GO WATCH THIS. WATCH IT NOW. NO, DON’T EVEN BOTHER TO READ MY POST – JUST WATCH IT. IT’S AMAZING, IT’S INCREDIBLE, IT’S FANTASTIC. I’ve never been one for Jonghyun and Onew’s duets, in fact, I wasn’t even planning to watch this, then I heard some folks talking about it and I said, “Okay, I’ll check it out”. And I’m so glad I did because THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE. WATCH IT NOW!
Maki
It seems like every time I come home with a post in mind, there’s some SHINee news to distract me. This time it’s the tracks from their repackaged album and their new iple pictures. I mean, they’re so great how can I not post about them?
For now, I’m just going to talk about the only new, new, brand new song on the album, Forever or Never. (Since Ah.Mi.Go’s been out for a few days, I’m not counting it anymore.) On to the review…you know it’s becoming apparent that SME is determined not to let SHINee get stuck in a rut. They’re just like “No, we don’t want them to be known for a particular genre of music, we want people to know they can do anything”. They’re really serious about this ‘contemporary’ label and these new songs are definitely showing that. I mean, this song sounds nothing like their other songs. On my first listen, I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing because it just sounds so different. Then I listened to it again to see what I actually thought of it after I got over my initial shock and…I love it. I love the way they sing it, I love the simplicity of the song, I love the beat, I love the chorus, I love the rap, I even like the synthesizer – which is shocking because I usually hate it when they do any sort of digitalizing to the boys’ voices – but it’s amazing. It sounds really, really good. It’s something I would never have expected from them and something I honestly wouldn’t have thought they could pull off but they did. They always do. This isn’t like Ah.Mi.Go where I needed a few hours to warm up to it – two listens and that was it, I’m hooked. I can’t even talk about the remix of ‘Love Should Go On’ because I’ve only listened to it once and I barely paid attention then because I was too busy trying to figure out ‘Forever or Never’. So yeah, I think it’s a good song – I suggest you check it out.
Oh, and might I add that this song has totally rekindled my love for Jonghyun’s voice. I mean, I never stopped loving it but I think I forgot just how much I did. Like I got so used to listening to it in their album songs that I stopped appreciating JUST HOW AMAZING IT IS. Because it is amazing. Seriously. I can’t even….
edit: Oh, and I didn’t really want to mention this but you’ll probably find out anyway – ‘Forever or Never’ is a remake from a German band’s song – can’t remember their name. I seriously wanted to throw something at the bigwigs over at SME when I found out after I dropped off my ginormous gift basket as a thank you for making SHINee. Why do they keep giving SHINee remakes to sing?! I’m pretty sure that SHINee’s the only SM artists to get this many remakes in one go. Seriously, why won’t they take the time out to give them original songs? The thing is the remakes don’t really bother me – but I know that things like that just add fuel to the haters’ fire. When you do stuff like that, you take away from the group’s credibility. And in addition to that, the boys are better than that – they deserve to have their own songs, not just SHINee World and Noona is so Pretty. I thought that SM has been in the game long enough to know that.
And on that note, I’m going to go listen to the new song some more and I’ll leave you with some of SHINee’s lovely new iple pictures – I was wondering when they were going to change them. Here you go. credit: SHINee’s iple and skyfever on LJ for the caps/reupload
Magnae? Is that you?!
Mr. Long Legs
Lol, Key is such a poser.
Aww, sleep Onew bb. I’m sure you’re tired.
And of course, I saved the best for last (biasbias):
That smirk….it kills. Will be back to post more later when I’m (hopefully) more coherent.
Adios, Maki
So while I was reading ‘Sense and Sensibility’ yesterday, I came across a couple of lines that reminded me of some of the boys in SHINee. Now I’ll have you know, I wasn’t looking out for that – I just read a sentence and went, “Wow, this sounds just like MinHo” and then as I continued reading, I found more so I figured I’d share those lines with you.
MinHo
“The excellence of his understanding and his principles can be concealed only by that shyness which all too often keeps him silent.” – pages 15, 16
“His abilities in every respect improve as much upon acquaintance as his manners and person. At first sight his address is certainly not striking; and his person can hardly be called handsome till the expression of his eyes, which are uncommonly good, and the general sweetness of his countenance, is perceived. At present I know him so well that I think him really handsome…” – page 16
Key
“…his person, which was uncommonly handsome, received additional charms from his voice and expression.” – page 35
“His manly beauty and more than common gracefulness were instantly the theme of general admiration…” – page 36
Jong-Hyun (on the subject of singing)
“…that is what a young man ought to be. Whatever be his pursuits, his eagerness in them should know no moderation and leave him no sense of fatigue.” – page 38 (Tell me that’s not JH in a nutshell.)
