This was quite a departure from the song that made me love these guys, but Falling in Love was a hard track to follow-up under any circumstances. EOEO is not at all what I was expecting, for many reasons... not the least of which is the fact that onomatopoeia siren-sound effects are normally considered cutesy-kid-stuff... which is NOT what UNIQ has given us here. The styling and the set aesthetic are gorgeous. The fashion is pretty standard for the genre, but that doesn't detract much of anything as there is more than enough going on to maintain visual interest. The use of lights and color, and the careful mix of camera shaking and glamour shots balance out very well. It's a bit too jarring for my tastes, but it's very well done and it suits the track very well.
           Song-wise, I was certainly surprised, but once I got over myself and gave it a few listens I came to the conclusion that it's firmly over the line of being awesome. It moves well, the rap sections are punchy and impressive and balanced out by the smooth sax. The smooth vocal lines of the vamp and the chorus bring it all together and the siren-sound of EOEO ties in thematically, it makes the track having a unique vibe (the idea of these guys making siren sounds makes me want to giggle, but the tone of the vocal line, especially combined with the aggressive visual keeps me stunned into being quiet). The choreography is sexy as hell, aggressive and punchy and fabulously intense. What I like best about the Choreo is that it evolves: it gets progressively more and more sexual as the song rolls, with the first body rolls being focused on the chests and shoulder, the next ones on the hips and abs, and by the end it's entirely focused on the pelvic region, with some flashes of bare skin. Such sexiness isn't usually my cup of tea, but I'm not at all against it and I think it's done terribly well here. The moves have a lot of potential to be over-done sexually, but they're not here. The sexy imagery is well balanced through all the quick flashes of other images.
           Over all, we've got great visuals, a track with a ton of interest, movement, and fabulous spatialization, and some hella hot choreo that deserves a dance practice vid. It already has an epic dance version and a fabulous Chinese version that are both incredible. There's also an adorable making vid. All in all I love it.

          I've always said that Hotshot was a group to watch out for and now they're saying it themselves. With their fantastic pre-release single, Midnight Sun, being such a departure from the style of their debut (and a delightful show of impressive stylistic flexibility), I wasn't sure what sort of song we were going to be graced with for their comeback. Watch Out is a throw back into the rap ring, but it's a style that sits neatly between the folds of their other promotional tracks. It has more smooth vocals than Take a Shot and more nitty-gritty rap segments than Midnight Sun, blending together into a fluid, dynamic track that moves well and evolves over the course of the song. With a minimalist instrumental, thoroughly imbued with energy, the vocals have the attention they deserve and the smooth vocal swoops mesh neatly with the raps and the track flips flawlessly between sections.
           The MV is slick, utilizing clever camera tricks and intriguing editing techniques to make the relatively inexpensive shoot feel anything but cheap. The styling is gorgeous, though fairly standard for the genre. The choreography, or at least what's shown of it in the MV, is also fairly mainstream, but it's intense and interesting and it suits the song perfectly. The set aesthetics are gorgeous and suit the song just as brilliantly as the choreo does. 
           I'm fabulously impressed with this release.

