IU's vocals have this lovely touch of maturity here that I haven't heard in her music before, not just in how her voice has matured, but in how she attacks the notes and carries her sound through the phrasing. It's a beautiful turn for her to take. Her past few releases have all been trying to prove that she's finally grown up, but this is the first one that's really sold it to me. More than drama, more than storytelling, more than power-vocals, her growth here is in the viable emotions her voice can carry inside of a clean performance: rather than her voice distorting to convey emotions, it simply wraps around them and carries them along through the piece, alluding to the state of grief rather than demonstrating it. All in all it's beautifully done and I'm delighted with it.

As for the video itself, it presents everything in suitable compliment to the track behind it. The desaturation meshes well with the sentiment and the progress of the plot reveal is well paced. It's rather slow for my liking, but that's a taste preference, not a real criticism. It's really well done and though there's nothing in it that's particularly catching, it's still a well-made and touching story to watch.

The MV kicks off very well, the bright member intros highlighting a sense of intimacy and high class style. The MV continues in high style, the suits and setting are classy to a T and the choreography is quirky. I'm not a huge fan of the possessiveness shown, the entitlement to the girlfriend's time (taking her away from her friends by insistence rather than enticement, and such), but it's not really enough to consider insulting. The song is smoothe and catchy and perfect background music for a classy cafe or any casual environment. The lyrics present a confusing message that directly conflicts with itself, but hardly anyone listens for the lyrics and they aren't saying anything too disgruntling. All in all it's a lovely tune and a satisfying comeback, though nothing revolutionary.

The song is sweet and smoothe, an energetic coffeshop track that casual enough to fit just about every situation. The scenario is one that is extraordinarily easy to relate to and the MV presents it in a cute and clean visual. The styling is visually pleasing, clean cut and bright and just plain lovely in general. There's nothing earth-shattering about it, but it's also not trying to be anything more than attractive and pleasant, which it easily achieves. The song is the same, nothing ground breaking, but smoothe and easy to listen to. It's asking for a moment of your time and reflection, rather than demanding your full attention and the manner in which it does so is sweetly refreshing.

The post-apocalyptic style is fabulous (definitely bridging on the end of far too common, but still, it's not yet as overly common as the straight up fake gangster).  I was genuinely excited for this debut. And it started off so well! The teasers and the first 30 seconds of the MV have SO MUCH PROMISE in them, the potential here was absolutely amazing! The 1st teaser shows off some smokin' hot bodies and some fantastic skills. It also advertises a big budget for epic editing and hella hot CG that promised to carry over into the full track and the main MV. The 2nd teaser was also exciting, being that all of the epic promise of the first teaser was built upon and filled out with unique powers, distinct features and faces and some kick-ass choreography. It was a bit worrisome, showing the post-apocalyptic wasteland poorly constructed around them with a green screen, but I was certain that it wouldn't be a major feature in the full MV. The track still sounded pretty kickin' and I was pumped to hear the whole thing.

And then the release arrived and I was thrilled. The eerie intro, the fabulous CG of crows transforming into band members, the low-pass intro building up building up as the choreography flashed to shots from the teaser. And then the lyrics dropped in... they're not bad, though the vocals need a lot of work to really be impressive (at least two of the members weren't even singing in the key that their voice suits and it sounded strained), but they're not engaging in the way I hoped they would be. The vocals are flat and the smoothe slides just sound sloppy against the gritty backdrop. And the pre-chorus jumps jarringly into a new rhythm for a measure or two before falling back into the drone-like hum of the rest of it. It's not a bad song, but it's certainly not the epic earworm that I was hoping for. It's a good enough debut track, but it's nothing that's changed the game for rookies (while it easily could have been). That's the part that rubs me so wrong... this could have been so good, incredibly good, and it's just not. It's okay.

