Vivid
June 6, 2008 at 10:51 pm | In BoA | 1 CommentTags: 2008, BoA, Joyful Smile, Kissing You, single, Sparkling, Vivid
- Kissing You
- Sparkling
- Joyful Smile
- Kissing You (instrumental)
- Sparkling (instrumental)
- Joyful Smile (instrumental)
If you’ve payed any attention to my album reviews, you’ll probably have realised that I love sugary-borderline-cheesy pop and hate it when a ballad ends an album. Kissing You is a happy, sugary song so you can expect me to enjoy it a lot. BoA’s voice suits this song perfectly and the instrumentation is pretty odd, in a good way, there’s irregular percussion and Mario type ‘bop‘ sounds here and there, which makes the instrumental pretty interesting to listen to. Kissing You is a very sweet, bouncy track with just enough unusual elements and ideas to make it far more substantial than generic sugary pop song.
Track Rating; A-
Sparkling follows Kissing You by slowing down the intro and letting BoA put in a great vocal. When the music speeds up and BoA doesn’t it reminds me very much of Steps, which is an odd flashback I’ll tell you. I love the chorus, it just feels pretty and the English lyrics are great. ‘Every me, Every you‘ while being a little bit cheesy, and entirely non-sensical, just works somehow. I think Sparkling is my favourite out of all the tracks on Vivid.
Track Rating; A
Joyful Smile starts with a great clap+guitar combination before introducing a steady drum beat. Joyful Smile is a little less energetic and slightly less sugary than the previous two tracks and doesn’t really hold my interest as much as most of the track is just clap+guitar with a little bit of a drum beat. It’s good, just has a bit less to offer than Kissing You and Sparkling.
Track Rating; B
Single Rating; A-
P.S; An entire single of happy, sugary, semi-cheesy pop songs? Get in!
So Hot
June 6, 2008 at 6:59 pm | In Wonder Girls | 1 CommentTags: 2008, single, So Hot, Wonder Girls
- So Hot
- This Time
- You’re Out
- Tell Me (Rap Version)
I liked the Wonder Girls from the first time I heard of them, Tell Me was too addictive to ignore and I loved the album. I am one of the most impatient people in the world and I hate waiting for new releases but I wasn’t disappointed. So Hot, if you pay no attention to the lyrics, is your basic Pop”R’n'B” track, the background music is shallow, relentless and doesn’t change much through the whole song. Still, there’s something about it that has an addictive quality, but in a different way to Tell Me. Listen to it and you’ll know what I mean, and afterwards go look at the lyrics… If you are like me and don’t understand Korean any further than ‘Saranghae’ without a translation, the humour in the track would go completely over your head. I was clever enough to watch the subbed video first so I could appreciate that right from the off.
Track Rating; A
This Time is a general “R’n'B” ballad affair. Good beat, generally good vocals but it lacks the impact of some of the ballad-type songs they’ve done. There’s a great pace and tone in the chorus and it’s definitely worthy of a few good listens, but it’s not quite my style.
Track Rating; B
You’re Out would not have been out of place on The Wonder Years. It reminds me a lot of songs like Headache and Bad Boy. Playing up the 80’s influence has worked for them all along though, so it’s not a surprise that it’s worked again! The bare arrangement focuses the song very well, paying more attention to the vocals and Yoobin’s rap, while short, works very well in this environment.
Track Rating; B+/A-
And finally the Rap Version of Tell Me. I like this version, even though the only difference is the inclusion of Yoobin’s rap section that wasn’t in the album version. If you want to see what I think of Tell Me check out my previous review of their album, I don’t wanna be repeating myself.
Track Rating; A*
Single Rating; A+
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