           EXID has enjoyed a wild ride to fame this year, after a few bumps in the road post-debut. They've managed to make a comeback on comments on the media monster that both road-blocked and steam-rolled their way to success. The censorship aspect of the modern world's media machine is one that is frequently discussed but rarely critiqued with much punch in the public sphere. Building off the obvious success of Up&Down, Ah Yeah! directly comments on the backlash EXID faced for the choreography saturated with pelvic-thrusts and sexualized imagery. Ah Yeah, while reusing the punchy beat and slick sax of Up&Down is a unique production with a smoother finish than the song that brought EXID into the spotlight. Ah Yeah is a fuller track, with a deeper, more aggressive impact as the bass is dropped by no small measure and the high-end is stretched into the heavens with a whiny slide of falsely-simpering vocals. Hani's coy little act and LE's aggressive, mic-drop worthy comeback shows in dramatic relief the distance between what is expected of women being hit on and what a genuine reaction should be.
           With sass and charm, the girls of EXID take on the media's rampant abuse of power by making point-blank digs at the sexual double standard that makes girls out to be 'sluts' and boys into 'sex gods'. The lyrics are no-holds-barred attacks and the girls pull no punches with them, stating directly that there is something wrong with the way things are. The censorship blurs cover up choreo that is similar to what the KCSC forced them to cover in Up&Down, but the choreo here is focused on knee movement than the pelvic movement, and therefore it's considered to be kosher according the the KCSC. While I personally like the knee dance of Ah Yeah better than I like Up&Down's choreo, I think it's a pretty rotten deal to have the government be able to declare a female body to be obscene based on such a tiny distinction. 
          Not only is Ah Yeah an aggressive dig at the media and censorship policies, it's a story of triumphantly reclaiming the freedom to exist as a female that is also an independent, proud, powerful, strong, sexual, and sensual human being. EXID gets the last laugh, by changing nothing in their routine from the heavily censored start of the video to the uncensored end of it as the world shifts to accommodate them (rather than a world that succeeds into cowing them to change and censor themselves). This is an incredible release, reminiscent of the gorgeous critique found in Mamamoo & eSNa's Ah Opp! but thrown into high gear without giving any slack to nonsense. Coming on the heels of the atrocious (but unfortunately extraordinarily catchy) release that is JYP's Who's Your Mama, Ah Yeah is a breath of fresh air that proves beyond a doubt that music is never just music. By censoring something, the media makes observers expect something awful, which makes the thing behind the blur obscene regardless of how it would have seemed without censorship.
           This critique of modern media culture is powerful, poignant, and perfectly suited to the times. With LE having been in a key production role to help her group members to a brilliant comeback and Shinsadong Tiger providing the experience and expertise needed to take it up a notch, Ah Yeah could hardly have been anything but fabulous.

           There's a ton of 'Bad Boy' type media flooding the forum, as has been the trend for the past few years, but we rarely get a mention of the more mainstream consequences and circumstances of actually being a bad boy, and not only do we get that comment, it's delivered with a two-fold double-meaning: not only are the boys of Bastarz getting a Zero for Conduct in terms of a typical school or work setting, they're declaring that they're so expert at being bad that THEY have become the ones giving out marks for conduct. Additionally, the comment of Zero for Conduct takes the idea of being bad and spins it to being the colloquial bad, as in awesome on stage, a thing which is easy for observers to admit is something that this trio is particularly awesome at. So you've got being Bad as 3 separate ideas in this: there's the general bad an aesthetic in the real world, being bad as a colloquial slang term for bad-ass and awesome as referenced in the Lyrics, and being bad as in a literal criminal as depicted by the visuals in the MV. And even the unit's name, Bastarz, portmanteau blend of 'bastards' and 'stars'... absolutely perfect.
           The three chosen for the group are perfect, B-Bombs smooth vocals sit beautifully in a rough and rowdy instrumental backdrop particularly when paired up with PO's gravelly raps. U-Kwon's voices sits perfectly in between the two and the uniquely bright and slim quality makes it perfect for the vamps. I was surprised / briefly confused / delighted to hear Zico's voice, but with his role taking point on production, and the energetic warmth curled up under his voice blends so well with the official trio's vocals that I can't say I'm really surprised after thinking about it. Hearing him was starling at first, but it does make a lot of sense for his vocals to be there. The stage version sounds awesome without him, but on the recording, having Zico's rougher high-line sit in the recording's sweet spot where they blend into the instrumental is too good to pass up for how it throws PO's vocals into sharp relief. Zico's production job is spot on, fully displaying the epic talents he has to call on (which is why I was so disappointed in most of the solo-work he's released this year, it just was NOT up to par). The track is fantastically well spatialized, leading to an energetic bounce of elements rather more like the crowd in a club than the over-crowding of a busy subway station; each element has it's own space to breath, both in terms of the frequency isolation in the mix and in terms of where the elements sit in the 3-dimensional space of the headphones. All the transitions are smooth and slick which gives the rough overtones that much more drama.
            Visually, the MV is a treat. The styling is gorgeous and the set aesthetics are fantastic, blending a dark, dank underworld with the neon bright intrigue of the club scene. Each member is given a unique character to play in a beautifully stylized depiction of a drug running ring, with lots of visual throws to the Chinese Triads / Yakuza (or at least the iconic tropes of their pop cultural portrayals). B-Bomb is the Client, the bad-boy rockstar that puts the sexy and druggy bits into the classic trope of sex, drugs, rock & roll. PO is the Distributor, the one of the gang's throne calling all the shots with a hand in both the marketplace and the manufacturing process, while staying distanced from and neatly between both parties. He has the most variety in costume because as the ganglord, he has a lot of hats to wear, being able to blend in with normal society, the druggies, and the drug-makers, and such. And then U-Kwon is the Manufacturer. Overtly, he runs an industrial meat-packing plant, the kind with massive freezers that lead to an abundance of antifreeze and the sort of chemical-waste oversight that excuses massive amounts of toxic waste that no one looks too carefully at... both things necessary for the production of crystal meth. The girls in his employ work the meat-packing factory as a front, keeping things above board in one business while they systematically produce drugs and launder drug-money under the ruse of pricey, artisanal-butcher-cut, slabs of meat. The 'snow' scenes could be depictions of cocaine (and the attire of the employees suits the stylized pop-cultural depiction of a meth-lab fairly well), but the main reason to base a drug lab in a freezer-heavy industry is access to anti-freeze, which is not necessary to cocaine production so my money's on meth (the shot of burning crystalline bits around :53, could be crack cocaine, but it still seems more like meth to me). Over all the MV provides as beautifully stylized and sterilized depiction of the drug-world, glamorized just enough to make it alluring without making the illegality of it too obvious or too easy/appealing-to-imitate. It strikes just the right balance, with a flair of obvious fictionalization, to be awesome.

