At first listen this song is actually really creepy... It's a very hush hush sort of romance, the sort of hush hush that boarders on unhealthy (a thought that resonated with me seeing as this MV was released within a few weeks of History's Might Just Die...). Seriously, the lyrics involve a secret trip to a guy's house, a guy the girl has only just met... There's a lot of assumption on the male narrator's part, and a lot of demands... Particularly the "I'll meet you around the corner and far away from witnesses in ten minutes" thing caught in my mind as creepy... Like serial killer levels of creepy... But honestly a closer look at the lyrics, and an understanding of the fairy tale roots of the story, make things a lot better. It IS kind of creepy, but he's a magical creature trying to lure away his prey, so it's SUPPOSED to be creepy.
              The set  aesthetics are gorgeous, very elegant and fantastical. All the delightful throws to fairy tale lore fit neatly in place within the gorgeous setting, and the camera's movements are all fabulously engaging. I particularly adore the slide of Junsu's entrance at :53. I think some of the styling is a little wonky, but these guys manage to pull it off for the most part (Nichkhun's flesh-colored shirt is pretty iffy). I'm not a huge fan of the choreography over all, but it's big and expressive and quite engaging. The track on it's own it fantastic, absolutely delightful. The beat is relaxed and overtly casual, but there's a powerful zing of energy to it, like a fantastic beast biding its time before a sudden pounce. The intro is a slow vamp of energy, the repetitions serving to ramp up the intensity of the rhythmic elements, in a slow, methodical crank of energy, especially considering that the second go of each grouping has more syllables that the last ( 그래 becomes 안그래 and such). The chorus swings into place with a smoothe slide of panache. Over all it's well spatialized, delightfully mixed, all the voices and instrumental bits ring though in perfectly timed moments of cool intensity tinged with the heat of seduction and the chill of resistance and artfulness.

           At first I wrote this off because the MV was... well kinda gross, quite frankly. I'm still not the biggest fan of the ridiculous objectification, gawking, desire to be possessive of the female body, thing, but there's other elements that I decidedly enjoy, and the fact that the track is just unbelievably kickin' means I've watched this MV like a thousand times at this point and it's therefore more or less criminal for me to avoid reviewing it. I don't have too much to say on the matter, just that it's a shame the MV's so... over the top. In some ways that's what makes it almost excusable, there's an element of parody here. There's also the advocating for safe-sex aspect, and the fact that it represents women of multiple skin-types as all equally sexy. All in all the MV is not my favorite but the track is incredible. Honestly, the feature rap section is just a bit too long for my tastes, but still it gives the rest balance and an enjoyably dynamic contrast. The undertow of epic synth energy pulls the whole track forward and the light bounce of the lyrics moves over it with a sassy slide of confidence that steps well into arrogance but somehow stays appealing. It's spatialized perfectly and the bounce of beats between the ears makes the whole thing even more ecstatically energized. The transitions are smooth and the timings flawlessly poignant. It's pretty dang epic.

          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.

           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.

          Miss A has had a career of absolutely incredible, industry redefining hits and this is not one of them. With the phenomenal "Hush" having been their last release, the standard they'd set up was impossible to live up to and it's no surprise that "Only You" isn't as good. That is not to say that this release isn't good on it's own merit, because the case is quite the opposite. "Only You" works off a bouncy energy with a unique undercurrent of energy that blends an upbeat smoothe melodic-pop track with a sort of Trap-twist framework, very synthy bright and yet flavored with the grittier edge of digital instrument music (without falling prey to the current standardized fallback of rap/hip-hop). The MV itself is full of gorgeous styling on gorgeous girls and interesting camera tricks that perfectly balance out the audio quirks. I'm a sucker form the pink outfits, the color gives the girls an edge of sweetness while the sharp lines of the actual clothing articles ensures that none of the classical Miss A attitude is lost.
          Over all, I really do like it. Even though it's still not nearly as good as "Hush".
          (Also, the 'screaming man' is a consonance trick. It connects the upbeat pop-push with the trap sections by creating a disruption point that is common to both sections. It begins about 2 seconds before every trap section ends and goes about 3-4 seconds into the pop-sections before your brain can't keep track of it anymore, it's there again in the transition back to trap for about half the time).

