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Jang Hyunseung - Ma First (MV Review)

5/13/2015

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Catchy, but a bit Confusing...

          HyunSeung has long been one of my very favorite human beings in show business, dating back to his time as a potential member of Big Bang. His work with BEAST and as a part of Trouble Maker has been fantastic, so I was totally hyped for his Solo. I wasn't disappointed. The track is hella catchy, the music video's styling is gorgeous, the choreo's killer... right up front there's so much awesomeness that I didn't know where to start when dissecting it. So I just watched it again, and then again, just to drink in the colors and the chic style. 
        That's when things began to get a bit iffy. The chorus is catchy, but it's really simple. That's not necessarily a negative, but the simplicity of the chorus allowed me to focus on they lyrics and more importantly on their translation. The first thing that confused me is the fact that 처음이야 translates to 'being first' but not as in 1st Place, instead it means something more like 1st Crush. Which I guess is applicable, based on the overly devoted reaction and the day-dreaming histrionics in the rest of the song, but personally I found the phrasing to lend itself to a different meaning: rather than "you're the first girl I've ever had a crush on" it seems more like the lyrics want to say "you're first among all women, best of the best", but I'm pretty sure the word for that kind of first is 먼저이야... That could just be my inexperience in Korea with either winning things or with being anyone's first, but it still confused me. Again, that could just be me.
          There were a few other things that confused me about the release, this time though it was the MV that was confusing. The order of events is really unclear and I couldn't really tell what was a dream and what was really happening... My final interpretation is that NOTHING actually happened. The suave slick style of the flirty HyunSeung seems to me more of an idealized sort of imaginary play-by-play, something like a shower scenario where you rehearse what you're going to say to the pretty girl that, in reality, you're never actually going to talk to. The psychosis HyunSeung displays in his apartment (the writing on the walls, the erratic behavior, the crazy hair) seems to support that theory. Nothing at all that happens in HyunSeung's apartment is plausibly real, other than the fact that he's going more than a bit crazy. It is possible, I suppose, that it's all real, since the girl appears in his apartment at the end, seemingly wearing the shirt he wore to the club, but its much more likely that none of it's real. The fact that HyunSeung wants her so much makes it more plausible that he doesn't get her.
           The choreo is powerful and impressive. It's not my favorite aesthetic, but it's suitable for the vibe that the sets and styling provide. The fact that it's full of abrupt and jarring movements plays off the confusion in the rest of the MV as well as with the sharp spins in the track. As for the track itself, the beat is energetic and HyunSeung's smooth vocals slide through the mix with an edgy attitude that's as catching as the track. If you can listen to this  as you walk and not strut down the street, I'd be impressed. Giriboy's rap is an addition I didn't initially like (simply because I always love when JunHyung helps out his bandmates) but having seen JunHyung get a LOT of focus in 2014 for being just a bit too omnipresent in Beast's releases and in those of other bands... it was nice to see HyungSeung on his own with a rapper from a different source providing the necessary featured appearance.
            Over all I really do enjoy this release. The chorus does become a bit grating after a dozen listens right in a row, but still, over all, it's a fabulous track. The MV is pretty awesome too, being aesthetically gorgeous and deeply interesting in terms of story lines. Also, HyunSeung was adorable in the BTS reel.

I Give it an 8/10: Fabulous!

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Trouble Maker - Chemistry (Music Review)

11/22/2013

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NOTES: So the MV's being criticized as having copied Rihana's and I can completely see where it's coming from, but at the same time, We Found Love is a terrible song, so I don't mind at all that Trouble Maker took the idea and made it a million times better. It's sweet and sexy and daringly sensual in all the ways that Trouble Maker is meant to be. The draws on the Dark Knight are also quite fabulous. My only comment on the whole of it is that HyunSeung looks way too skinny, like dangerously, scarily, skinny. Hyuna looks skinny too, but not quite to the extent that HyunSeung does... They've both looked better in Lives than in the MVs so, I'm hoping that it was a diet to get into character as half-dead-druggies, because that's what they looked like . . .

Top Track: I Like

Final Score: 7.5/10


Overall, this EP isn't quite what I'd hoped for, but it proves the rule that one great track can make up for several lack-luster ones. The title track is lovely and the final track is absolutely fabulous, and Attention fun. It's not what I expected from Trouble Maker, but I'm not disappointed.



Also, the choreography is fabulous: Sexy, Smoothe, and Straight-up Scandalous in all the right ways.
(not to mention the fact that these two sexy idiots, and really the whole of their ridiculous crew, are just down-right adorable...)

