Tag: KPop

fromis_9 — Love Bomb

fromis_9 — Love Bomb

by Zephyr ♥ 1 Comment

 

I’m going to start off by saying that this song took me by surprise. Girl group comebacks are often pretty hit or miss for me, mainly because the whole ‘cutesy’ appeal doesn’t sit well with me. I get why it sells and everything, but there’s something about seeing a bunch of grown up girls acting overly adorable that makes me cringe a bit. The same goes for boy groups, so it’s not a gender based thing; I just can’t really stand the ‘act adorable in a really childish way’ angle most of the time. There have been exceptions, particularly with the group, APink, but I can’t really explain what it is about them that won me over. Might be Yoon Bomi; she’s too cute for me to handle. But back to this group.

So when I first began listening to ‘Love Bomb’, released October 10th of 2018, I could feel myself getting ready to dislike it. But before going into how my mind changed, let me provide a bit of background for the nine member group, fromis_9.

I’d never heard of the group before, so going in, I wasn’t sure how big their fanbase was. But it turns out that the group is brand new, having debuted in January of this year, which made the fact that they already garnered 4+ million views on this recent comeback pretty impressive in my eyes. They are the product of a show designed to put together a new girl group, Idol School, and their first EP features six tracks.

What I didn’t realize until after I’d done my research was that the name, fromis_9, actually does have a significance behind it, although it doesn’t hit you right away. The word ‘fromis’ when pronounced using Korean sounds like ‘promise’. The Korean alphabet doesn’t have an equivalent for the letter ‘f’ so their ‘f’ sounds are more like a ‘p’; it’s quirky (and sweet), and the word promise was chosen to coincide with the group message that they promise to be the best girl group out there. And, it may not need to be stated, but the 9 stands for the total number of members. They include (from oldest to youngest): Lee Saerom, Song Hayoung, Jang Gyuri, Park Jiwon, Roh Jisun, Lee Seoyeon, Lee Chaeyoung, Lee Nakyung, and Baek Jiheon. Thus, we get fromis_9. No explanation for that underscore. Maybe they were going for something aesthetic, I don’t know.

Now we can dive into the song.

Lyrics

The lyrics for the song weren’t anything hard-hitting or exceptional, although I reckon that’s not what the lyricists were going for anyway with this track. It’s more to illustrate what having a crush is like, and the crush stage is typically filled with innocence, a puppy-like admiration, and youthful glee. Sure, there’s quite a bit of annoyance and uncertainty as well, but that’s for some other song. ‘Love Bomb’ shines light only on the positives of being twitterpated.

Basically, the song talks about a girl in love, who has a love bomb directed towards someone, because she is overflowing with love and affection. She asks that they accept her so that she can surprise them with her explosion of love and fill their heart with her adoration. It’s not the most meaningful of songs, but I appreciate the attempts at being picturesque through imagery such as “a mysterious cloud spreads out” and the idea that the love bomb will shine on them under the moonlight. Simply put, it’s cute, and that’s what they were aiming for.

After reading the translation, I gathered that this song is more about the sound itself rather than the meaning, because it fails to present anything particularly deep or moving, but I think it’s fitting for the message they’re trying to send about the excitation and thrill of having a crush, and wanting to share feelings of affection with the other person. It does a good job of capturing those emotions, so I’d say the group achieved their goal with this one.

 

Aesthetics

I absolutely loved the creativity and consistency in theme for the music video. There have been many occasions where I’ll watch a K-Pop music video and the visuals have literally nothing to do with the song or message, it’s as if that art is going off to give a message of its own. But here, the group stuck with the concept and it’s amazingly done. Go watch the music video, it’s great fun.

The headbands shaped like candles are an awesome way to portray how the girls are love bombs themselves, and every single setting they use incorporate images of explosives (bowling with sticks of dynamite as pins, birthday cakes with sparkler-like candles, arcade style games surrounded by T.N.T, etc), tying in the music video together nicely. My favorite setting would have to be the pastel floral room, just because I’m a sucker for both those things—if you can’t tell from the layout of my blog—and it was a nice break from all the other intense/stimulating use of color for the visuals.

Screen Shot 2018-10-20 at 10.11.52 AM

I mean…tell me that’s not nice to look at. Even if none of the patterns match, there’s something soothing about that scene.

There’s heavy use of red, which typically shows up a lot in more sensual music videos, but they pull it off in a fun and charming way, demonstrating the passion of love as well as coordinating with the color of a love bomb itself (and it would only make sense for that to be red). The addition of animations adds a youthful vibe, portraying young love and affection as childish and innocent, which I was a big fan of.

For the choreography, I had to go watch the dance practice in order to have an opinion about it. Overall, I’d say it’s not powerful or intense, but that’s simply the sensible way to go about it with such a track. It matches the song well with the little point dances during the chorus (making the heart with their hands and all), and the girls are very disciplined in their dancing. They follow through on one of the wow factors that K-Pop has, which is practically flawless synchronization and sharp movements. There’s a level of theatrics involved in the choreography, continuing on with that youthful theme I mentioned, and I enjoyed just seeing them perform without any special effects.

 

Sound

At the start of the post, I discussed how I dislike the cutesy appeal, and to be honest, the first 30 seconds of the song did not make a good impression. It bothers me when these teenage or adult girls use high pitched voices in their singing, coz it’s just like listening to little kids sing. I know that cutesy-ness has its appeal for the targeted demographic, but I tend to prefer it when girl groups take a more age appropriate route. So I wasn’t a big fan of the intro and first verse.

However, the chorus of this song is a bop, and it turned the whole song around for me. It’s catchy, fun, cheerful, and you’ll find yourself tapping your foot whether you like it or not. It made me smile, which is a positive; I can’t get enough of the chorus.