As for the MV, the choreography is pathetic. It's beyond lazily designed. Whoever they got to choreograph this should be fired, or at least reassigned. Seriously. I don't say that very often, because it's never wise to wish someone out of a job, but this is just awful. The choreographer simply failed to do their job. These guys are SO capable ... as dancers, as martial artists, as stunt men ... and this routine is so simple that even I can do most of the moves (especially those in the chorus). And beyond that, it doesn't even look cool. I'd understand if there was camera pandering and moves designed mainly to make them look good, but this routine doesn't even do that much! It's absolutely tragic and I weep for them for having to sit quietly while it was decided on for them. Not enough time was spent showing the members individually, there wasn't enough in their styling to delineate them in the group shots, the thin excuse for a story setting is confusing at best though it holds some intoxicating potential if (by some miracle) it gets flushed out in a follow-up, and the lyrics aren't connected concretely to anything and they really have nothing to do with the visuals (which are rather inconsistent and nonsensical anyway). I like these rookies, and I'll be keeping my eye on them, but this release could have been so much more than it turned out to be...

We've seen a lot of the sexy smoothe femme fatale concept lately and I'm honestly getting pretty tired of it. (The boys have been wearing out the grungy gangster look too, so I can assure you that it's not that I have a double standard, I promise). HyoSung does it very well though, clearly. She's absolutely gorgeous and this MV pays glorious homage to her incredible body. The styling is fantastic and there's no end to the eye-candy. She's glam and gorgeous here, and everything strong and feminine. The choreography is sexy and slick and absolutely fabulous, there's glam shots for the camera but no simple pandering, plays off the lyrics without a sense of stiffness, and it's it's dynamic and engaging. It's certainly some of my favorite female choreo so far in 2014.

The track wasn't my favorite right off the bat. I appreciated the throw to the classic lullaby, but it took a few listens for me to really come to enjoy it. The energy of the track is infectious, though, and I couldn't stay frosty towards it for long. It doesn't really evolve as it goes, but there are several distinct sections that at least give the feel of ongoing progress to the track. And the bridge before the final chorus gives a sense of relative destination to the journey, so while nothing dramatically profound, it still feels complete and satisfying. Her singing skills compliment the choreography that highlights her gorgeous curves and Goodnight Kiss is a great track. It's an earworm that hearkens back to an old lullaby with so much energy that it makes you feel anything but sleepy. The fantasy elements of the video and the elegant innuendo of the lyrics add up to a fantastic release!

First off, I'm very confused about why the official English translation is G.NA's Secret... 예쁜 속옷 translates to "pretty underwear" which makes the MV make way more sense than if it really meant G.NA's secret. That's not really any sort of issue, but it does bother me. Anyway, this is not my favorite release of G.NA's. She has incredible vocal range and the sort of lung capacity and vocal power that even seasoned singers swoon over. And this song . . . really doesn't show it. And more than that, this song is just plain... bland. It's not so much generic as it is featureless. It's pretty and smoothe, but with a name like pretty lingere, you'd think there'd be something a little more distinctive about it... The vocal range is less than an an octave, and the background instrumental spread is a little less than twice that: in other words, the song is just incredibly narrow. There's zero drama in it, it sounds weak and thin and there's almost no progress or evolution. The song just doesn't really go anywhere that feels like it's worth going to. It's okay in terms of background music, but that's really what it sounds like: a lovely little non-distracting track meant to play during a kdrama montage. The lyrics have a sense of drama in them when you read them, and none of it comes through in the track.

The video too is fairly disappointing. It's pastel AND desaturated, making it look washed out and dull. The plot is thin at best and the creepy store clerk contributes nothing of value. It's just boring. I could see it coming from a rookie group, or even some of the less popular groups paired with low-budget production teams, but for G.NA . . . this is just tragic. She, and CUBE, can do legions better that this.