Promotional Track:

Now definitely doesn't have the same sort of aggressively catchy hook as Trouble Maker, but it doesn't fall too short of the mark. It has a beautifully smoothe melody, though I wouldn't be able to recognize it on shuffle quite as quickly as I can their first title. It moves really well, and over all, I actually like it better than their first. The melodic lines suit their voices fabulously and mix them beautifully; I particularly love how Hyuna holds the lower line for a lot of it, the exact reversal of most co-ed duos. It finishes off with a nice echo as well.

I Give it an 8/10: Fabulous!

Additional Tracks:

Turn Up the Volume, like a lot of the tracks on Chemistry, surprised me. It's very chill, laid back in a way that I was not expecting Trouble Maker to promote. I like the track's sound, it moves nicely over the beat, and the spatialization is interesting (being that only HyunSeung's line had a choral effect layered in and Hyuna's was made to sound incredibly sharp and clear). No real build though, or energy or power; it's still lovely, but it not amazing.
The Girl Who Wants to Play also came as something of a surprise, less so than Turn Up the Volume, but still. HyunSeung's last Trouble Maker solo is leagues above this one. Amurut was easily one of last year's best songs. In comparison, this one is nothing much to get excited about. On it's own, it's rather lovely, a nice chill track with fabulous rhythms and fantastic spatialization. It's really quite lovely, but it just doesn't have the power of Amurut.
    Also, there's something distinctly awkward about having a song on a duo's special unit album be a 'solo' for one of the duo that features the other... I enjoy that Hyuna wrote the lyrics and helped with the composition, but it still felt really weird having her on the 'solo' track with Hyunseung when it could have just been another track listed as a Trouble Maker duet.
Attention is another interesting track, of the duets, it's the one that feels most organically Trouble Maker to me. There's the unapologetic aggression, the confidence to make a target swoon, and of course the sexy-slick sax. As a track it's tremendous fun. There's no real build and it doesn't feel much like it goes anywhere as it progresses, and the lyrics are pretty empty on their best day, but it's a great party track; sassy and sexy and just plain fun.
I Like is easily the best track on the EP. I was quite surprised to see Flowsik featured: as a Special Unit, it feels to me like Trouble Maker's tracks should essentially be just Trouble Maker. Having an outside come in on a Unit group . . . it just feels strange. At the same time, Flowsik and Hyuna are quite the epic pair (honestly the way their voices mesh and mix and meld through the music almost overshadows the Trouble Maker pair). I can feel a lot of Flow's Aziatix background in the track, the under layers of independent energy and vibrancy (It makes me think of Say Yeah, most distinctly, the unapologetic fun of going crazy). I also feel the sexy-smoothe side of Hyuna's Trouble Maker aura coming through strongly in the delightfully melodic sighs that make gorgeous sliding leaps between pitches. It's panned beautifully and has a steady build and a decent drop, so I am quite pleased with it.

I Give them a 7/10: Me Gusta.
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Beast - Hard to Love, How to Love (Music Review)

7/24/2013

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Notes: This release was a cool genre expansion for them, but I thought it felt a bit unbalanced to me, JunHyung had a LOT of lines, not that I really have problem with it. I would love to hear Hyunseung rap though, like really rap, and Yoseob too possibly with bouncing call & response lines to help them keep rhythm with JunHyung like YooChun & JaeJoong had in Been so Long...

Top Track: Intro & Encore

Top Track Notes: I like it best when it's hard to choose. I picked two this time because Intro's only a minute and a half so I'm calling it a partial song. The next on my list is easily How to Love and then I'm Sorry. Over all, a great release.

Final Score: 8.5/10

Promotional Track:

Shadow is a solid track. There's an impressive use of harmony, elegant counterpoint. The melody sits high in the listener's awareness but the fill supports it well and the gritty beat keeps everything grounded. Rhythmically it slides along with a sort of smoothe regularity that's broken up by decorations that compound and lead the song to develop well. It's fluid and incredibly catchy, as expected from these fabulous guys. Haunting and beautiful and yet still it's still just a fun track to have playing at a party.

I give it an 8/10: Fabulous!