        Though, I'm not exactly sure what I apparently was hoping for, because this is pretty dang flawless. Sweet shisus the styling is good, sexy and sensual and yet not just skin-showing (though there's definitely a lot of skin, it's all shown as a secondary sex-factor. Honestly, the hair-porn in this MV is the main feature of sexiness in my opinion.) As for the choreography, there were a few moves I could have done without: the slide on the floor was just a bit too, yeah, but even that was actually utilized quite tastefully. The rest of it is absolutely gorgeous: I love how well they made use of all four of them in most of the shot, showing off different angles and making use of their even number of members to create great mirror shots.
        I also love how all the visuals tie in together, the drip of Min's shower scene bleeds into Fei's flooded domestic setting, Fei on her chair as mimicking Suzy sitting on the train, and Suzy's flickering light and candy, linking to Jia's supermarket scene. We move from the intensely private sphere of the shower to the utterly public sector of the store as we follow the MV's progression and the micro/macro-scale comparison is beautiful. I also really like how it sticks to having each member sing inside her own set, the one she was first introduced in. And it's just gorgeous how these set-ups allude to various insecurities: Min as vulnerable, in a place where it's supposedly safe to bare her soul and yet not bare (honestly I think the fact that she's not naked, and therefore symbolically still has her secrets, makes a more powerful statement of insecurity than if she were actually naked; it's like saying that she can't bare everything out, even if she genuinely wanted to); Fei as drowning in domesticity, the pressures of simply being happy and normal as things that can feel utterly unbearable at certain moments; Suzy as the little girl lost and alone and feeling like she's only pretending to be a grown-up (I know a TON of people feeling this sort of angst at the moment, college is a crazy place to try to find yourself in); and Jia as the utterly objectified, the sex-symbol left forgotten in the store after all the goods have been ransacked (this could be a metaphor saying either that after sex {the store's ransacking} she's nothing but a decoration, or that in a disaster that would result in food being stolen, she doesn't count as something vital enough to be taken. Both are legitimate fears, similar and yet ever so slightly, and importantly, different).
        I think it's fantastically interesting that instead of using the video's plot to hold a straightforward "put insecurities on display and then dispel them" sort of storyline, the video goes into an idea of something almost entirely unrelated. The blatant sexual desires of the narrator sort of address the insecurity issues, being that she is a fully human creature, a grown woman with wants and needs and therefore also fears. These fears of being made into something less than a fully competent and independent entity are only addressed by means of a slant in world-view, as a mature and competent independent woman who knows her body and desires, it would suggest that she has nothing to fear in her insecurities. But interestingly, it also opens up the idea that both the confidence and the fears can exist at exactly the same moment as different layers, often overlapping layers as well, in the complex creature that is the human female. This idea is added to by the fact that the title font for Hush is a ripple on water that never fully levels out, it's a surface eternally worried and marked by some invisible past event that settled below the surface; she is both perfectly fine and also forever changed. It's a statement that's unfortunately rare in most spheres of pop-culture. I like it.
        And then there's the track itself. Sweet Shisus it's gorgeous! The build is incredible. The acoustic start, the tense, whispery beginning feeling deeply of secrets being told or kept and fears being tamped down or wants being confessed to . . . the clear vocals and the distorted rebound of the delay as it travels ear to ear with expert panning controlled to elicit anxiety . . . the sly addition of the sub-bass beat level making everything stretch just a little bit further, like it's someone pushing boundaries or reaching out for something vital and intangible . . . Aigoo, it makes an audiophile squirm with glee. I LOVE it.
        All in all, this is easily one of the sexiest releases of the year, particularly by a girl group. I love the unflinching honesty in it, the daring to go a little grunge without going gangster . . . It might even be my favorite female comeback of 2013; it's at least in the running for it!

