Listen to it here.

Hmm, well I don’t know about you but I like it. I’ve never listened to an entire Suju album before so I wasn’t sure what to expect – but I’m impressed. It’s very good, imo, and there are some really outstanding songs on it. Mind you, I’m only on my second listen so I’m still processing the songs. Some of my current favourites are:

Monster – I love this song. I think it’s got the potential to end up on my ‘favourite song of all time list’. High on the list. I just keep replaying it – it’s just….it makes me feel. I’m not sure exactly what I’m feeling but it’s very powerful.

Why I Like You – it was the second song that really stood out to me on the album and it’s extremely pretty – a lovely mix of sweetness and melancholy. In addition, I am really falling in love with Yesung’s voice, particularly in his ‘Yeah!’ here.

What If – So sad. Really heartbreakingly beautiful. Since I don’t think ‘Monster’ can be counted as a ballad, this has got to be my favorite ballad on the album. It’s just very moving and pure and their voices are so clear and distinct here, it’s really impressive.

Dead at Heart – This song is fantastic. Second favourite ballad, for sure.

Reset – I love this song now. Seriously, it’s a really nice mid-tempo track with a chorus that I wouldn’t call catchy so much as memorable and a rap that I am particularly fond of. I don’t often say this but I think it’s really a shame that there weren’t more rap parts in the album because the few that are there are really good. And as a bonus, here’s the first live performance of the song on the Suju comeback special segment of Sukira on Friday – it’s very good!

Honourable Mention: Club No. 1 – Honestly I really like this song – but only until Lee YeonHee’s part. No offense to her but I seriously dislike her high-pitched singing and I don’t think it was at all necessary for the song. That said, it’s a really good song and I love the way Super Junior sing here – it’s very cool.

Now I’m a new Suju fan so I really can’t say much about how this stacks up with their other stuff – all I can say is that I really like the album and I’m quite impressed. Now I’ve got my eye on Version B…I’m still trying to figure out if I should preorder it or just wait for the inevitable repackage. It all depends on how my feelings progress as I listen to the album more. If I’m really crazy about it, I’ll most likely end up pre-ordering – there’s still a little time. On Yesasia, it won’t be released until the 16th so I’ve still got a few days to think about it. Btw, does anyone know if the price will raise when it’s released? Because if that’s the case, preordering is looking a lot more likely. I really don’t know.

Oh, and apparently it’s been officialy confirmed that the MV will be released on the 13th. So hopefully that means that by the time I get home manana, I’ll have both the MV and the comeback performance to watch. Yay. Something to get me through the day.

Maki

So since the boys are going on break, I’ve started paying attention to more people in an effort to find some folks to check out while they’re away. Here’s some of the people I’ve been keeping tabs on and my thoughts on them so far.

After School

Now I generally don’t like it when people try to be overly sexy because as far as I’m concerned, sexiness should be subtle and natural, not contrived or forced (SeungRi, I’m looking at you) and people need to understand that while some people just exude sexiness, it doesn’t come as easily (or at all) to everyone so if you can’t pull it off, just let it go and find another image, one that would be more fitting for you instead of trying to be something you’re not. Anyway as such, when I heard that this group were taking cues from PCD for their concept, I wasn’t feeling very optimistic. However they weren’t quite as risque as I expected but I’m still not feeling their concept too much and I find their song, ‘Ah’ only mildly catchy. It’s okay to listen to once in awhile but I wouldn’t call it ipod worthy. Also that ‘Ah’ noise is simultaneously appealing and irritating. I haven’t listened to their mini-album yet so I can’t say anything about that. Sorry. To date, I’ve only seen one or two of their performances and while I wouldn’t say that they’re particularly stunning, they’re fairly solid and not a bad watch. They need to cut down on those leg splits though - that I do not need to see.

Surprisingly though, I rather like the concept of their MV. Like 2pm’s ‘10 out of 10′ MV, it’s very cheeky and tongue-in-cheek and I hear folks saying that that’s nothing new but I think it really works here. In the video, After School act as schoolgirls, which is amusing in and of itself given that they’re all decidedly older than your usual high school students, who attempt to seduce their teacher and I’m not sure why but I find it pretty cute. Even though they act overly flirtatious and silly, they never go too far or attempt to be too over the top or scandalous and I appreciate that. They never do anything that would make the person watching them feel uncomfortable and strangely enough, when they actually get the teacher alone, they don’t do anything but laugh, dance with him and play with his hair (and who hasn’t wanted to do that with a cute guy every once in awhile? I can think of one already – hi there, Kim Bum!) Anyway, the video actually made the song bearable to me and I listen to it more now because I want to see the video. Hmm, I don’t know if I’d recommend the group per se but I’d say give the video a look, especially if you liked that 2pm one. It’s not nearly as risque as that!

