My Leader & My Leadja in one mV . . . *swoons*
SS501 was one of my very first kpop loves, so Leader has a special place in my heart. And Jay, as an American, a nice guy, and an acquaintance of my ex-room-mate, also has a special spot. So clearly, I am biased when going at this one, but even so, I can review it objectively (after all, I'm a firm believer in the idea that liking something and thinking that it's genuinely good have absolutely nothing to do with one another). So with that said, this is a great release.
The song is just more than mediocre, technically speaking. It's catchy as hell and I love it, great work out material and great to just listen to, it makes you feel strong and powerful and truly unbreakable. The beat is strong and fabulous, and the melody moves over it very well, giving a great illusion of space. Any song a SS501 member touches always has a great sense of scale and grandeur, so it's no surprise. But the song's construction is pretty simple, three sections that repeat, minimal growth and build, very little panning. It does play in thematically, being that the song's pretty much about being beat on over and over again and yet being entirely unbreakable. The melody moves along beautifully, but there's very little evolution. However there is tremendous harmonic interest and counterpoint contrast to make it swing out in grand sweeping gestures of sound. I enjoy it greatly.
Jay's vocals play well with HyunJoong's and all is well with the world.
The music video is fabulous. I LOVE the way in which tradition is shown right alongside the cutting edge. It's all the idea of the warrior and strength from past to present and on, how Awesome doesn't have a time frame or a life expectancy. Awesome just IS. The Arts are all integrated and wonderfully so, the painting, the drumming, the martial arts, the dancing, the singing, the rapping, it's all woven together in a beautiful stitch of EPIC. I'm not a fan of the almost military haircut on Leader, it looks really odd to me. The choreography works pretty well with the nature of the MV, there's nothing particularly special about it on it's own, but the fight-style of it makes it link up fantastically with the sword-play and whatnot. Besides, Leader looks awesome doing it. The sets are are really cool, and the props and stylings. The red-black-white color-scheme makes me happy because it's awesome on a lot of different levels, a trinity of colors that goes back centuries and has permeated through almost every culture on earth at least once in the course of history. Besides, it just looks cool. Like the red-light rain scene, that just looks awesome. It could also be an allusion to the red light district, being that there's a general assumption that a-rate unbreakable bad-asses hang out there. The use of time scales (the slow-mo and sped-up parts in contrast to the real-time portions) is fantastic, every transition is well timed and thematically linked to both the visual and the audio presented.
I highly approve!
The song is just more than mediocre, technically speaking. It's catchy as hell and I love it, great work out material and great to just listen to, it makes you feel strong and powerful and truly unbreakable. The beat is strong and fabulous, and the melody moves over it very well, giving a great illusion of space. Any song a SS501 member touches always has a great sense of scale and grandeur, so it's no surprise. But the song's construction is pretty simple, three sections that repeat, minimal growth and build, very little panning. It does play in thematically, being that the song's pretty much about being beat on over and over again and yet being entirely unbreakable. The melody moves along beautifully, but there's very little evolution. However there is tremendous harmonic interest and counterpoint contrast to make it swing out in grand sweeping gestures of sound. I enjoy it greatly.
Jay's vocals play well with HyunJoong's and all is well with the world.
The music video is fabulous. I LOVE the way in which tradition is shown right alongside the cutting edge. It's all the idea of the warrior and strength from past to present and on, how Awesome doesn't have a time frame or a life expectancy. Awesome just IS. The Arts are all integrated and wonderfully so, the painting, the drumming, the martial arts, the dancing, the singing, the rapping, it's all woven together in a beautiful stitch of EPIC. I'm not a fan of the almost military haircut on Leader, it looks really odd to me. The choreography works pretty well with the nature of the MV, there's nothing particularly special about it on it's own, but the fight-style of it makes it link up fantastically with the sword-play and whatnot. Besides, Leader looks awesome doing it. The sets are are really cool, and the props and stylings. The red-black-white color-scheme makes me happy because it's awesome on a lot of different levels, a trinity of colors that goes back centuries and has permeated through almost every culture on earth at least once in the course of history. Besides, it just looks cool. Like the red-light rain scene, that just looks awesome. It could also be an allusion to the red light district, being that there's a general assumption that a-rate unbreakable bad-asses hang out there. The use of time scales (the slow-mo and sped-up parts in contrast to the real-time portions) is fantastic, every transition is well timed and thematically linked to both the visual and the audio presented.
I highly approve!
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