When I heard of 2AM the first time, I disregarded them as some soppy-boy band for girls who love their mushy love songs. An Asian version of Il Divo (minus the opera) if you may.
From top: Jinwoon, Changmin, Jo Kwon, Seulong
Even when allkpop began hyping their upcoming new release with the many (many) teasers they kept releasing, I never bothered to click. Then when the official music videos for their first two singles were released, I was curious to see if the hype was all worth it. I listened to the two singles – “Like Crazy” and “You Wouldn’t Answer My calls” and went: “Wow, nice songs. They have great voices too.”
So I thought to myself: ” Well, if they have two great songs in one album, they may have a few more good songs”.
2AM's first full-length studio album
Long story short, here I am writing a track-by-track album review for an album I think is one of the best pop albums of the year! (I’ve managed to find out the English translation for the Korean song titles):
1) INTRO – Phone: A beautiful piano laden instrumental with the phone constantly ringing in the background. Sounds very Japanese soundtrack-esque. Also a precursor to the next track.
2) 전활 받지 않는 너에게 / You Wouldn’t Answer My Calls – A beautiful emotional ballad. Not much else to say really. It’s beautiful track.
I wouldn’t rave about the video, but then again, I’m a guy. The girls seem to love it. (4 out of 5 for the song)
3. 미친 듯이 / Like Crazy – Another great ballad! Slightly more uptempo compared to its predecessor but a soppy ballad none the less.
Since I don’t know Korean, I have no idea why they’re crying so much in the video. (4/5 for the song)
4. 바로 나야 (feat. GLAM) / Just Me (Feat. GLAM) – One of the my favourite tracks on the album! Happier, fresh-sounding with a 90s- groove to it. (4/5)
5. Mirage – Getting into American R & B territory with this one. Just ‘okay’ to me. (Sorry, I don’t like Korean-pop trying too hard to sound American) (2.5/5)
6. 다시 사랑하기엔 / To Love Again – A nice ballad. Sounds like a track you’d often find on a soundtrack to some K-drama or movie. (3/5)
7. 이젠 없다 / Now, There’s No More – Found this to be track best enjoyed with your eyes closed. Another great ballad. (3.5/5)
8. 불안하다 / Nervous – Beats! Thumping beats! Yet another song with a strong 90s-vibe. This time a lot more uptempo. (4/5)
9. Love U, Hate U (feat. 방탄소년단) – My least favourite track on this album. Only because its another attempt to sound American with its “H to the A to the T to E” lyrics. Didn’t even bother listening to it in full the first time. (1/5)
10. With or Without U – The most uptempo track on the album, this is a great track with the guys letting it all out in the chorus. (3.5/5)
11. 사랑한단 말 못해 / Can’t Tell You That I Love You – The final track on the album and believe it or not… my favourite song on this album! A sexy uptempo track with great beats, this seems to be a favourite among fans as well.
Overall album rating: 4/5 (Very Good)
I’m definitely getting this album! Either on yesasia.com or when I go to Bangkok in a few days time. With this album, 2AM are now officially on my k-pop radar.
Update: I finally bought my copy of the album. Picked it up when I was in Manila, Philippines.
Also bought SHINee's 'Hello' re-package album because I loved "Lucifer" so much!
Thought I’d get that out of the way first. After a tiring first day (with barely any sleep), we made up for it by only getting up around 10:30am. And by the time we were out, it was already noon.
But today, the skies were clear and sunny.
We were ready for brunch
But despite the plethora of eateries and cafes, ‘the vegetarian’ (my friend Ramesh) found nothing to his taste. So we decided to go to Little India.
Rochor CentreThis is how apartment households in Singapore hang clothes out to dry
While the guys headed to Little India, I instead went to Sim Lim Square – Singapore’s famous IT mall.
Being a Sunday, few stores were closed but you still had plenty open.
I was looking for a good tripod and the Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS USM I lens. Most stores didn’t have the latter in stock anymore but I did get a chance to try out the non-IS variant.
Taken on the 70-200 f2.8; these are unprocessed & only cropped — very impressed with the image quality!
Several shops I entered asked me why I needed the IS version and suggested that I simply go in for the non-IS version and buy a good tripod instead. Something I did give deep consideration later.
SIm Lim Square isn’t as big as Funan Digital Life mall — but still offers quite a lot
A few smaller shops did say they had the lens and it “could be arranged,” but I decided not to deal with them. After all, Sim Lim is equivalent to Bangkok’s Pantip Plaza — you have tread carefully when shopping here. You can get ripped off, at the same while scoring some really good deals.