Taegoon

So I posted about him before but I think I sounded like a loon there so I’m trying again sans the fangirlness. Hmm, I like Taegoon so far – he’s a cute guy – way cuter when he smiles – and his song, ‘Call Me’ is extremely addictive, imo. He’s a pretty good dancer as well – very clean lines, fairly precise, except when he gets to his solo though – it would be better if he didn’t dance so quickly but I can’t totally fault him that because I notice that a lot of Korean artists seem to dance faster than is necessary to songs, I’m not sure why. It would just look so much better if they would slow things down and allow me to appreciate the individual moves better. That said, I can’t say much for his singing – so far in his lives, he’s always had mic trouble or had some handicap like that weird stage design on music bank or just was lipsynching but from what I’ve heard and seen, it looks like he still needs to work on his live singing. Ultimately, it’s not bad but he obviously has trouble singing and dancing and I’ve noticed that in his more recent performances, he’s been doing less dancing as a result (which sucks because he’s a great dancer) but of course, it’s better to forfeit the dancing for the vocals. Hmm, his latest performance on Music Core was definitely his best as far as I’m concerned and I’m happy to see that he seems to be improving vocally. Also and this is a weird side note but I always notice that female back-up dancer who dances next to him. I’m not sure why but I pay a lot of attention to her – I think it’s because in his second performance on Music Core (the one where he smiles a lot *_*), he didn’t do a particular move with her during the second chorus and she gives him this shocked/semi-perturbed look like “excuse me?!” and it was so funny. I can totally tell that she said something to him about it back-stage – she looks feisty like that. Uhm-hmm.

As for his MV, which I’ve watched way too many times than was good for me, I really like it. Honestly, the song didn’t immediately make an impression on me but the video did so I kept watching it and subsequently got addicted to the song. The editing of the video is kind of cool but a little confusing as far as plot exposition goes – it took me forever to really figure out what was going on there – his dancing looks great, very smooth; he looks great, although you can’t get a very good shot of his face there and that’s about it, really. Also Park Hye Shin and Jaejoong from DBSK are in it and I’ve watched this video enough times to realize that 1. Jaejoong  is really just ridiculously good-looking and 2. that his acting is semi-believeable. At first I thought he just looked blank but after about fifty watches, I must say he did a fairly good job of looking all broken up about everything so I take back what I said about him in my last post about this video.

So the plot of the video is fairly simple – there’s a girl, she’s dating two guys, Jaejoong and Taegoon, and also cheating on them with another guy. She’s with Jaejoong first, then meets up with Taegoon in a club (ooh, hot dance scenes!) and then she gets together with him and he finds out she’s with Jaejoong but he still doesn’t dump her and then afterwards she picks up with another guy. Knowing her three two- timing nature, Jaejoong gets all bent out of shape and fired up and he decides to end things by getting a gun and shooting the other guy (no, it wasn’t Taegoon OR the girl) but they don’t show what happens after the shot so the ending’s a bit ambiguous (like SHINee’s Amigo MV ending). Still it’s exciting, isn’t it? If totally confusing as well. Anyway, I like Taegoon – he seems like a nice guy – so I’ll be keeping an eye on him. If you’re interested and want more info on him, definitely check out his fan-made Youtube channel or his official forum. He needs all the support he can get, you know, especially with all these people hating on him becase he reminds them of so and so and so and so. Whatever with that – give the guy a break, he’s new, let him find his stride first before you start criticizing.

Also I gave his mini-album a listen and while I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would, it’s not bad. The songs are very dance-able and I think they all suit his voice really well. He may not be the best singer but he has a nice voice and he even does a little rapping in this song, ‘I Understand You’ featuring H-Eugene which I think is the best song on the cd. It’s the one that stood out the most to me on the album and it’s the only one other than Call Me that I could see myself listening to for an extended period of time. Also there’s a part of the song where he sings ‘uhtddkhae’ etc, etc, and he sounds all plaintive and his voice is full of longing and it’s really kind of hot, you know. It’s rare for me to say something like that so you know it’s true. So check him out, okay?

May Doni

So I posted about her already but it wasn’t a proper post so here goes. Honestly I’m not so interested in her that I’ll check out her older videos or a lot of her performances but I did watch one – she’s performing with Miryo, the rapper from BEG which I think is pretty cool – and it was pretty good. She can obviously hold her own live and while I am yet to understand the necessity of having a dance break in the middle of her only-slightly-more-upbeat-than-a-ballad song, she managed to carry things off well and still be able to sing well despite performing the dance break.