The clock element is great, the sound plays into the lower harmonics of the song fantastically and the visceral response that most people have to the sound sound of a ticking clock generates instant tension. It makes for a great intro and a dramatic start to the song and the story, especially with the wind-up.

The choreography is absolutely gorgeous, very sexy, very allusive to bedroom pursuits, and yet it manages to avoid the cliche crassness that a lot of sexy-concept dances fall into. The movements show off SunMi's fabulous flexibility in addition to her fabulous figure. And I LOVE how the guys also have the intricate hand-motions in their choreography. A lot of people think it looks girly, but I think that's a stupid stereotype because these guys look awesome and I'd love to see more guys take one the delicate, gymnastic, air of movement in their dances. Also, Ballet and Tango and all sorts of other 'feminine' dances are seriously under-utilized, they look awesome when used well and Kpop choreographers have the skill to use them well..

The styling is great. The stripped leo is first of all just gorgeous, and it also shows off her body and her exceptional legs perfectly without making it feel too over the top, particularly as a lot of the choreography's movement have links to gymnastics. The men's dress shirt segments are also gorgeous. First of all, I like the look of a girl wearing an oversized men's dress shirt, I think it just looks cool, but beyond that it also ties closely into the song's meaning. I was concerned by the teasers in regards to the washed-out hair-color, but honestly it works here. First of all SunMi is gorgeous and can pull off just about anything, but really, the washed-out hair-color just works here, thematically speaking. The song is about there not being enough hours in the day when the lovers are together, and the hair color's lack of up-keep shows an acute side effect of not having enough hours to do everything that ought to get done.

The settings are all fabulous, the curtains are fantastic and make for a subtle contrast to the striped leo (the outfit being horizontal stripes and the curtains forming pseudo-vertical ones, and the rain scene plays into the over all color scheme beautifully. The camera tricks are all very well done, particularly the playing with time in the slo-mos and reversals, and the speedy-shot segments (though frankly if they hadn't played with time in this MV it would have been a massive error). My favorite camera-trick is the scene at about 1:42, where the "horizontal on the bed" position is compared to the "vertical in choreography" position and the image flicks back and forth between the two. It's disorienting in all the right ways.

Tack-wise, the song is nicely intense. The Bridge feels a bit jarring, and rather extraneous, but the visual during that part is really quite awesome, so I wouldn't recommend a removal, at least from the video version. The song really doesn't evolve much, it never takes the listener anywhere, but in some ways that does work with the lyrics. I think it could have been made to move better, but it's a fairly well balanced track with a good, if simple, structure: over all it's a great dance track with a lovely sound for the genre.

Hard-core Hottest I am not, most of 2PM's stuff just isn't my style, but HOT DAMN I've been watching this over and over (and listening to it on repeat) for almost a month.

The Choreo is just glorious, angsty and hot and yet still strong, powerful, and hyper-masculine. In case you're wondering why the hand thing is so sexy {I've seen the comment going around}, it's called protectionism and in this case it's got a few layers: the hand's placement is that socially naturalized to be the placement of a partner's, typically one asking for sex, they're projecting a girl into their space and the 'you' of the lyrics plus the way they stare straight at the camera leads the audience to project themselves into the empty space that lacks the partner they're imagining. (Isn't psychology fun?)

The MV is simple and oh-so sexy, and very well put together. B&W for classic style, a stage for the idea of persona and acting one way while thinking another, steamy yet still innocent cuts... the transition timing is just fabulous and DAMN do they look GOOD. ^_~ All it's lacking is a fully cinematic story, and honestly I don't think it really needs one.

And the song itself is beautiful; a powerful, energized, lament that's angsty and romantic at the same time. The interplay of styles from the different instrumental features gives it this great, distinctive flavor that gets more and more intense as the song progresses (particularly in the distance between the highest note and the lowest note heard in a given phrase). It's fantastic! Hands-down my favorite 2PM mv!