Trouble Maker - Chemistry (Music Review)

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.