I am not at all impressed by her MV – I get that it’s supposed to be unique and set her apart but I just think it’s weird and creepy and I wouldn’t recommend anyone watch it. Just open the page and listen to the song, okay? Don’t bother to watch the video. The song is nice though – her voice is digitalized a bit too much in it so that you don’t get the full effect of it and she ends up sounding like a lot of those other really high-pitched female singers out there and of course, it would have been better if she had debuted with a song that was more like this one so that people could get a better idea of her vocal range but this is what we got so we should work with it instead of complaining – it’s not a bad song and I like listening to it. Still not sure if I want to put it on my iPod but I’d definitely recommend it. I also gave her mini-album, 7teen a listen and I have to say that of the three original tracks on there (the rest are just remixes and instrumentals), this one is the best, imo. The first one, ID (I’m MayDoni) is more upbeat and powerful and the third, 처음처럼 does a better job of showcasing her vocals but Molla-ing is best overall. It’s the most commercial, I believe and I think it was a good choice on their part letting her debut with it. Just my two cents anyway – feel free to disagree.

Well, that’s it – I’m a bit tired for now so I may or may not pick this up later. Hopefully you’ll appreciate my little musings on these artists and maybe you’ll even agree. The most important thing is to check them out yourself to see though. So thank you and good night.

Maki

So I’ve finally decided to get off of my lazy, procrastinating butt and write this mini-album review that I promised to do since I first heard the tracks from the cd. Since it’s a mini-album, I’ll post my overall thoughts and then do a track by track review because there really aren’t that many and it shouldn’t prove to be too difficult. Please keep in mind that this is solely my opinion – I do not profess to be a connoisseur of good music or to know that much about the technicalities of music in general so feel free to agree or disagree with any of my statements. In addition, I have only done one other album review and it wasn’t track by track so please excuse me if it’s lacking in any way. Nevertheless, I will try to keep the review as subjective as possible. Now onto the review!

IU Album Art

Lost and Found – Release Date: September 24th, 2008

Overall Thoughts:

So as is usually the case with me, I started listening to this album with preconceptions about the kind of songs I would find on it – I figured that there would be a lot of power ballads like Mia and maybe some softer, lighter ballad tracks. I was so wrong. I’m starting to realize that with debut albums (or mini-albums, in this case), the producers or managers or whoever really make an effort to showcase the artist’s versatility by giving each track a different sound and having them explore different genres and I think that IU’s producers did a really good job of that with her. It took me a little while to get used to how different the other songs were from Mia but after a few listens, they really grew on me.

The songs on the album are an interesting mix – they range from pop to jazz to R and B and IU makes an easy transition to each genre. It’s a good album for easy listening – the songs remind me of what you’d hear on Sunday afternoon radio, mid-tempo, fairly upbeat, light, generally nothing too overwhelming. I feel that you never get the impression that she’s attempting something she can’t achieve or that she’s trying to be something she’s not – I think it’s a testament to her training and vocal ability that she can pull off all of these different songs because trust me, just listening to Mia, I would never have guessed that she had this kind of range. I did find myself wishing at the end of it that there was another song like Mia (and more songs in general) on the album just because as nice as the other songs are, none of them have that raw power and strength that Mia has. I honestly would not have minded just one more track like that but I’m not worried – I’m sure her full length album will deliver it since her strength really seems to lie in those types of songs.

(You can take this as a side note: I have to say that as I listened to the album, I could not help being overwhelmed again and again by the maturity in her voice – I was just in shock – I mean, who would believe she was just fifteen listening to ‘Feel So Good’? Like with another of my little stars, I’m really excited to see how she’s going to improve vocally – her voice is already so incredible, it will be very interesting to see how she grows and she’s young now so you know she’s only going to get better. )

So overall, I really like her mini-album – all of the songs are different, they’re all beautiful, they all have their own merits and I would definitely recommend it. I don’t think she falls into the conventional mold and it is becoming apparent that she is not being set up as the usual, idol singer which is, in itself, a reason to check her out. She could help bring some variety onto the K-pop scene and we all want that, right? I do not think that her music is for everyone but I believe that she could appeal to a very wide audience and I certainly hope that that happens for her. I think I’ll give this album a B+ because while I liked every song, I at times felt that some of the tracks were a little forgettable.

Track-by-track: (Go here to listen to the album in its’ entirety.)

