Hooked on Super Junior and Tohoshinki!

K-Pop has possessed me completely... This disease makes me completely unable to listen to anything else, so I guess I've become addicted with no hope for recovery :D I don't care about J-Pop anymore (oh, maybe because it's been soooo freakin' boring lately in the Japanese music industry...). Anyway, I'm officially a devout K-Pop lover now :D

After listening for hours, days, weeks (...) without stopping to Korean girl groups like SNSD, Girl's Day, SISTAR (also 4minute and others), I almost forgot that there were also boybands in Korea :P So, the decision of breaking this female domination in my music library has been made and I began searching for nice, good-looking, talented and totally awesome male performers. My search was successful, as I found two bands which were able to amaze me ;)

The first one was Tohoshinki, which I had been familiar with previously, but I didn't care for them, because their music was generally a bit boring to me (ballads, ballads, ballads...). This time I decided to re-evaluate my attitude to them by listening to their relatively new album TONE.

This time I was surprised that Tohoshinki finally managed to release an album with more than two or three upbeat songs ;) Such tracks as B.U.T. (be-au-ty), I Think You Know, Why? (Keep Your Head Down), MAXIMUM, Superstar and I Don't Know left me speechless, breathless and absolutely amazed. Moreover, even though their ballads still remain quite uninteresting, there is one which definitely takes TVXQ's mid-tempo songs to a higher level - Back To Tomorrow sounds so fresh and melodic that I could listen to it endlessly. Even though the rest of the album seems to be either generic or dull, I think that TONE is one of the best albums Tohoshinki has ever released.

The other group that caught my eye and my ear (in this order) is Super Junior. The boys look simply fabulous.

An absolute eye-candy for me is Siwon and don't tell me he isn't one of the most handsome men of the world:

In fact, he's not only amazingly handsome, but he's also freakin' sexy which drives me crazy (shame on me, but I don't care :3) All that is true, but I don't feel this way anymore :D

 

Click on that sexy beast to admire his hot body in full size :3

The rest is also very good-looking (but slightly too gayish for my taste :D). When discovering new artists, I usually pay more attention to music than to their looks, but this time it was the other way round, because SuJu's image overflowing with hotness and sexiness was irresistible for my girly heart and brain :D

Now, the music... To be honest, I don't find their whole discography flawless. I'm hooked on their title and promotional songs which are beyond all earthly awesomness, while most of their album tracks sound... bland and boring (again - ballads, ballads, BALLADS!). I wish they did more upbeat dance songs like Mr. Simple, SORRY, SORRY, Opera or A-CHA, because this is what works best for them... At least this is what I love about them.

SuJu's dancing ftw!

Ahh, flawless... :3

SNSD's "The Boys" - a review

As you know, my initial impression of "The Boys" song and MV wasn't that positive (unfortunately). Even though I was quite sure that this impression would last, luckily for my SONE soul, my faith in the nine SNSD ladies has been restored after listening to their new album.

For the record: I take "Girls' (de)Generation" back ;) Read on to see why.

When it comes to the title track, it is a hell of a grower. I thought I hated it at first, but then I started to like it... and I ended up hooked on this song :) Even though I still think that it kind of sounds as two or three songs glued and taped together, but well... I'm a SONE and it's a SONE thing to love unconditionally everything that SoShi do. I don't consider myself a person who will accept things without criticism, but the power of SNSD appeal in "The Boys" finally got me. I admit - I was very disappointed at the beginning, but then I found some harmony in this somewhat choppy song and appreciated it. Now this is one of the most frequently played songs on my Last.fm... Shame on me.

I have to admit that "The Boys" was a really strong opening to the album - even though the song feels weird, it sure is a step forward since "Gee", "Genie" and "Oh!" in terms of developing maturity of the girls. This was one of the most important things about this comeback - to show that SoShi have become women and their teenage years are already over. After listening to the title track, I was pretty convinced that it might possible to achieve in this album. However, the next two tracks ("Telepathy" and "Say yes") ruin the feeling that "The Boys" song has established. I love them, but they simply don't fit in this album, especially after the maturity manifest which is the title track. They sound very 2007 and could have been included in their first album... 

Fortunately, the adult mood comes back with "Trick" which is a very good electro-pop song somewhat similar to what they did in their Japanese album.

... and then there is a quite lovely but not so special ballad "How great is your love" penned by Sooyoung. The lyrics are beautiful, but the song itself isn't that epic. I like it, but I often skip this one, don't know why. However, I like this one much better than "My J" which comes next - oh, this is the worst song on the album. I hate Christmasy songs on regular albums, because such songs simply don't fit, are cheesy and horrible to listen to during the most of the year (imagine listening to it in summer...). "My J" is a definite "no no" for me.

Then there is "OSCAR" which is a Britney-inspired electro-pop song, kind of dark and fierce, awesome and stuff. I like this "Gimme more" feeling in it and I appreciate that SNSD still do these "Run Devil Run"-like songs, because Black SoShi is good SoShi. The song includes lots of auto-tune, but I think in this case it's justifiable. It sounds cool anyway.