           Well chalk one up for the drum majors! There's been a scattering of drumline uses in Kpop, though most that play off the subject use the rest of the concept too, marching band uniforms and sequins and such (and always the hats ^_^). This was confusing at first because it didn't follow the trend. The drums clutter up the track in a way that's not too pleasant. It's forgivable if you know what kind of drumming it is, but it took me a second to catch on, and it took me a few more seconds to start tracking the drums as an independent line, but even then it was lovely and quirky, but a bit cluttered. I enjoyed the styling and how the choreography played with the marching band idea. The girls are all gorgeous and they have some solid talent to work with, but this track definitely wasn't as catching as it could have been. The playful rhythms are lovely and I'm definitely keeping this track in my current playlist
            Overall it's a solid debut. It's just nothing game-changing. I certainly wouldn't have pegged them as the "female B1A4" ... the boys had a tremendously exciting debut, a spectacular leap of awesome. This is ... solid.

          I was going to go with a pithy tagline about how it's catchy but coarse, but I've decided better because this is just plain gross. This is rape culture and to say anything otherwise is just something I'm not up to any more. He asks the woman her measurements for heaven's sake, and she is a hell of a lot younger than he is. It's hella creepy that he does even half of what he does in this video. It's not that the objectification of the female form is wrong, that's fine. A nice ass is a nice ass and that's all fine and dandy. What's wrong here isn't the sexiness or the objectification at face value. What's wrong here is that JYP is being a frickin creep in this. As the head of a theoretically well-respected company he should be handling himself better than this. I get that he wants to be a comedian and shit, but if I saw a dude being like this to anyone I'd call the cops on his ass because he's being disgusting. Sex and physical objectification are totally cool, Kpop is a hella hot genre and I doubt anyone actually has delusions about that anymore. But this is different. This isn't a girl showing off her ass because she likes the attention, this is a creepy ass old dude staring at (and blatently harrassing verbally) young women who're too polite to tell to fuck off. And because he's JYP it's 'funny' instead of gross. This sort of shit shouldn't be excused because he's a known comedian goofball, this kind of joking around about asking a girl's measurements is exactly the kind of thing that leads to joking around about other things. And the idea of casually being allowed to ask a girl's measurements is a joke here, but its one that some idiots take seriously. As a girl whose been harassed like this, and as a girl with friends that have been harassed like this... it's not funny, it's not a joke, and it's not what the head of JYP Ent should be promoting at all, let alone personally. I have lost a significant amount of the little respect I had.
          The last time I was this outraged it was for Bangtan Boys' Boy In Luv, and that one had redeeming qualities and had been a promotional decision that was out of their hands. If anyone expects me to give the frickin founder, CEO, and whatnot of JYP Ent to have had any decisions about this made in a way that was beyond his control, they have another thing coming. No one has any delusions that Kpop is clean and wholesome at this point, but it should at least attempt to avoid promoting something this disgusting. I might be disparaging, but it's what this deserves.
          All that said, the song is really quite catchy and the song itself isn't really that bad. The lyrics discuss a singular attraction and deliver in an anecdotal style that doesn't really do too much damage in the way of supporting idiocy. It's a hella catchy track and the choreo looks like tons of fun (assuming the creeper old-guy bit goes away). I do enjoy listening to the song and watching choreo covers, but seriously, this video is not only disappointing, it's vulgar and offensive and I'm not going to excuse or forgive JYP for this, ever. No matter how catchy the track.

