Sunday 26 August 2012

August catch up - Super Junior, Boa, KARA

In the week and a half I hadn't posted, there were a couple of big names that had released new songs and videos. I was being really lazy for most of that time but there was also the factor that I'm not a huge fan of these artists which was why I could push back posting on them for a while. It's not that I dislike them, but I'll usually take my time to see what they've come up with.

Super Junior - Spy

I was surprised to find myself actually really liking this song. Probably because it's something that's actually different from what they usually put out. It's not all electronic synth monotone type dance track, but it's actually really interesting. There are of course the stupid sounding English lyrics (which Simon and Martina covers pretty well) but overall I was pleasantly surprised with their comeback. They do have a dance version of the music video, but I don't recommend it. It's really badly done on the production side for a dance version, which is really saying something.

BoA - Shadow

I heard this track when the Only One album was released. I really liked it and was wishing that she made a music video for this one instead of Only One because the "drama version" of Only One ended up being pretty pointless. However, after seeing the music video for Shadow I can't say that it was really satisfying either. Don't get me wrong BoA is super pretty and I really came to like her after seeing her on Kpop Star Auditions and stuff, but the video didn't really connect. She dances well and I like the song but none of that seemed to come together very well in the video, and all I could really get from it was that she's really pretty and they picked some nice outfits for it.

KARA - Pandora

This song... is really.... I don't know. Japanese sounding? There's a quality to this song that makes me think of those Japanese anime soundtracks - all frantic and girly if you know what I mean. It's not completely like that but I'm pretty sure after they made it so big in Japan the people behind Kara are trying more to create stuff that would be really easy to carry directly into the Japanese market. Kara's songs have this thing where it sounds like all of their voices are made into one.. like some chorus or something, and it's something that I particularly like. I think I prefer their individual TV appearances over their music, but that's just me being honest.

PHANTOM is Burning because of stupid girls that think alcohol will put out their fire.

With a friend's recommendation I decided to give PHANTOM a shot. 

Burning

To me, Burning is a pretty generic track with things I could expect from most kpop groups done relatively well. Given, their music video is pretty hilarious but I liked the fact that the group only has three members, which impresses me a lot more when the song is done well because there's less members to hide behind. Auto tune was used tastefully and you could really just hear and differentiate between the members.

As for the video, God save those easily impressionable girls who think that fires set by angsty boys can be put out by spraying alcohol on it. And to those awfully unprepared firefighters... maybe if you spent less time trying to party with pretty girls and kept yourself preparing for emergencies like these you actually would be able to help those poor burning boys.

From the rest of their EP, I highly recommend Homeground featuring Verbal Jint and Swings which is a fun 'rep where you're from' kind of track. Also, ICE is a hype track borrowing from Duck Sauce's Barbra Streisand. The rest of their tracks are more slower songs about love and stuff... which takes a lot more for me to get into so I won't say anything about them :) Although I was slightly disappointed to find that 미역국 (Seaweed Soup) was just about a girl. I thought it was going to be more of a Dynamic Duo-esque reflective song about their parents or childhood or something. But its okay because overall they sound pretty good.

Saturday 25 August 2012

On a café high: Urban Zakapa lyrics translation - 커피를 마시고 (Cafe Latte)

Maybe because I've been to Orange Caramel twice as well as Snakes and Lattes this week that I'm all up in this café high. Either way, Urban Zakapa is all I've been listening to this last while so I've decided to translate one of their songs before I move on to reviewing G-Dragon's new music video.

커피를 마시고  or Cafe Latte, is a track from their first album <01>. It's a great light song that I would definitely play in my cafe (I dream about running a cafe sometime in my life). Urban Zakapa has great voices and amazing harmony that just blend perfectly to brighten up anyone's day.

커피를 마시고 (Cafe Latte)


It's okay, a Me without You is okay
A day thinking [about you] is also okay
Truthfully I guess reality hasn't hit me yet

On rainy days like these
We enjoyed listening to this song together
For a while I stare into space and smile

Baby, baby you are caramel macchiato
Your scent is still sweet at my mouth
Baby, baby, tonight
Baby, baby you are, more than the aroma of cafe latte
Do you remember this warm and comfortable feeling
Baby, baby, tonight

Oh baby our faded sky blue couple tees
Your birthday is a fading memory
But my heart is still as warm as ever

To me you're still so warm and fragrant
All the things that couldn't be more wonderful have now become memories

Baby, baby you are caramel macchiato
Your scent is still sweet at my mouth
Baby, baby, tonight
Baby, baby you are, more than the aroma of cafe latte
Do you remember this warm and comfortable feeling
Baby, baby, tonight

Tuesday 14 August 2012

PUCCA x Glen Check: Too good to be true

A combination of a childhood favourite character and a new favourite band.. this is just the best thing ever.