FT Island has a track record of blowing me away, so it really shouldn't be surprising at this point, but for some reason, it's still an epically unexpected treat for me every time they do it. This track has incredible energy and it digs into a darker, grittier realm of rock than I'm used to hearing from FTI. Most of FT Island's Japanese music fits neatly inside of Japanese expectations, and this one is no exception. It feels perfectly in sync with the Japanese rock scene, particularly the pop-rock slide that some of the VK music has been taking over the past few release seasons. It has a darker, denser tilt to it that is not FTI's norm, but the warm fullness of it is very much part of their sound. The gorgeous harmonic lines and the sweep of the power chords and bass chords and drum fills that take turns cutting seamlessly though the mix pulling the middle frequencies along to push the whole song forward evenly, while the lyrics try to charge ahead and the low end dig its claws in and chases after it. The mix sits nicely around the listener and the bpm kicks up in the chorus and it triggers an immediate, physical reaction in the listener, the tension of which is smoothely diffused in the harmonies and the transfer of energy between the main vocal line and the guitar lines as they bounce off each other. The track is just plain fabulous.

Moving on to the MV, it's a pretty dang perfect compliment to the track. It doesn't look like a typical pop-rock Japanse MV though, like Mitaiken Future did when it was released in march, with over-used CG and nothing but a green-screen to work with. Be Free looks well made and the visual style pairs well with the sound of the track playing with it. The editing mixes together the visuals of the badass scenario and the musician scenario very well, depicting how a person can feel trapped within an image or an occupation (or both) long before the glass wall comes up. It's cool because it not only depicts the struggle of someone trapped to break free, but also the struggles of people who fit into multiple categories trying to reconcile the fact that where some people delineate categories, they seek to move freely between them. There's no fantastically rich story underlying the imagery, but there are story-archetypes that allow the idea of struggle and then decision to be one's own person to be communicated with hints of deeper meaning. In many ways it can be seen to relate to Hong Ki's twitter disappearance or the struggles that FTI has faced in the Industry. I still don't know what's going on, so I'm not going to accuse anyone of anything, but by nature of being a band in Kpop, it's guaranteed that they've faced pressures no one is ever really prepared to handle.

The track is incredible, the video is gorgeous, they compliment each other perfectly, and I adore this release.

First of all, I'm super confused with the fact that out of everything that could be said to rag on this track and its MV, the thing I've seen most often is that it doesn't fit the genre of 'Urban Dance' ...  Nothing in Kpop conforms to any version of American genre delineations, so it's a criticism that I utterly have no understanding of. If anyone could care to explain, I'd love to hear it. The one valid point in the critique: the attitude, or lack thereof. It's not that Exo doesn't have the grit to pull off the aggressive vibe they seem to be going for in this, It's that a choice has been made for them not to maintain it for some reason. Parts of the choreography just break the image so completely that I have trouble taking the rest seriously. The part at 2:46 is especially jarring, cheek-poking aegyo just has NO place in this video and it irks me in no small measure that it was included. And the strange imagery in the beginning and end... it's more of the useless and unrelated (vaguely-Gothic) artsy stuff that SM included on SHINee's Everybody, just toned down slightly. It serves no purpose and contributes nothing to the song, other than member glamour shots (meaning that it could have done much better were it interspersed in the MV rather than segregated and pushed aside). My first thought was of the Maze Runner (which is getting a movie this Fall) and nothing in the MV as it stands can possibly amount to the depth of storytelling that thought made me hope for. The utter lack of story here is another matter entirely. Nothing happens in the MV, it's just so beyond generic that it hurts to see SM promoting it. Even dance MVs can have choreography that tells a story and SM has done it before, with Exo even: Growl & Wolf were both pretty awesome by choreography alone... This was just a string of strange movements thrown together for the sake of showing just how bizarre things can be, and to make people ogle at the physical prowess of the boys.  