The next song "Top Secret" is a more advanced remake of "Hoot" imagery. Not a rip-off, but a second try in this style. Quite a successful effort, I'd say ;)

Yep, so much for fierceness. Now it comes "Lazy Girl" which is a blah blah cute song with no special features. I wouldn't agree that SoShi are lazy girls, because they're overloaded with work recently, but... yeah, I think they would love to dream about being lazy just for a moment. Poor things :(

Haha, and this is the time for the biggest load of awesomness on this album! :D For me, "Sunflower" is the most original song SoShi have even done and... well, chapeau bas. I'd never imagine that they would record anything like this - it's a song heavily inspired by rock ballads from the 80s, with unusual falsetto vocals and really interesting melody. This is something which sounds much more mature and adult than the (in)famous "The Boys" and yes! I'm looking forward to any future releases like this one :) Good job!

The ending of the album isn't that great, because there is a song from a commercial called "Vitamin" (which sounds like a Genie 2.0) and the Korean version of "Mr. Taxi" (which is a complete facepalm and wtf - especially this "chicken" in the chorus). The English version of "The Boys" wraps up the whole album and that's about it.

Lol

Generally speaking, the third album of Girls' Generation is good but it's not THAT good. Some tracks are awesome, but others either don't fit or are simply meh. But at least it is not boring or overloaded with ballads, like in case of "Oh!", so definitely it's a step forward. What I also like about it is that Hyoyeon and Sooyoung finally got more lines and it seems that the distribution is more fair than before, but somehow I have an impression that this album is Jessica-dominated. I can hear her all the time and not just because she sings a lot - her vocals are prominent in the choruses in almost every song.

In my opinion, this album is better than their previous Korean releases, but it can't stand the comparison with their Japanese album which was pure perfection in any possible dimension. I would even dare to say that somehow the girls looked and sounded more mature in their Japanese releases... The thing is that if they want to be perceived as young women, they can't go into cutesy songs like "My J" and "Lazy girl" anymore, because they downgrade themselves to the teenage level again, no matter how fierce and powerful the other songs are. More tricks, oscars and sunflowers, please :)

Four kiwis out of five

Guess who's back?

No, this time the title of the post doesn't refer to any Japanese, Korean or any other artist. This time it's just about me. Period.

I realized that I haven't written anything neither on KiwiAyu nor on Ai Otsuka Love Blog. Guess why? Well... I thought I found a life and I immersed into it. And then it turned out that I was mistaken.

Dr House once said, 'me and humanity, we got together too young'. This has become my favourite quotation ever.

Why am I writing this here? 1) I need to let go certain things and this makes it easier, 2) no one visits this blog, so I'm feeling quite comfortable about sharing my feelings here.

It seems I'm feeling a little down these days. I have been disappointed, I was hurt, I couldn't handle my emotions - I need to take a rest from all the situations which made me feel this way. I'm going to concentrate on my studies and work on the musical reviews. I hope this will help me look at certain things from a more distant perspective. A little bit of solitude would be nice, too...

When it comes to my most recent musical taste, I'm currently into Lauri (the frontman of Finnish band The Rasmus). I have loved him since I was thirteen and I can't help it - he's just ridiculously awesome to me ;) His lyrics always touch the most inner part of my soul and give me shivers, but when it comes to his solo album, it's beyond all levels of awesomeness - both the music (yes!) and lyrics. And I freakin' love Amanda. I wish I was her :D

My godness, this is eargasmic... And so true about me right now...

Yes... I'm in a very dark dark dark place, but when I take a rest, I'll get better and maybe I'll believe in people (and love) again ;) Anyway, writing this already made me better, so I guess I'm going to be all bright and shiny soon.

Right now I'm preparing to take "Girls' (de)Generation' back (yes, yes), so stay tuned to check out my review of "The Boys" :)

Girls' (De)Generation bring the boys out...

SNSD have just made their comeback with "The Boys" MV. As I expected, no fairytale imagery is present (except of Sunny's fluffy red hood). The song doesn't flow at all neither in Korean nor in English version; I'm even wondering whether it has any melody... But nevermind, it's only my opinion. Get your own and watch:

Korean version:

English version:

Well, looks like we've got the least successful song from Girls' Generation and anybody who disagrees should probably listen to their previous songs to hear the difference ^^

I'm so sorry to say this, but Girls' (de)Generation didn't make me spazz. If they want to sound sexy and fierce, I don't mind, but let it be at least Run Devil Run ver. 2.0, not a "song" which sounds like a cover of f(x) meets 2NE1 meets any other Korean girl group.

Nothing special, nothing original. Teddy Riley failed.

The only thing I find flawless in this MV is the dove. It's beautiful. The girls are pretty too, but it's obvious.

I hope the full album will include better tracks, because I really want to take "Girls' (de)Generation" back.

Girl's Day - a younger sister of Girls' Generation

Aren't they such pretty ladies! I could swear it's more than a half of Girls' Generation! But... no. It's Girl's Day - a different Korean pop group which debuted last year. Were you fooled too?