The second verse incorporates a bit of rap, a nice change that mixes well with the vocals. From the chorus onward, I actually enjoyed the song, minus the throwback to the intro that followed the bridge section since it returns briefly to the overly cutesy sound. That bit made me cringe a little. All in all though, it’s a lively tune, filled with energy and bubblegum pop vibes, and I’m sure it can be a good pick me up after a rough day.

 

I’m pretty satisfied with the song and the group, quite frankly. They have a lot of potential and it will be really interesting to see them mature, then go in different directions with their music. I won’t go ahead and say they’re underrated, because there’s just not enough material out by them for me to form that opinion, but I’ll definitely keep an eye out for future comebacks.

Hope you enjoyed reading, and let me know what you think of this song! If there’s any particular track you’d like me to review, simply comment to let me know! Next post will review Weki Meki’s ‘Crush’.

 

Have a nice day/night,

— Zephyr

NCT 127 — Regular (English & Korean)

NCT 127 — Regular (English & Korean)

by Zephyr ♥ 1 Comment

 

 

Hi everyone!

I spent quite a while trying to figure out what song I ought to focus on for the first post, and due to their unique move with the most recent comeback, I chose to review both versions of NCT 127’s new single, “Regular”. Below is the link for the English in case you haven’t seen it and would like to avoid being lost while reading.

But for those who don’t know too much about NCT 127, I’ll present a bit of background. NCT 127 is a sub-unit of the SM Entertainment boy group, NCT. The letters stand for Neo Culture Technology and the 127 represents the longitudinal coordinate of Seoul. Appropriate, seeing as they are the Seoul based unit.

The group has 10 members: Johnny, Winwin, Yuta, Mark, Taeyong, Doyoung, Haechan, Jaehyun, Taeil, Johnny, and the newest addition as of September 17th, Jungwoo. Now, to be entirely honest, I still can’t match names and faces yet other than Mark and Taeyong—mainly because of their prominence throughout most NCT songs thus far.

But onto the actual review itself.

Lyrics

I’m someone who prioritizes lyrics over sound when it comes to music, so the first thing I did was compare the English lyrics and the translated lyrics. I’ll link them below in case anyone would like to read them:

It became clear to me quickly which I preferred. While both sets of lyrics send a message of how hard the boys have worked to get where they are and how they’ll continue working until they’re satisfied, the Korean lyrics go about it in a less braggadocious way. It makes sense that the boys are expressing their sense of pride in how well they’re doing, but somehow the English version manages to make it sound far more boastful, whereas the Korean maintains the idea that even though they’re doing well, they’ll continue trying their hardest to surpass their limits. There’s a subtle hint of humbleness, which I honestly think the English version lacks.

The words have a better flow when sung in Korean; the English lyrics are not quite as clever and clear (still not sure how “drippin’, water faucet” ties in with anything at all), but considering the fact that they totally ventured out of their comfort zone by doing an English version, it’s a solid attempt. I personally feel that the Korean lyrics do a better job in conveying the message of the song and my favorite line has to be “Stars in the city, in front of the CT, there’s an N. We don’t chase after wons, be the one one one”. This line caught my attention due to the word play: they talk about being stars in the city and incorporate their group name into the lyrics, tying it in with the word city; the boys then go on to talk about how they focus on being number one rather than working for the sake of wons (Korean currency), which I thought was an incredibly cool.

As a last thought, I was skimming through line divisions to see how many lines each member got, and I think there are a few members that got no more than 1-3 lines by themselves. It’s hard to ensure that everyone gets an equal share with a group this large, and more often than not, parts are distributed based on whose voice suits them best, but I do hope that in future singles, other members will have more solo lines.

That pretty much sums up my thoughts on the lyrics themselves, now for the visuals.

 

Aesthetics

Honestly, I have nothing bad to say about the music videos, which isn’t unusual when it comes to K-Pop visuals. As can be expected, the colors are vibrant and captivating, the fashion attractive and flattering, and the choreography suits the song very well. It didn’t come across as too powerful or too laid back, which I appreciate coz I think I pay more attention to choreography than anything else when it comes to visuals.

The scenes of the members on the streets strike me as pretty powerful just because they make such a point of emphasizing how successful they are, so seeing them walk and dance throughout the streets of Korea almost pounds in the idea that they own the place, they have that much influence. I like the tiger walking alongside Mark—it showcases their confidence, because the tiger is a symbol of courage and power in Korea, so the fact that they integrated symbols of their nation in was a nice touch, in my opinion. My only note is that it would have been helpful to have subtitles for the Korean video, not just the English, but minor details. Overall, a top-notch job for the music videos.

 

Sound

The song is catchy without a doubt. In the grand scheme of NCT 127 singles that I’ve heard (Fire Truck, Cherry Bomb, Limitless, and Chain), I’d say ‘Regular’ has definitely made the best impression on me. It’s not overwhelming to listen to, it sticks in your head but not so much in an annoying way (for me, at least), and the flow of the song was great. There weren’t any parts that I found to be choppy; the rappers had a slower flow for this track and appropriately so, and the vocals sounded smooth. The only thing I’m iffy on is the ‘brrah’ that comes in during the chorus, but it’s not a big enough negative to make me dislike the song as a whole. Although, I will say that I prefer the Korean version to the English one.

 

To be honest, this comeback makes me a bit more excited for future NCT 127 albums, because I’ve never followed them consistently to begin with and this song has the potential to change my mind. I applaud them for releasing the track in English first, that’s a pretty progressive move for K-Pop and I’m totally in support of it. I hope that this was an interesting read and thanks for the support! If there’s any requests for which song I should cover next, feel free to comment and let me know what your thoughts on the song are!

 

Until next time,

—Zephyr