          *Cries Hysterically* I was NOT prepared for that. Which is presumably why they did it. I was thinking 'oh, spring, another rookie girl group to watch, no biggie' and what I got was one of the most heart wrenching stories I've ever seen depicted in such a beautifully poignant way that the only option I was presented with was to bawl my eyes out for a solid minute and a half after the mv ended. What I liked best about this video is that we never see any parts related to the actual tone-defining instant. All we see is a vague, blurry newsreel, and that from far away, and we see the mom's hand fall and everything changes. Except the isolated tone of the track. The focus on the happy parts, the focus on the live lived rather than the loss is a beautiful depiction of grief that is rarely seen in dramatic contexts. I think it's wonderfully to see here.
          The track is lovely, catchy and sweet. The vocals are strong and their presence sits nicely among the instrumental elements. The harmonic utilization of the members is top-notch, rather than the forced harmonies of a lot of spring-releases and the plurality of voices complements the isolated feel on the vocals in the raps. The harmonic vocal lines also fill in the instrumental nicely. The backing lines are pretty sparse in this track, and repetitive, but that allows for the vocal fills to have room to expand and shift without feeling squeezed.
         My only concern is that it's not a very good debut video. None of the girls make any appearances at all, there's NO way to even know how many members there are from the video alone. It's also not a terribly catchy song and it's not the kind of video you send to your friends without a feels warning, or the kind people want to watch over and over and over again. It's beautiful, powerful even, but it's not catchy. It's not the kind of career kickstart that makes a real dent. And with the Light being the only track on the release, there aren't any other tracks to handle the catchy, viral aspect while the title track sticks to the gut-wrenching dramatics of grief. Which is tragic because these girls have the potential to be awesome.  The group has been pulling a lot of extra promotions with dance covers and #hashtag epicness for 1theK, but it's not enough to make them a household name. The most eyecatching part of their get-up is the fact that they made serious covers of the guys' songs, rather than sexy "female-interpretations" they threw the actual choreo straight. Their debut track shows off nothing of that impressive and carefully crafted image. So while this is a FANTASTIC release, it's not actually a good debut. If it were a follow-up or a later release for an established group, I'd be giving this at least a 9 without any hint of hesitation. As is...

           San-E is typically known for his comedic MVs. His unique vocal quality lends itself easily toward humorous and lighthearted raps with chill vocals. This release is a dramatic departure from his norm. Even last summer's Body Language wasn't nearly the change that this. While Body Language gave us a new sort of visual for San-E and darker aesthetic than we'd seen previously, and it even had more sultry and sophisticated vocal variations, that most of his previous work. #LuvUHater is still in its own league. Body Language was still more of a comically sultry satire rather than an actual leap into the angsty abyss. 
        This new release is not my favorite song by San-E... It's not even in the running really. I'm just not a fan of it, which is not to say that it's poorly done. It's just not my genre. This minimalist straight rap thing is not my style, but San-E's pulled it off incredibly well. At it's most basic, rap is beat-poetry with a solid instrumental backing and the nebulous tones in this track blur that line dramatically. The move well and vary enough to carry the track though, and the visuals are  poignant and relevant: artistically captured, without being overly hipster-fake-artsy-chic. It's the visuals that make this for me, they carry the vocals well, delineating the separate lines and putting an emphatic curve on all the words that need it without requiring repeated a vocal push that could get quite tiresome to hear. It leaves the vocal inflections in reserve for the moments when that can be truly effective. The message is strong and worth saying and it comes across perfectly through both the lyrics and the visuals and the instrumental adds tone.
          It's not my favorite, but it is very well done.