PUCCA Love Crash x GLEN CHECK 60's Cardin

Friday 10 August 2012

I haven't been this excited for a debut group in a while... TASTY

너 나 알아


Alllllllrighty so from Woollim Entertainment were we get some great groups like Infinite and Nell, they've also dropped this bomb of hot dancing fierce ass TWINS on us. Apparently now "Asia's No. 1 Performance Duo", Tasty or Tasty2wins (oh my gawd despite everything I still can't accept the name.. but they do look////) consists of Dae Ryong and So Ryong, 24 year old twins. And they're super freaking tall.. at 185 cm thats like.. a tiny bit over 6 feet.

ANYWAYS this music video is clearly just a teaser for all that's to come. There isn't much singing or rapping or whatever they might do except for looking awesome and dancing which I loved. And who else hears a bit of We Speak No Americano in that beat?
What makes me so excited is their potential, you can just see it in their expressions. It seems as though they've accomplished the different personality thing that people associate with twins, with Dae Ryong being the wilder one in style and air, and So Ryong being the more toned down version (and maybe older?) with the simpler clothes and hair. I'm just so excited, the words...aldsfhualueau ^_^

There's been a whole new horde of kpop idol debut teasers and music videos for a while now so I've been skimming through them with some skepticism. I had actually been straying away into Korean indie-type music, but I'm so freaking glad I clicked on Tasty's music video because it got me so freaking excited about kpop again. I'm not going to lie though, I was really skeptical of Tasty because of their name and an instant comparison to 1TYM just from the title of the song... I'm so judgemental ㅠ.ㅠ

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Who makes Psy's Gangnam Style sunglasses?

I decided to check up on my blog stats, and although I have a very humbling number of viewers I did notice what people were clicking on my blog for:


Everyone wants to know where they can get sunglasses just like Psy's from his Gangnam Style music video. I don't blame you, they look pretty kick ass.

So, I did some digging since Google didn't really help and searched up on Naver, a huge Korean search engine, pretty much the Google equivalent in South Korea. Since I can actually read Korean (although I don't usually like to), I thought I'd finally use those skills to use. Voila, here's what I found.

Tuesday 7 August 2012

I Need Romance 2 OST

It's been pretty slow in kpop lately. Given, there are always new artists and groups debuting, and there are other artists making comebacks and releasing new tracks but none of them really mattered to me. However, I do think that I should make a post about now since it's been so long, so I'm here to rave about the I Need Romance 2 OST.

An OST, for anyone that didn't know is an acronym for Original SoundTrack. Korean tv dramas have the tendency to have an OST of 5-15 tracks that they use for the entire runnning of the program (mini-series are the trendiest dramas with 16-20 episodes, aired twice a week). Sometimes half the OST consists of pieces of music with no lyrics, just instrumental melodies and such, but because they play it over and over throughout the episodes the viewers become very familiar with it.

A lot of the times, a good OST can impact how well the drama does, in a very subtle way. OST's are always released like an album, and some of them do super well such as ones that came from trendy dramas like the Dream High series, or ones featuring trendy artists.

[Lyrics translation of leeSA's Have You Heard]
I have been watching I Need Romance 2 (also watched the first series in 2011), and I really love the OST. There are 12 tracks on that OST but 7 are songs with lyrics; the rest are instrumental pieces. It's a light collection of songs that give off a chill cafe feeling. Nothing too dramatic (except perhaps the opening theme titled "Waru Waru") and pleasant. I found a YouTube playlist of the songs from the OST here:


I especially love the first track I Could Give You Love by Lasse Lindh, a Swedish singer. The combination of his voice and the song is quite lovely.

Anyways, I hope we get some new kpop tracks that I can review... I've just been enjoying Psy's rise to international fame with his Gangnam Style, and listening to all of the great summer tracks released thus far.