Well, that’s it for now – if I find anymore, I’ll edit this post with them. So what did you think – agree? Disagree? Got a good laugh? Feel free to drop me a comment and let me know.
Oh, and if you’ve got a hankering for SHINee stuff, I suggest you check out this video – it’s an interview with MinHo done just before his stint at the Andre Kim fashion show and I don’t know, I think it’s really cute seeing Minmin doing an interview by his lonesome. Also the interviewer asks his partner for the show, Park BoYoung what she thought of MH and she says he’s very nice. It’s all just really cute. So go watch it!
Oh, and for all of you who want to learn the AhMiGo choreography (or just want to see more of that hot, hot dance), I suggest checking out this video. It’s a fancam but you get a really great view of most of the choreo. Another fancam from a performance that they did tonight – great view, still loving the choreography. Watch it here. No HQ though.
credit goes to shineesubs and randy1997
Maki
edit: And since I have no quotes for Taemin and Onew yet, I decided to share a cute gif. of them. Stylist, this is how I want their hair all the time. Notice Taemin biting his lip – so cute!
Appa and son
credit: bestiz and petiiil on soompi
Yeah, so I’m a weirdo because despite the fact that I went to sleep after one in the morning, I woke up at seven on my own (which rarely happens) after having fitful dreams about mixed responses towards today’s Inkigayo performance and then I rushed to my compy, turned it on and went in search of an HQ video, then download of today’s Amigo performance. Thanks to etherenia for the imeem link. And then I watched the performance…and I LOVED IT!
I was really impressed at how good it was for their first (well technically second) live performance of that song. When I first heard the song, I was really excited for the performance because I wanted more upbeat songs from them. As such, I was expecting some seriously intense dance moves for this song. Although that was the case, I was a little afraid that the boys wouldn’t be able to perform the song well live because of the intricacy of the dance routine and I thought I would prefer if they toned down the dancing in favour of a good quality live performance – and that’s exactly what they did. The dancing was definitely not as choreographed as for their other songs, sometimes it even seemed a little messy but somehow that worked – in fact, the more I watch the performance, the more I start to dig the dance moves because they’re really not that complicated or fast. I might actually be able to learn an entire dance routine this time! That’s great! Oh and they had back-up dancers again for this routine – I’m not sure if this will be a regular thing but so far, I don’t mind it – they’re not particularly distracting.
I think the vocals were seriously impressive, so much so that people are actually wondering if it was really live. It was live, people but the bg track was loud which makes it seem as though it was being lipsynched. Still, you could tell that they were really singing it because you could hear them singing over the bg vocals. Honestly because it’s their first performance of this song, I’m not going to complain about that – but I do hope that they turn it down (and eventually off) during future performances. Anyways, Jonghyun and Onew sounded amazing and I have to say that Jonghyun hit that high note per-fect-ly. *cue my jaw dropping – seriously* I tell you the two of them never fail to impress me. Also props to Taemin – although he was a little soft, you could actually hear him fairly well over the bg vocals and he sounded quite good. I tell you – magnae’s really improving by leaps and bounds these days – with some more practice, his live parts will be really great!
I was a bit sad that Key and Minho didn’t do their entire rap parts themselves – Key would start his lines and then Minho would finish them and vice versa which would be cool if that’s the way it was in the song (it wasn’t, right?), although it certainly seems to have been the way that they practiced it judging from the way it was executed. Still the rap was mad hot – it’s still my favourite part of the song. Also Jonghyun and Onew doing supporting vocals during the rap - AWESOME. I liked that when Key was rapping, he was in front alone with the back-up dancers around him because it really made you focus on him and since I think that this is his first time doing major rapping during their music show performances, that was a good move. At the same time, I liked how the back-up dancers left during MinHo’s rap part so that it was just him rapping (with Key and ONEW supporting) while the others grooved in the background.
OMG! Dance break! Yes, SO MUCH AWESOME! Taemin got another dance solo – yes! – and I actually really like the moves in this one (as opposed to my just laughing at the moves in the Replay one) Although I’m still hoping Key will get one… I loved the beats that they used during the dance break too and did you notice how smoothly they transitioned from the dance break back into the song? That is a serious skill right there. In addition, they did that ‘domino effect’ in the dancing just like they used to during the Replay performances (not the same move, just the same effect) and I loved that so I’m very happy. 