1. Miun Ori (Ugly Duckling) – Listen

To be honest, when I first listened to the album, I found this song to be the least impressive and excluding the instrumental track, it was the only song that I didn’t add to my mp3 player playlist. Listening to it again, I am not sure what caused me to have that reaction to it, especially since this song is more along the lines of the type of song I expected to hear on the album.
It’s really a beautiful, simple track – her vocals are very prominent and strong in this one, although not in the same striking way that they are portrayed in her debut song. It’s a much softer sound than Mia but that works here – it shows you that she can manage smoother vocals and an overall sweeter sound. The music is a great asset, particularly the inclusion of the guitar (I know she plays guitar – I wonder if she’s doing so here…) and like all of her songs, the supporting vocals are always introduced at the right time. It is a bittersweet song – made up of equal parts hope and sadness – and IU does a very good job of conveying those emotions in her voice – I really didn’t need to look up the lyrics to get an idea of what the song was about. Overall, it’s a good, solid track and it does well as the opening song for the album, particularly as it’s followed by Mia.

2. Mia – Watch the MV

When you listen to her whole mini-album, it immediately becomes apparent why they chose Mia as her debut single. It’s definitely the most outstanding song on there and while of course, her voice is used to the best of its’ merits in all of her songs, I think Mia gives you the best idea of the strength of her voice as well as her vocal range and capacity. It’s quite an impressive song and it makes you sit up and take notice and with a debut song, that’s what you want, right? In addition, I also think that it’s placed well on the album since the following songs all have much lighter sounds.
The music itself is spectacular – I love the fact that she always performs with an orchestra – and the way that it blends to perfectly suit her voice is something to note. I think this song is really perfect for her and it leaves you with a very strong impression.

3. Itjanha (You Know, feat. Mario) – Listen

I really believe that if they wanted IU to have more commercial success (or exposure), they would have chosen this song as her debut single. It’s very cute and bubbly and fun and I think it would have gotten quite a few people interested in her but maybe for the wrong reasons or should I say, it might have given them the wrong idea about what kind of artist she is. She could have fallen into the heap of cute, bubbly singers that are floating around these days and since they wanted her to stand out (and also establish her as a more serious artist), they did not choose to use this one. It’s a really nice song though – definitely one of my favourites (I’m a sucker for cute things) and it does manage to give you a taste of her vocal ability around the bridge. The melody is infectious, the chorus is catchy and the inclusion of the rapper was a good choice – he adds to the fun and his voice and sound offers a nice contrast to hers.

4. Feel So Good – Listen

This is one of my favourite songs on this album – it’s easily the one I listen to the most, more than Mia even. It’s very smooth, very mellow, very soft but not so much as to bore you or to fade into the background. It’s just really easy on the ears and it flows very nicely, so much to say that I’m often surprised when it’s done. The music is pleasant and compliments her vocals nicely.
This song also includes a rapper – and it’s a bit surprising actually because there’s no indication of a supporting artist beforehand but like Itanjha, they manage to strike a good balance between her sweet voice and his rapping.

5. Every Sweet Day – Listen

This is another song that falls somewhere between pop and r and b, although the maturity of her voice is more apparent here and that takes away from the overall cuteness a bit. I think part of the reason I listen to this one so much is because of the intro (“Hey boy, what you gonna do for me?” – her English is so good, by the way!) – for some reason, once I hear that, I have to listen to the song. I just find it really appealing.
I really like the way that she sings the song as well as how well her voice blends in with that of the supporting vocalists – it produces a lovely, pleasant end result, the whole song is so smooth and melodic and harmonious. Like Feel So Good, it’s just so easy on the ears – honestly it’s a difficult song to dislike, although I did find myself wishing that the sound was not quite as similar as the above track. It’s a very nice song though and great if you want to listen to something soft and upbeat.

6. Mia (Instrumental)

I usually don’t count instrumental tracks as full tracks unless the album’s made up of them but since I said I’m going track by track, I feel I should be thorough and include Mia’s instrumental. The music for this song is really beautiful – sweeping and haunting – and I love how they mixed the sounds of traditional, classical instruments like the violin with the electronic beats created by synthesizers and the like. Despite that, I probably listen to this song the least on the album just because I prefer to listen to the vocal version as, in my opinion, the vocals are the perfect complement to the arrangement. In addition, I find that after awhile the music begins to fade into the background (except when it’s approaching a crescendo) but I think that that’s a result of having listened to the vocal version so much.