          Mamamoo has always been a wonderfully quirky, power-vocal group and this release lives up to those expectations. The track itself is jazzy rap at it's best, dynamic and fluid while strong and steady. The utter lack of cutesy-voice always makes me proud and the fact that aegyo is pulled off in other ways stands as an example for the rest of Kpop's cutesy girl-groups. Esna provides a deep voice, rich with sass and the smoothe vocals of Mamamoo blend  well with it. The direct comments on the male-gaze and imbalance towards chickas in the media is wonderful. The girls of Mamamoo appear in their skirts and cuteness as little more than props in ads or as part of some undervalued and supposedly frivolous aspects of life (the travel bit and the importance of loveliness 'french design'). Meanwhile, Esna appears as one of the "10 Ten Musicians", but only in a pant-suit that mimics male-attire.
           Additionally the lyrics discuss how none of the singers need anything fancy, they just need their man to man-up and be good the them. A real man should admit to liking them, and either do something about their feelings or get lost because the girls have their own shit to do. The lyrics sit beautifully within a rather simple instrumental backing, that leaves the track feeling open and airy even as there is a LOT going on rhythmically. The jazzy swing to it adds both sass and class as well as giving a firm basis for the sultry vocals to sink through and spring off of. The styling is glorious, retro chic and yet cut with contemporary lines. All of the girls look gorgeous, with varying types of femininity showing through (and I'm a sucker for a monochromatic pant-suit, the drama in them is just so much fun to play with). The representations of girls being sweetheart best friends and still strong and sassy is wonderful, particularly with the lack of homoerotic undertones being wedged inside the friendships. The bit with the shaving and the boys' lives in the girls' hands is a wonderfully poignant comment on who really rules the world. The tagline of "Respect the Girl" is one that should resonate through history, and it's perfectly suited to modern culture.
            In short, I LOVE it. It's not exactly my favorite from Mamamoo, that honor is still held by Mr Ambiguous, which I think will be hard to top no matter how much time, effort, money, etc is poured into a release. That track is just catchy and clever on an entirely different level. Perhaps because it was a brand new sound in the Kpop world, and Ahh Oop! is in a now-established vein, but honestly I could analyze both tracks to death and still come up with Mr Ambiguous as the more powerful and catchy of the two. I'll easily admit that this is a close second, though.
           I also deeply enjoy how the wonderful and dramatic eSNa rewrote the track to Ahh Shit! which is not so much a remake as it is a direct and poignant comment in the very best of musical manners. I honestly like Ahh Shit! better than Ahh Oop! because there's just so much more emotion in it, an undercurrent of resonant power that carries legitimate weight. The original is mostly sweetness and sass, the re-visioning is a stance to get behind.
          The one thing I hate is that people are calling them better than Idols because of their strength and individuality, which as you all should know by know, irks me to no end. Still, this is a great release and I love it!

           Don't get me wrong, they've got skill and I've got a few members I particularly enjoy, but SM has rarely used any of Exo's talent well and their releases are usually just plain blah. I've been waiting to review this MV in case another one came out to make it tie into the whole #pathcode thing of awesome teasers that seem to have turned out to be nothing more that promises of false hope... I might go though the #pathcode videos and explain their individual awesomeness, and why their lack of tie-in to the MV is just so disappointing, but that seems like a lot of effort considering the fact that I'd be discussing a disappointment rather than praising something I'm actually excited about... In related news, I'm regretting the fact that I waited so long to make this review because I had a beautifully summational quip about how this release is both lovely and epically disappointing at once, and now I can't recall it.
           The track itself is catchy, and quite delightful over all. It's pretty well balanced and spatialized, and it moves well as the melody progresses. There's enough variance in the lyrics to keep it interesting and yet enough consistency to make it easy to sing along to; it really is a fairly well crafted pop piece. There's no deeper meaning or underlying current of power to keep it resonating after it ends. Other than the catchiness there's nothing in it to demand attention. If I wasn't paying attention and it came on shuffle, it wouldn't be enough to register distinctly, whereas others (even others made by Exo) make you look up for a moment at pay attention.
            The styling is great, beautifully keyed in to both the settings and to the personalities presented by each member. 13 people is a lot to keep track of and despite the fans' ease with it, carefully delineating outfits are a welcome aid to casual observers. The choreography is less suited to... well anything. The movements are awkward and stilted, not because Exo is, but because the movements are too sharp to take shape and because they move outside the lyrics and too on-point to the rhythms (seriously, pausing for a beat so that a crotch-grab is an isolated on-beat occurrence seems just in bad taste). Sometimes movements that are unrelated to the rhythms or words works, but here it just feels awkward: just random whacking and hand-waving for the sake of being impressive rather than relevant. The gratuitous crotch-grabbing is just annoying, and the gratuitous hip-bump/crotch-rolls are worthy of an eye-roll. There are aspects of the choero that I do enjoy, when the members of the group are utilized as effects (I'm mostly thinking of the bit around 2:40 as the bridge rolls). Over all though, it's just there, impressive but not in a way that makes it instantly recognizable...
            Still, the over all MV is pretty good. Catchy song, gorgeous guys, neat camera tricks; it's just not enough.