Other tracks:

Intro has a sweet multi-dimensional beat. It's beautifully spatialized and the chant-vocals contrast nicely with the rap. The rhythms develop energetically, and the dedication is just lovely. Bad ass Gregorian monks meet SPN & Buffy at Boys in the Hood. I feel like a cherished little princess and a kick ass evil sorceress / demon slayer at the same time.
How to Love is soft and sweet. I like the pseudo raps Yoseob and DooJoon had with JunHyung double-tracked for support and actually I just love the double-tracked-other-voices in general. Sometimes it's support (as in the raps) and others it's for harmonic interest and it really works well. The oohs in the bridge slows it all down without putting the breaks on the melody. It all just flows together in a smoothe & polished track.
Be Alright starts off very refreshingly. It then slides right into the synth-heavy R&B Beast does oh so well. Again, the double-tracking and the harmonic decorations are layered in fantastically. It makes the singer-transitions seamless. Lyrically this one doesn't evolve as well as the others, but it's catchy as hell and you can sing along by the second chorus.
I'm Sorry was not my favorite as a single. I think mainly it just wasn't what I was expecting. I took a while to warm up to Beautiful Night when that came out of the blue too, and that's one of my favorite songs from last year. This one has already started to grow on me. It feels very summertime chill, late night poolside in a fancy resort with a broken heart and a sweet cabana boy willing to open up some liquid courage, after hours and free of charge (I'm aware that it has next to nothing to do with the lyrics, but I'm a writer and that is the fic I would put to this). Track wise it's not exceptional, but it is constructed well and it has significant harmonic interest, & like all Beast songs worth talking about (which is quite frankly almost all of them), it has a great sense of space and energy.
Will You Be Alright  kept up the cabana boy idea in my head. Maybe I just really need a vacation, preferably with Beast on a beach in the middle of nowhere, but that's really what is sounds like to me. A little country-western twang was thrown in under the main melody too, some of the guitar decorations are very country. The track isn't incredible, but it's nice relaxing music that is melodically interesting enough to really listen to. I would not be surprised to hear it in a drama OST.
You're Bad initially reminded me of an acoustic-rock Fiction, but that only lasted a few seconds. The stretch in the chorus contracts nicely into the second verse and the rap bounces in with cool flair and out with the same smoothe swag. The bridge feels like it slows down, using the same trick from How to Love but the drums here bring up the energy before it settles.
Encore wraps it all up with spark and sass. It's great fun and energetic, the high synths bounce through it and the mid-line vocals just float. The lower lines fill it out and mesh harmonically with the high trills and the bass is just fabulous. The one thing is . . . someone should have told them that Encore is a French word and instead of pronouncing it 'An-core' it's 'On-core'. Usually the Engrish doesn't bother me, but this one kinda does for some reason. *shrugs*

I give them a 9/10: Blissful!
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Beast - Shadow (MV Review)

7/21/2013

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Mysterious in almost the right ways . . .

        I had two thoughts the first time I watched this: that I like it, and that I don't like it as much as I hoped I would.
        It's a solid release, but I'm not as in love with it as I am with some Beast songs. To me, Shadow looks too much like Soom but doesn't have the sharp-lined contrasts or the visual richness of the 2010 release. It also reminds me of Midnight, but I wasn't a huge fan of that release either. Shadow's set is much nicer than Soom's (or Midnight's for that matter), but there are definitely similarities, which makes me long for the spark that Soom has and Shadow does not. Especially in terms of choreography, where Soom's choreography was dramatic and eye-catching, instantly recognizable, Shadow's choreography is just kind of there. It's not the spectacle that it usually is in Beast releases and it definitely does have the attention grabbing impact it should, especially in a release without an active narrative. I mean really, Beast had epic choreography even in the Beautiful / I Like You Best promotions, and those MVs have a massively complicated, active plotline. Even Beautiful Night  had some slick moves. Now I haven't seen Shadow Live yet, but there's not much in the video to indicate that the live-choreography is going to be epic. There's a few snippets of interesting choreography, but nothing with the sort of show-stopping appeal or memorable pizzazz of most of Beast's past releases.
        Now, that's not to say Shadow isn't still cool. I love the tattoo/body-paint guy and the mirror-image split screens, particularly how they don't quite match up in certain places. Conceptually it's very cool and in a lot of ways, it pulls it off very well. There's drama in the set, the scale of things feels very grand and enveloping. The only visual aspect I have a problem with (aside from the choreography) is the lack of color. Shadow's desaturation is thematic, but it really drains away a lot of the visual interest when the desaturation is spread so evenly. I'd have liked it better it there was a balance, some scenes in the story being dark and drained of color, and some scenes being bright enough to give the darkened scenes some punch.
        Song-wise, Shadow is a very solid release. There's an impressive use of harmony, elegant counterpoint. The melody sits high in the listener's awareness but the smoothe synth and piano fill supports it well and the gritty beat keeps everything grounded. Rhythmically it slides along with a sort of smoothe regularity that's broken up by decorations that compound and lead the song to develop well. Over all, I really like the song, the MV too even.

I give it a 7/10: Me gusta!

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