Well, that’s it for now. If you want more information on IU, check out her official Soompi thread (it’s almost reached ten pages!), join IUWorld – the very first IU forums, go to IUWorld on Youtube or just browse around here on WP – there still isn’t very much information on her but she’s got a few fans here so I’m sure you’ll find something. For more mini-album info, go here and for the translated lyrics, go here (MUST BE A SOOMPI FORUMS MEMBER TO ACCESS THE LAST LINK). Hope this helps!

Oh, and as a little bonus, here’s a short video of IU performing Corinne Bailey Rae’s ‘Like a Star’ as well as Tamia’s ‘Officially Missing You’ while playing the guitar at ShimShimTapa. See – she’s multi-talented too! And like I said before, her English is AMAZING. Check it out below.

credit: IUWorld

Maki

So while my mom monopolized the phone in my room and prevented me from using the net, I decided to finally sit down and write this album review. (I mean, I was listening to it anyway – I might as well.)

Now you should know that I’m no musician so my review is based solely on my own, personal experience of the cd and it’s probably a little biased since I’m writing it after having listened to it a gazillion times in the last seven days. And I’m not sick of it yet – wow. You can feel free to disagree with anything, I say – I mean, it’s really just my opinion but it’d be great if you’d give the cd a try at least.

Anyway, I’m now looking at the romanized lyrics that vicvickyrox posted on the SHInee community on LJ today (Credits to naver.com & PurpleSnow@wordpress) and all I have to say is I do not give Taemin enough credit! He really sings a lot. By the way, I know that quite a few songs on the cd are remakes but I don’t know which ones they are and I’d like to remain in my ignorance regarding that. Thanks for reading if you do!

So without further ado:

~Maki’s SHINee World Album Review~

Overall, I really liked this cd which is a little surprising since I’m not really one for ballads – usually when I’m listening to a cd for the first time, I skip over the slow songs and listen to them later on when I’ve got more time (or I just never listen to them…sorry Rihanna). However, I couldn’t really do that with this cd since it’s comprised mostly of those (and by ballads, I mean, love songs of a slower tempo). I know some people were disappointed that there weren’t more dance tracks (and in a way, I was too – I really wanted more songs to dance to) but I think the plan here was to showcase the vocal talent in the group and I think they really managed to do that. I mean, if they couldn’t sing, there was no way they would have pulled off all of those love songs (and there are a lot of love songs). One of the things I really liked about them though is that even though they’re love songs, they’re not really slow and dragging – they still manage to be quite upbeat, even the ones about heartache.

Now since I speak absolutely no Korean, I focused mainly on the sound of each song and then as I learnt each voice, the way their voices blended together and sounded on their own. I have to say that these boys harmonize really well together. I mean, the choruses were often my favourite part of the songs because of course, that’s when I got to hear them sing together and they always sound really good. I find Jonghyun and Key’s voices to be the most distinctive and so the easiest to pick out. Unfortunately, I’m still mixing up Taemin and Onew’s voices – I think it’s mainly because I can’t believe how mature Taemin sounds when he sings. And Minho has a lovely voice – I really don’t know why he doesn’t sing more. Speaking of, initially, I wasn’t keen on all of the rap in the songs but now I really like Minho and Key’s parts and I think that they really add something extra to the songs.

This is one of those rare albums where I listen to every song and the exception here is “Y Si Fuera Ella”. I know a lot of people like it and you’d think I would too considering how much I love Jonghyun’s voice but…I just think it’s boring. Sorry! I’m going to listen to it again though and see if I can hear what everyone else does – I mean, I really want to like it, I just don’t. You would think it’d be hard to pick out a favourite on a great album like this but I’ve managed to choose a few. Love’s Way, Romantic and Graze really stand out to me, Love’s Way in particular. Oy, Jonghyun’s voice in that song just kills me – they all sound really good though and I feel that it’s a really nice first album and a great way to enter the pop scene. I just hope I’m not the only one who sees it that way.

Ultimately, I’ll give it an A-. (Grade changed – see edit.)

edit from Sep. 10th:

So, I finally took another listen to ‘Y Si Fuera Ella’ and OMG, I love it! I don’t know what happened before – maybe it’s because I was so blown away by the rest of the album that I didn’t pay as much attention to this song as I should have but whoa, this song is really amazing. Last night when I listened to it again, it really blew me away. And I’m listening to it right now and ~replay~ing it non-stop. So yes, I take back what I said before – ‘Y Si Fuera Ella’ is a great song, it is not boring or soporific – it is lovely and it really allows Jonghyun to showcase his vocal ability so props to SME for giving him a solo. Yay, now I can honestly give SHINee World an A++.

Laters, Maki.