Zico is an epic rapper, a fantastic musician, a great leader, and a brilliant musical mind... this release might stand as the exception that proves the rule though. I mean the song's okay, it's a bit jarring in the transitions, but it's a well put together peace, over all. At least it is if you're not looking at the video while you listen. Unless Zico was going for a jarring discord where all the timings are almost a full second late or early (which throws off the brain's expectations for sound) this video isn't right for the song. Honestly... even if he WAS going for an artsy, out-of-sync style of hipster drag, this video is just... not good (ironic, considering the title, & the humor is not lost on me).
        It's just concert footage (recordings of songs with much higher bpm ratings than Well Done because they are way outta sync) and an overabundance of a layering of film-effects and irrelevant analog-film images. I could make that kind of a video on my home computer in a few hours, and at the very least, I'd be able to make the timings sync up. If I had half the awesome equipment available to these guys, hell, even if I just had half the source footage... I could do so much better. Admittedly, I want to become an MV professional, so I'm not just an average joe at making MVs or anything, but still, professionals should do better. This is disappointing and it's really just not up to par.
       The song, without the video is still pretty good, and I love Zico, so I'm still giving it more credit than I really feel like it deserves, but I can't in good conscious say much  that's positive about this video.

           This has been a fantastic week for Korean music, especially in the Hiphop sector. This is a fun and funky track with a quirky MV with a vibe every bit as playful as the track. I love how not only is MYNAME given a collective brain inside JunQ's fainting fit, but that brain looks like an old WWII command center. I'm not sure why but I find it amusing, and I love the aesthetic.The set aesthetic goes well with the garage-type 'hiphip' vibe styling, and with general kpop and korean street fashion. The transitions between the sets are fluid and well done, going into the brain and introducing the pink-light sections through the laboratory scene. All of the craziness is made to make sense by being put in the context of a fainting spell. The plot is thin, but cute, and quite relatable in some ways being that daydreaming produces some crazy results and seeing someone gorgeous on the street is what daydreams are made of.

           Additionally, the track is epic fun. In a similar way to how Amber's hilarious rap track is kept light and fun, the short staccato rhythm of the vaguely-brass-like instrumental decoration keeps things funky and amusing while the rap glides smoothly over the beat. The light vocals in the chorus balance out the low tones of the rap, and the higher the notes, the slower the syllables passing through it. The deep-voiced rap is rapid-fire, keeping the energy up through speed, and the high-notes have their own energy that comes with the tension of how far above the beat they are and how much effort goes into hitting them. 

        Amber has always been a brightly unique individual, particularly within the confines of the Kpop world. This release shows off her special flair while perfectly keeping the release within the expectations of the Kpop community. Not only that, it allows the concept of rap and hiphop to evolve within Kpop, which is an exciting feat in and of itself... It's so exciting that instead of putting a simple review of the MV up here, I've sent it over to the editorials section to explain it in detail! ^_~   (Find it HERE)

       This one was intriguing from the teaser, and by intriguing, I mean confusing, but the MV made it all make sense and it got to a point of aching cuteness. The MV is so simple it's almost boring, and since nothing really happens it can't gain high marks, but the track was so sweet I had to give it a review. My favorite part of the MV's simplicity is that it works off the super sexy images and the hot & heavy rap of the verses to balance the epic cuteness of the chorus and the kisses. It renders the hella hot sexy side of life as something that's sweetly existent everyday, even sex can become adorable if it's part of an on going relationship. When being super hot is just a part of life, that hotness itself can become an adorable aspect of a relationship and I really like how straightforwardly this MV presents that Idea.
       Additionally, the track is delightfully well-produced, with light choruses that balance the deep raps of the verses, short vamps to bridge the gaps and a low hum of energy that makes the song's chill vibe zing with excitement. The song & the MV look 'sexy' at first glance (or listen), but that impression doesn't last long. Rather than sexual tension, the end result of watching this sweet little video is the energetic cooing that comes with watching cute kitten videos.
       I like it.

        I like the stab at a sort of mainstream hip hop for these girls. They've always been on the lovely border between the synth-y bright melodic pop that got kpop kickstarted and the hard and fast hip hop that really got the ball rolling for it in the modern era (I've said before that they're halfway between 2NE1 and WonderGirls, though 4Min has always been my favorite of the three). 
        This isn't what I was expecting from them, and the first time I heard it was was a bit disappointed with how mainstream it felt, totally lacking their usual melodic push or their colorful quirkiness. It's still not my favorite, but the elegant matahari flair of it makes up for a lot. The subtle introduction of color could have continued until the whole MV was in full color, which I would have appreciated because the BTS footage makes the styling look to die for. I think there could also have been a more powerful chorus, because the vamp is fantastically energetic and it just kind of falls flat into the chorus. Fortunately, that chorus is pretty catchy, even if it doesn't zing with the vibrancy of a masterwork, I'm certain that I'll be stuck in my head for a long while yet to come. 

        The choreography is fun and fluid and it really goes well with the vibe of the video, and it moves perfectly to the beat and evolution of the music. But what really captures me is the hat-thing. We use eyes and hairstyles to identify our Kpop superstars, because the rest of their styling changes so often (teaser pics to show us what hair color / length / shape we're looking for in connection to a name). The hats in this video are interesting because they way they're used takes away our access to the girls' eyes, but in giving us specific labels, the hats also help us ID the very girls we can't ID on our own. It's a really interesting look at Identity, particular when taken into account along with the fact that the lyrics discuss finding a 'hidden self'. Also, one of the main causes thought to be responsible for what we call insanity is, at its most simplified, an identity crisis.