Anything else…did you notice that the crowd was already singing along? Peopel, the song only came out two days ago! (who am I kidding? I was singing along too.) Hmm, and I actually like everyone’s hair, especially Key’s fringe. I didn’t realize it was still long enough to flop all over the place when he was dancing so I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was. I didn’t completely love Jonghyun’s hair – I thought it would be styled more like how it was in this week’s M!Countdown ranking or the lovely, lovely way it looks when it’s sticking up. I’m not feeling the flatness, stylist noona – seriously. I don’t want us to have words so please, deal with that. Oh! That reminds me – am I the only one who noticed Bling flipping up his hood during the rap? Oh, that’s one of my favourite parts of the performance – it was really cool. Oh, and I notice Bling was blinged out today! LOL. Oh, and thanks to that performance, I now know that JH is the one who sings “Your love is awesome” (is it awesome or awful? Anyone know?) and I liked that part before but after seeing him sing it, I love it so much more. Also I didn’t even notice Onew’s “You got – you got me!” and “Baby – baby, it’s you” when I was listening to the track but after seeing him do it in the performance, they are fast becoming two of my favourite lines in the song. OMG! And Minho was in front! A LOT! I can’t tell you how awesome that was – he was in front during some of the singing and dancing parts instead of just during the rap. I was very pleased! Oh, and might I add – the Flaming Charisma was ON. And I almost didn’t mention the most important thing I noticed – the boys really looked like they were enjoying themselves. I was afraid they’d looked stressed out and tired but they looked really relaxed and confident like “Yeah, we got this and we’re going to enjoy it” and that’s the most important thing. I was afraid that they’d get so caught up in wanting to deliver and do well that they’d forget to have fun so I’m really glad they didn’t.
So overall, I was very, very happy with this performance. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be my most watched SHINee performance for awhile now. It really made me appreciate the song even more because now when I listen to it, I have little moments to recollect and cool dance moves to imitate and it’s made me really excited to see their future Ah.Mi.Go performances and to see how they improve with each one (because there’s still a lot of room for improvement). So good job, boys – you really delivered this time and definitely made this noona proud! XD Now I just hope you get a little rest. SHINee fighting!
edit:
Oh, and for all of you who want to learn the AhMiGo choreography (or just want to see more of that hot, hot dance), I suggest checking out this video. It’s a fancam but you get a really great view of most of the choreo.
Maki
Oh, and one more thing – WHY THE HECK IS THIS SONG SO SHORT? Now I’m going to leave you with a cap from the performance: credit goes to kika on shinee forums
Why? Because I never posted about SHINee’s performance of ‘Best Place’ on ShimShimTapa a few days ago (I think it was last week?). So I know this is kind of old news but I have to say that if you didn’t watch the performance, you should definitely go do that – like right now, right now.
Why, you ask? Because it’s a really good performance – they all sound quite good and as someone who’s listened to their album just a bout a million times, I can say with all honesty that it’s almost as good as the studio version. In addition, it’s the only time they’ve ever performed the full song live and fortunately, you get to watch them perform it because it’s one of those radio shows where they film it (why they do this? I do not know.) Oh, Taemin sounded so good! You know he always sounds really great on radio shows – I can’t wait until it transfers completely into their music show perfs. (No offense meant here – I love Taeminnie oo but you’ve got to admit that he struggles at times – although he’s definitely been improving these days. I’m so proud of him! He’s improving so quickly!) Anyway, the only major discrepancy I noticed was that Jonghyun, while he sounded great as always, at times seemed to be singing lower or softer or something than he usually does. I’m not sure exactly what it was but I noticed it right away. It doesn’t sound bad or anything – it’s just something that you’d notice once you’re accustomed to hearing the studio version. That reminds me, I did notice him pinching his throat at some point in the song and I was like O.O “Please don’t tell me you strained your voice trying to do Changmin’s YEAH during Mirotic” (I mean, he sounded pretty good and all considering I didn’t think he could pull it off but still, he should have just left it alone – you need serious lung capacity to do that and I don’t want him straining his voice) so that might have something to do with the way he sang – I don’t know.
Anyways, SHINee delivered a great live as usual and you should definitely check it out if you haven’t. WATCH. And in case you didn’t realize, I’m trying to occupy myself with old performances while I wait for the first Ah.Mi.Go performance tomorrow, God willing. Oh Sunday, come quickly! Boys, I have faith in you – I know you’ll deliver! Noona’s rooting for you! Fighting!
Maki
So remember how I said Key has like PERFECT cheekbones or something to that effect? Well, I’ve found the best picture to prove my point. etherenia, this is for you – thanks for all the comments!
Gosh, that boy's just so darn PRETTY!
