the auto-tuning but surprisingly, the rest of the elements are a lot more SHINee than I first thought they were. The full video isn't out yet but we've got a pretty damn good teaser and the MP3 to hold us up 'till then.
New boyband B2ST, now called BEAST (what the crap?), actually has debut single that's a bit better than MBLAQ's Oh Yeah recorded. Still, it's heavily auto-tuned and a bit generic. However, it's not that bad.
Speaking of MBLAQ, my theory was right - these guys are performers. No really, they're a heck of a lot better live. The song sounds more convincing, they're pushing the not miming thing and it really sounds like the song was made for a stage. Kudos to the guys! Hahah.
In lieu of new pop masterpieces from GA this year, we get some new stuff from Cheryl Cole.
What's the song like in one word? GENERIC. Or BORING.
We've heard this all before - the cheesy-ish 'R&B' influenced melody with the generic, uncreative instrumental and arrangement that goes with it. Her vocals aren't any better - give me solo stuff from Nicola and I'd prefer that the world over.
This song is like the Eurocrap with the cheesy, cheap, generic dance loop of the US. Can we please get something different for once?
Taking originality out of consideration though, the melody is competent. It's nothing new or special but it's there and with a little tweaking here and there can be remotely good.2.5/5