        I was honestly going to skip Cold Rain, electing to go straight to Crazy, but I decided a short review wouldn't kill me. I adore 4 Minute and this is a gorgeous MV, visually at least. The track is lovely, well-done though it's not my favorite. It's fairly well-rounded and it moves fluidly though its paces in patterns that the human brain recognizes even if you've never heard the song. It's nice, but nothing special.
        The MV is gorgeous, filled with beautiful shots of the girls all glammed up. Almost every frame makes for a fabulous screen cap. I've got a lot of problems with it though, because despite how pretty it is, nothing really happens. At all. If you've read any of my other reviews, you'll know that one thing I can't stand is an MV where nothing happens. So this one, pretty as it is, can't earn many points from me.

        I've been holding off on writing a review for this one for over a week now. There's an American song (I think, it's at least a song by a native-language English speaker with an American-esque vocal quality) that the bridge of this one reminds me of and it's been on the tip of my tongue since I first found it and I've been waiting to see if it'll come to me (it hasn't, so if anyone else recognizes the song, I'm talking about PLEASE let me know!).
        Anyway, this track is absolutely glorious, and the irregular meter-changes just make me giddy! Normally, songs change speed at set points in songs, at transitions between verses and choruses, or through vamps or bridges, but this one changes in the middle of typically static sections. On a first listen, I thought it just slowed down during the chorus (something like what happens in Clock Strikes), which is a unique enough signature, but this one just shot it out of the park. Vamping up before the chorus, dipping down to a slower pace in the first lines and then picking back up to vamp speeds before dropping to the chorus (aptly during a moment of choral echo). And after the first round the beat bounces up and down over and over again, creating it's own pattern that doesn't mesh up with any system I've every studied before. each instrumental line moves with these changes in perfect compliment to each other and to the vocal line which is brilliantly expanded at key moments by the choral echo effects. Seriously, there are just SO many reasons that this track is beyond brilliant. And it's perfectly produced, spinning the listener around and tossing them about with surges of sound coming from all angles and at all sorts of beautifully varied volumes. Even Taka's screams slide in and out with a smooth simplicity that belies an incredible attention to detail.
       There's a bit of creatively used English, but over all the English makes sense and the lyrics over all, while relatively simple at face value, are incredible poignant and powerfully easy to relate to. I'd be hard pressed to find anyone that can't connect emotionally to the notion of feeling so left out you can't bring yourself to care anymore, to feeling like screaming out is the only way to save your own sanity while being too afraid to do so because if no one hears you screaming you'll have absolutely nothing left... These lyrics are especially wonderful because not only do you get to put your own story into them, there's an uplifting tug to some of them, a sort of 'if they can change, then so can we' and 'we can be the change we need' vibe that makes everything seem just a little bit better.
        And then getting onto the PV? Wow, another home run right there. (I'm both excited and surprised by my extensive use of sports metaphors, don't worry, it's not just you that finds it strange ^_~). The Video takes off where the lyrics let go and build upon the metaphors. There's so much here to point out that I considered making this an editorial. Starting right at the beginning, the water is deeply symbolic of new life, but it can also be used as an image to indicate drowning and the way it's used throughout the video show a deep awareness of both meanings being toyed with. The bullet casing dropping down in to the body of live-giving water is just too perfect not to mention, particularly as the first occurrence (and several more afterwards) is in slow motion, but by the end, the image returns  and is vamped back up to full speed (signifying a resignation that, now that everything is said and done and out in the open, real life can start again). The bullet hit is timed perfectly too, drawing out the maximum emotive response, a vacuum of silence surrounds the water droplet, but for the casing? A string of notes first going down and then quickly up, mimicking the bullet's path... it's beautifully done. Every single one of the prominent timings is done just perfectly, in exactly the same carefully considered manner as that first one (so much praise and we're only 4 seconds into the PV...).
        Symbolically speaking, the man and woman drinking and playing cards and counting up some quick cash represent the every-man and -woman, setting themselves up for just a bit of good fun and the assault team is the rest of the world crashing down. That's the reason the story seems to keep changing itself. It can happen to everyone, you change your story when the pieces don't fit right in your head. At first you think you can't be happy because the world won't allow it, so you try to fight back and hold on to what (and who) you love, but the tighter you try to hold onto something or someone the more you start to feel them slip away and then the reason that you're hurting becomes the people most precious to you rather than an outside force (and you know you're hurting them just as much as they hurt you, if not more so). When she dies his world stops and he has no means to recover and less than no desire to ever move on, and that just send the spiral going back to the beginning, not his fault, it's this shitty world that did this to them (the CG time stop with real-time water in the background is awesomely perfect to explain how time feels like its stopped for someone truly in mourning, but outside of their bubble, life is still going on just the same). When he grabs her arm and enacts real change to save her, thing go backwards a bit, rewriting the story, but all that really comes of it is the fact that he dies to, so change seems futile. But in the end, they're holding hands, whereas in the beginning, they weren't even facing each other. Progress. Baby steps, maybe, but still...
        You can't resist the flow of time and you cant resist the inevitable, but maybe, just maybe you can tweak the outcome in your favor. All in all it's a pretty powerful message one that jumps between the visual and the audial realms with a beautiful fluidity that takes my breath away without even trying. Seriously, hot damn, if I ever doubted OOR was one amazing band, this song totally blew those fears away.

I'm hesitant to give it a ten, because there's not much in terms of actively on going story, and there's certainly no real-time in-story explanation for any of the action, but I am very tempted to ignore logic and give this release a perfect score. I am SO pumped for the upcoming album, it's not even funny.