Sure, all of it appeals to a certain sect of the fanbase, but it ensures that the appeal of this release is extraordinarily narrow. The appeal of Kpop is rather limited anyway, the visuals are rather overwhelming (the interesting fashion ideals, the choreography that is just so different than anything in the West, etc), so adding anything even more outside of Western understanding means that it'll be an impossible sell. I would never use Overdose's MV to introduce a friend to Kpop as a vein of musical exploration. It's just too... niche. There's also something really odd going on with all the sporadic zooming, and that one stab at camera-play at 2:13, it would be cool if there was any consistency to it. The idea of playing with the camera as a physical object came up in Growl, though to a different effect, and it could have been very cool here but they only do it that one time (and then set it right very shortly afterwards). It's just another element thrown in for the sake of having cool stuff thrown in rather than making the cool bits actually integral to the video as a whole. Also the degree to which the light-flashing overwhelmed everything else in the video was tragic. It was far worse than in Growl, where the background was at least bland enough to make keeping track of things a viable possibility. With all the crazy textures and colors of the various backdrops here, it was nearly impossible to actually focus on a single member or on the actual coordinational appeal of the movements in the choreography. It was all very distracting and not in a good way. Supposedly there's a drama version on the way and for Exo's sake I hope it's a much better MV than SM's been used to giving them.

(This is one of the last late reviews still in my queue, so more relevant and timely reviews are on the menu for the upcoming week!)

I've been undecided on this one since it came out. There's a point at which absurdism moves a concept too far out of touch with reality for my tastes. This is toeing that line. Block B is regaled for their crazy antics, and certainly I'd never want them to rein it in for the sake of social acceptability, but this feels more like they're purposefully pushing their own limits to excite a shock factor, and that's just not my style. Still, the MV is well pulled off, all the colors and shifting visuals are well coordinated and easily excusable due to the circus setting. The tie back to the clowns of the bank robbery in Very Good which lends the release a fantastic sense of continuity to the series of releases.

The song is okay. It matches the visual very well, pairing up thematically with the creepy circus image. It's an impressive show of their abilities, it evolves and is structurally balanced, but I can't quite accept the extent to which the sections feel dichotic... they're just so unrelated that they don't slide smoothely enough for me to enjoy listening to it casually. Unless I'm really listening to the transitions, they sound messy and too-abrupt. When I do sit down with it, the transitions are pulled off quite cleverly, but it's just not quite smoothe enough for it to tall into easy-listening. Having it on in the background is too distracting, but it's not quite enjoyable enough to make me want to set aside time to give it a solid listen. It's a delightful treat that comes up in my playlist when I'm going somewhere, walking down campus or around town or something else rather inane, because it makes the action less boring without distracting me form real work, but it's not really one I think of when looking for a fun song to play. It has pizzazz and a spark of uniqueness, but it's not my flavor.

I wasn't a huge fan of the MV the first time I saw it. I'm really just not into the overly sexualized sort of music video (please note that it's not that I think there should be like a 'clean wholesome kpop' or anything, it's just not what I'm into boys or girls). But in this case the sexiness of it is well-warranted, and it suits the song perfectly. I hate the leotard though, not conceptually, I just think that this particular leo is pretty unattractive (I mean the yellow & white one, the black one with the necklaces is awesome). All the glamour shots really ramp up the sexual tension and I think that it's really well done in this MV. I'm not a huge fan of the choreograpy for the most part. It's sexy and fabulous in some places, but in others it's kind of dull. The knee flick thing especially, it's just not what I feel the song calls for. For example, on the 'touch like that' lines, I'd have loved to see something timed to the lyrics rather than the running the hand down the arm, like hip-touch-left beat hip-touch-right beat shoulder-touch-left beat shoulder-touch-right beat...  I don't know, I just think it would have added more visceral tension. They may have been purposefully diffusing some of the tension because it is quite tense. But at the same time the hands-on-shoulders-leg-twist shown starting at 2:10 is my favorite move in the choreo, and that is way more intense that beat-matching the touches a few lines earlier... Ah, well it's still a great visual to pair with the track. And getting on to the track itself, it's one of my favorite female releases in kpop so far in 2014! It's well balanced, the vocal quality is unique and striking, the lyrics are simple, but certainly scintillating, and I enjoy how easy they are to sing along with. The harmonic underpinnings give the track tremendous energy and the whisper of the vocal melody tamps it down to make the sense of covert tension feel especially acute. I'm not terribly fond of the bridge, the 'get busy with it' bits are blah and don't really drop out from under the song in a way that allows the song to soar, but still. It's good, over all.

(I've still got a few left from the Spring Semester Queue...)

