A diverse selection tonight - there's a song I think sucks, a good song and an outright brilliant one. Read away, alright? Alright.
The first matter of this post is from the world of K-pop. I'm sorry for the people who read this because of the Western pop but I'm afraid I've fallen trap waaaaay too deep - there's no turning back and I feature everything I like. Done deal.
For the longest time I've despised 2NE1 or at least found Fire extremely annoying and a waste of my time. Add that to the fact that Sandara Park tried to have a career here and for a while she was big but at the height of her popularity she went back to Korea. Now we know why - BECAUSE SHE'D BECOME THE CRAPPIEST MEMBER IN A GIRL GROUP SURROUNDED BY THREE OTHER VOCALLY CAPABLE GIRLS. Great, just great.
I'm dead serious. The rapper in 2NE1 can hold a melody properly and competently, the oldest member has the most critically beautiful voice - it 'just' has beautiful timbre on the surface but dig deeper and it has the ability to change your life, sort of. Then we have the youngest girl and she reminds me and a lot of other people of my favorite Big Bang member - DAESUNG!!!! Mainly because I think she has an amazing voice that grabs your attention the minute you hear it - it will make you swoon. Like hell.OK. So they have a new single - I Don't Care. When it first came out I was unimpressed and bored but when I saw the video last night, my jaw literally dropped to the floor. OK maybe it didn't but you get the point, right? Right. It just to happens that My favorite is the 'star' on this song with three solos that aren't the chorus. Oh dear. Of course Sandara's crappiness right after my favorite member's solo completely destroys the whole thing but I've learned to live with it - the song is near-epic. The melodic parts (even Dara's.) are surprisingly gorgeous from a band that brought us the annoying Lollipop and waste-of-time Fire but this is probably the only song on their mini album that makes that much of an impact. Bittersweet.4.3/5
From what I quickly skimmed through and glanced at, SOS is Jordin Sparks' second single from Battlefield. Countless artists have coined SOS as a song title and the songs have been enjoyable at the very least but Jordin's is above enjoyable. Everything about this song says that I SHOULDN'T like it - that it's way too this or that for my taste but I LOVE IT. There are elements in the chorus that remind me of a bygone era - whether 70's or 80's I'm not sure but it's one of either. The verses are exactly my taste though - beautiful vocals and an insanely epic melody.
If I was to gauge how epic the song is I'd seriously give up before I succeed. The epic-ness of the whole thing spreads throughout the song but the instrumental break before the last chorus redefines the word epic. What makes it better is the fact that the more I listen to the song, the more I fall for it and the more brilliance I find. For lack of words to describe the brilliance of this song even further - just listen to the damn thing. The rest of Battlefield is looking very, very amazing and the record as a whole including the songs I don't like sounds very cohesive so far. I honestly can't wait for it now - there's bound to be at least one more great song we can milk off the girl. YESSSS.
5/5
I adore the Sugababes - I honestly do but the minute they make a song wherein I only find three lines worth my time but aren't even that good, my adoration will slowly wane. I'm sorry to say but their new single is just that.Ever since Get Sexy was released and all my fellow bloggers talked about what they thought of it on Twitter it seems like I'm seriously the only one who's disappointed to the point of angered by the song. The intro before they start singing is scary, when they start singing it's not exactly enjoyable, the disjointed chorus without a melody is indulgent in all the wrong ways and the only decent part is when Heidi sings like 2 or 3 lines - that's it.
The song doesn't sound effortless and it isn't epic so it's obviously not beautiful to me. It sounds disjointed, unmelodic and annoying - so un-like them.
1.9/5
I'm fairly pleased with the choice of second single for little JordiSparksplug. It's firmly in the good but not amazing category and that will probably do for now. Having said that, watch it blow Battlefield out the water in terms of chart position :/
ReplyDeleteAnd Sugababes - well i do like it, but i'm conflicted by it still. I will persevere though because of my all abiding love of their stuff.
See twitter promotion works!!
I don't know why but I 'm not a major fan of S.O.S. by Jordin. I'm liking what I hear so far from her but "SOS" doesn't impress me as much as I was impressed with "Battlefield" and "Walking On The Snow". I just hope the new album has so much range of tracks to chose from.
ReplyDeleteThe Sugababes single is absolutely loveable. I like how they've comed up with such a fierce single. I'm still hoping for my reconsiderations on their previous album which was a total mess. Looking forward for more!
Totally adore Walking On Snow.
ReplyDeleteSOS not so much.
Get Sexy suprisingly lack any omph of the Sugababes. Its mediocre but ain't that bad. =)
2NE1's Lollipop song is so hard to stomach even though Big Bang is part of it. But this is so much better. Not fantastic but still okay.
Oh, I'm so lovin V Factory Love Struck. =)
Paul - I know! This better do well but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't. I've learned to realize that the songs I like will flop if they're even considered single material (probably the only exception is Alesha Dixon's 'Breathe Slow'..). I don't know - the Sugababes have to give me another 11+ good tracks to get back into my good books.
ReplyDeleteIt does! Ooooh.
Ken - Walking On Snow is insane. I mean if she can make a song that's epic and cheery at the same time then I respect the girl. I do hope the Sugababes' single grows on me or something because I'm going to be ALL ALONE! hahah.
rcLoy - Forgivable - WOS is brilliant. Yeah, 2NE1 have improved a lot.
YESSS! V Factory are like, AMAZING. hahah.
I personally think your judgement on 2NE1 is a little too harsh, :/ Personally, I think they're doing really good, and Lollipop was an okay song. "Fire" sounded good, and so did "I Don't Care". Plus, Dara's not the crappiest member in 2NE1. She's vocally capable, too. The other girls in the group just happen to be more talented than she is, but that doesn't make her vocally incapable. And there are a lot of other Kpop stars who were born in different countries that went back to Korea to pursue a career. If Dara had more practice with her vocals, I'm sure she'd be as good, if not better, than the other girls in her group, but hey, to each their own, right?
ReplyDeleteI've only heard a couple of songs from Jordan Sparks, not many, but I think she's a good singer. I need to listen to more songs by her. Never heard of Sugababes before.