Yeah, so I know I should be posting about AhMiGo but I don’t really feel like doing that right now. It’s not ’cause I don’t like the song though! I really like it, certainly heaps more than I liked LLO on first listen but I’m still processing it so I’ll be back with my analysis later. I am definitely looking forward to their performances of it though – it’s gonna be hooooot~
Maki
So that Onew tribute video I watched yesterday – check the previous post for the link – inspired me to do a similar post about SHINee as a whole. I wrote it out at work but then I forgot to pick up the papers I wrote it on so I’m doing it off of the top of my head now. By the by, I’m not saying these are the only reasons – just some of the major ones. Well, here goes…
So today is a V.I.D. in the SHINee World (V.I.D. – Very Important Day) – it’s SHINee’s 150 DAY ANNIVERSARY! Yes, that’s right – it’s officially been that many days since they debuted! But it feels longer, right? Hmm, that’s how it feels to me. Anyway I just want to say congratulations to the boys for reaching this milestone and that I hope to be with them until their 1000th day anniversary although we’ll probably stop counting by then, in days at least. They’ve come so far already – I can’t wait to see what they’ve got in store for us next (like their new song and MV, Ah.Mi.Go – already Number three on the M!Countdown charts and it’s not even out yet! Amazing~).
Now let me leave you with 2 pictures of the boys:
Shining SHINee just after debut
Shining SHINee now!
Oh, and to dilute the flood of Jonghyun posts I’ve been making lately, I’d like to share a lovely Onew tribute video that I got linked to from Soompi called ‘5 reasons why we love SHINee’s leader…’. Go watch it! It hits the nail on the head as far as Onew’s concerned although I think his smile should be a reason all in itself.
Going now! Have a good night!
Maki
You know I tried so hard not to have a favourite in SHINee. Really, I did – but Jonghyun’s just so amazing and charming and suave and good-looking and cool and funny and smart and I seriously think that his voice is as close to heavenly as we’re going to get down here – for the moment. I’m sorry if that sounds a bit shallow but I’m not feeling particularly eloquent at the moment. Aish, I just like him so much! It’s such a shame we’ll never date. (I was going to put ‘meet’ but I still hold out hope. Who knows what the future holds?) Anyway, just watch this and you’ll see what I mean (about the voice at least).
credit: randy1997 on YT
Hmm, I think this song sums up my feelings towards him pretty well – focus on the chorus:
credit goes to musicfromgossipgirl
Hey SME person who I think could be reading my blog? (yeah right) Can I marry Jonghyun? Please, please, please? I promise I won’t tell anyone – really. I can keep a secret.
Ah, I’m going to go now and try to get my bearings. I’ll leave you with a picture of him – the one that set me off in the first place. credit as tagged and basmspasms on Soompi for the reupload
Hyunnie~
Good-bye,
a love-struck Maki
So while I was browsing the various blog posts about Minho’s stint at the Andre Kim fashion show, I heard a lot of people saying that they thought that it was nice that MinHo got a chance to do this because he seemed to be under-rated in the group and it was cool that he got to be in the limelight for awhile. And you know a little while ago, I might have agreed with them about MH being underrated (I’m talking about amongst the fans) but now I have to disagree. I mean I used to think that he was one of, if not the least, popular members but I realize now that that’s not really the case. I mean, I don’t know how it is in Korea but here in the SHINee fandom, Flaming Charisma is very much appreciated! I always see people complaining that he doesn’t get enough screen time or doesn’t have enough lines in videos and songs and performances and they wouldn’t say that if they didn’t want to see him, right? Hmm, in fact, my RL SHINee friend just changed her favourite from Jonghyun to Minho and I was joking with her that she would have a lot of competition because there are just so many MinHo lovers out there – I don’t know it’s just hard to resist his ‘flaming charisma’. XD (I also think episode eight of Yunhanam helped.)
Speaking of which, I heard that SHINee recently filmed a new MV (Yay!) where MinHo is the lead (since it has a plot and all) and A LOT of people were super excited about the MV on a whole and the fact that Minho gets to be the lead as well. So trust me, if you thought that MinHo was under-rated in the group, think again. That is most definitely not the case. To tell the truth, I can’t really say who is the least popular member in the group – I see people proclaiming their love for all of them…But that’s good though – wouldn’t it be cool if there wasn’t a least popular member at all? I wouldn’t be surprised honestly – they’re all so adorable.
Anyway, I’ll leave you with some cool pictures of ‘Flaming Charisma’ (I’d love to credit but I can’t remember where I got these – if you know the source, leave a comment and I’ll add it):
Prince Charisma