I love the track, it's been in my active playlist for months. The energy of the chords, the melodic underpinings of all the synth piano lines, the drama conveyed by the harmonics, the smoothe sass in the vocals... all of it is absolutely glorious. And the MV, visually fantastic! All the the imagery is sharp and clean and the lines of all the shots, the way the colors interact with the lighting and the scene changes, how fluid the cinematic narrative is, and the drama of the choreography and storytelling... it's all fabulous (the CG was a little odd in places but only a few brief moments, the rest of the time it added wonderfully to the vibe). The only thing I had a problem with was how the track and the MV paired up, or rather, how they simply didn't seem to ever manage the feat... The timings of the visuals were impeccable so shoddy editing is definitely not to blame. Honestly, the editing is fantastic. But even so the sight and the sound just never quite match up conceptually. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I just couldn't reconcile it.

Girls Gen has put out some absolutely fabulous tacks in the past, there's a ton of songs on their track record that are powerful and catchy and their MVs are visual spectacles often with a story or comment of great interest, or at least great drama. Mr Mr seems to be up to their usual level of excellence, but I have some reservations.

For starters, who directed this thing? It's like someone let JJ Abrams into Kpop... I'm a sucker for lens flare, but there is such a things as excess, at a certain point, it just become distracting. The timings were all beautiful but it was still an awful lot of visual shifting to sort though. And the sheer number of filters made some spots look like they'd been filmed with unintentionally low quality and it was just being covered up. And some of the shots were so beautiful the number of LQ filters layered on seemed almost criminal. It was just too much, and it really doesn't accomplish anything. The styling underneath it all is lovely but there's no where near enough clarity to give it the full appreciation it deserves. Especially the black and white dance sequences. They're jarringly out of place and I would have LOVED to see all of those outfits in full and beautifully bright color. The visible choreography, in the tiny blips of choreography showcased, is largely devoted to camera pandering which is only disappointing because SNSD can do so much better. The track itself has gotten catchier the more I've listened to it, but it took a long while. The opening and the verse and the pre-chorus are all fantastic, but the sudden short slide into the chorus took a while for me to get used to. Now that I have, I do think it sounds pretty good, even abrupt as it is, but the fact that it took me a month of listening before I stopped sighing heavily at the transition is a bit indicative of a problem. Overall the track doesn't really go anywhere the vocals are smoothed together and compressed to the point of being more or less homogeneous, and there's no drop to match the build of the beginning. It's just not terribly interesting. It's a good song and a good MV, but with SNSD, I demand greatness. 

Yes, I'm still going through my old queue. What can I say? February was a rough month for me and it just didn't get any easier as the semester rolled onwards... It's especially tragic because there was a lot of good stuff in February. AlphaBAT's release here is yet another example. AlphaBAT is another one of those bands that faced major obstacles with being taken seriously long before they actually debuted. Their debut didn't improve their odds of making a solid stake from themselves in the industry. They had talent, they just had one of the worst initial concepts I have ever seen. Tantara isn't anything revolutionary, but it's catchy as hell and a visual treat. The warehouse thing and all of the styling have become Kpop's grunge cliche, but at the same time it got popular for a reason: it looks good. And AlphaBAT add a particular spice to it all, the sort of attitude that many bands going for the grunged-up-gangster thing can only dream of. The riot batons do contribute to that, it's easy to feel safe behind a weapon, but at the same time, it's also easy to drop a weapon so the fact that these guys pull off the prop is all them. And they do it very well. The choreography works the prop into the fabric of the dance to fabulous effect. The choreography itself is tight and clean and while nothing innately remarkable, the prop adds interest to the rather generic moves, especially when the lights go out and the flashlights turn on. The choreography is still pretty unspectacular, but it's visually pleasing and very cleanly executed. Now the song itself is also nothing unbelievable. But there's elements of dance and trance that give it an underscore of energy and a nice droningly clam overtone. I've had it on in the background while I've written more than a dozen essays this semester and I've definitely felt that it's helped. It's nothing special per se, but there's still something about it that I find particularly enjoyable.