In fact, Girl's Day don't only look like SNSD. They also sound almost exactly like them with the only difference that none of Girl's Day's songs has such mindblowing power of awesomeness as SNSD's tracks. Generally speaking, Girl's Day copies SNSD's style without adding any unique elements to it (oh yes, Girl's Day rap. But their rap sounds just like T-ara's :D). Moreover, their vocals are noticeably auto-tuned (a little less than 4minute), so I don't know whether the copycats can sing at all.

Oh, oh, oh, oh!...  Wait, what?

Yeah, sounds like me hatin' Girl's Day. No, I'm not. I'm just wondering what's the point in creating a group which doesn't present almost anything original... I listened to Girl's Day's mini-album and I liked it, only because I like SNSD's style. I can treat Girl's Day as Girls' Generation's younger sister and enjoy their "creative" deeds, but I won't think highly about a group which apparently wants to gain attention by copying someone else... Does their label think that customers will be so stupid as to take Girl's Day for SNSD and buy their CD by mistake?

I realize that it's not the group itself which decides about the shape of their image or music style, but I have to address the frustration somewhere :D I'm just like the awful anti-fans who hate SoShi themselves instead of SM Entertainment for their not (always) singing live :P

Oh, and "Young Love" bothers me, because of this annoying synth in the background which sounds exactly like the beep my telephone makes when its battery is low. They ripped the telephone sound off, too??

Is Meisa Kuroki the next Namie Amuro?

Meisa Kuroki obviously wants to be more than just a (very) pretty face.

She's keen on modeling, acting and singing, however, looking at her musical career, I have a feeling that she might be a better model and actress than a singer ;)

I listened to her first EP "hellcat" twice and unfortunately none of the songs interested me enough to remember about the album. After the second listening I removed it from my playlist and forgot about Meisa for a relatively long time. When "Magazine" came out, I gave her a second chance and I'm glad to say that I liked her new album better than "hellcat", even though Meisa's musical attempts still can't knock me out entirely.

Let's start from her voice... Meisa sings OK, but I'd say that only from the technical perspective. I wouldn't say that she has some extraordinary talent, because her vocal skills seem to be merely basic... With appropriate training, everyone could sing like her. All her songs are structurally very simple, so she doesn't have to strain her vocal cords too much, but still I always feel that she forces her voice to sound louder and more powerful. Literally speaking: she shouts. To some extent it might sound cool, but shouting all the time becomes boring and monotonous. Moreover, she almost always sings with exactly the same tone of voice, so after a couple of songs you start to think whether she's a human being or maybe a robot or vocaloid... I feel this might be deliberate, but still, monotony in music is what kills the artist.

Another problem with beautiful Kuroki is that not only her voice is monotonous - her music also appears to be so. Meisa wants to sound very hot and she's successful at that, but when she uses the same sexy synths and hooks all the time, even hotness can become boring... While listening to "Magazine", I successfully paid attention to the introduction, but after "LOL!", "SWITCH", "BYE BYE MY FRIEND", "CELEBRATE" and "SHOCK -unmei-", I lost the count of the songs and I felt like I was listening to one song on repeat. If it wasn't for "Say Goodnight" (which by the way sounds almost like a clone of Koda Kumi's "No Way") I would think it all was just one extended track... It turned out that up to that moment the songs were still distinctive to some extent, because I could somehow recognize them, but what was after "Why" - I have no idea. Every song followed the same pattern, so they all blended into one big "megamix". After three listenings I couldn't hum one single melody from the second part of the album. It was a pity, because "Magazine" sounded promising at the beginning...

They say that if Namie Amuro looked for a successor, Meisa would be a perfect candidate. Definitely, for a young relatively inexperienced singer such a comparison is quite a big complement. I'm, however, convinced that Meisa is aware of it, because she clearly follows her idol's style in sexualized image. Moreover, "Magazine" is heavily influenced by Namie, e.g. in Meisa's robotic, emotionless style of singing (also several verses in "CELEBRATE" smell like "Can you celebrate"). Although Meisa tries her best to sound like Amuro, she has to go beyond simple imitation of the famous "cool professionalism", before she can be called the next queen of Japanese R&B...

Meisa's songs will be still present in my playlist, because I like "LOL!", "CELEBRATE" and "SHOCK -unmei-" very much, but what I wish to see in her next album is more variety. Moreover, it would be so great if Kuroki decided to reveal more of her true self in her music. That would be much more interesting than observing her meticuluosly following Amuro's footprints ;)

Girls' Generation MIGHT disappoint me...

This is going to be quick and simple, yet meaningful.

How is this:

possibly related to this:

Can somebody explain it to me?

SM made my hopes go mountain high that SNSD would show something really extraordinary (all these long dresses, fairytale imagery, etc.) and what we're getting is a regular dance song which doesn't even remotely resemble anything like the concept photos above???

I have a feeling I heard this song thousands of times before...

I know it's too early to judge a song basing on merely thirty seconds, but I'm not impressed AT ALL. I really hope the full version of the song will appeal to me more... : |

Soshi, please don't let us down!