SNSD and other K-pop shown on laptops and TV screens was such a common sight
I had only made it to the second floor before my friends called and told me they were done with lunch. Since I had to catch up with them, I had to leave Sim Lim. Just like yesterday, I left disappointed knowing I couldn’t explore the mall in its entirety.
I grabbed a quick bite and made my way out.
As I stepped out and crossed the road in front of Sim Lim Square, I noticed crowds and street shops ahead of me.
… and street ‘performers’ like this guyTurns out I was now inside the Bugis Street Shopping centre
Bugis Street Shopping is the largest street shopping market in Singapore.
For me, it wasn’t really impressive. Not after you have visited Bangkok’s Chatuchak Weekend Market (or JJ Market). In fact, a lot of the merchandise sold here was from Thailand — which obviously meant it was slightly more pricier here.
The main entrance to Bugis StreetWe were really curious as to what this Iluma building wasI thought it was some boutique hotel
I had to get to Suntec City to meet up with my friends, but instead of taking of the MRT, I just walked.
I passed through another mall, this time — Bugis Junction.
K-pop star G.NA was going to be here in two days
Spotted at Bugis Square. It was F1 weekend after all.
Singapore’s roads aren’t this empty, just that traffic was diverted because of the race
After catching up with my friends, Ramesh made his way to the F1 tracks to begin his evening. While myself & Loi pondered what to do next. I had plans of going to Marina Bay Sand Casino to go up to the sky deck. When I had called them up earlier in the day, I was informed it was only open to visitors until 4pm, after which it would be off limits to non-guests.
We were inside CityLink Mall (yes, another mall in the area) when we decided to check out the HMV store.
Damn, Jay Park was in Singapore yesterday! (Jay Park is an K-pop star who’s going to be big worldwide… trust me)
By the time we stepped out of the HMV store, we already spent SGD150 (around Rs. 5,100) on official band t-shirts — and it was past 4pm. So I pushed Marina Bay Sands for tomorrow and headed to Suntec City mall instead.
This is just one section to Suntec City mall
After shopping some more at Suntec, we made our way back to Victoria Street where I had plans to show Loi the Bugis Street shopping centre.
The Singapore National Library building
But lay before us was Iluma — the alluding building which I assumed was a boutique hotel.
But upon closer inspection…… guess what…… it’s just another mall
But a funky one at that. Iluma is a pretty cool mall mostly targeting a younger crowd. Despite its appearance, we didn’t find the usual selection of high-end designer brands. Instead, we came across stores like this:
The merchandise on display was good enough to draw me & Loi in. Nearly half-an-hour later, we step out after having spent some dime on anime merchandise.
We window-shopped a bit more……. before stepping into another nerd’s toy haven
Inside the Otaku House was more anime merchandise; more necklaces and keychains (like the ones we bought from Comics Connection), to cosplay outfits and other props for rent or purchase.
But we sighed… and quietly walked out, reminding ourselves that we had already spent enough and would soon run of Singapore currency at this rate.
It didn’t stop us from exploring the mall still.
Pretty cool looking mall
The top-most floor houses what they claim to be Singapore’s largest arcade. And then there is the open roof top.
You get a nice view of the Bugis surroundings from up hereVictoria Street and Raffles Hospital in the distance
There are a few rooftop restaurants up here
As we made our way down, I realized iluma was one of the more unique malls in Singapore. Not only does it look cool, it really manages to cater to a young crowd with more affordable options compared to the rest of Singapore’s malls.
After we stepped out of iluma, I took Loi to the Bugis Street Chopping centre.
And by the time we were done with that, we were hungry. So we popped into the near by Burger King for a good ol’ beef burger
(Note: Beef burgers are a rarity in India due to religious sentiments so even McDs are too ‘chicken’ to serve beef burgers here).
Some of the anime merchandise we boughtiluma mall lights up at night
After this, we took the MRT to Orchard Road, our next destination.
I actually wanted to go back to Sim Lim Square, but Loi needed to meet his cousin — and since he didn’t have a local SIM, I had to tag along with him.
When we got to Orchard Road, we stepped right out to Ion Orchard mall.
There was some dance competition open to the publicAnd this fat dude was getting a lot of fake screams from the women… so he kept dancing
Orchard Road is Singapore’s famous shopping stretch (as if the rest of the city didn’t offer enough already), home to many star hotels and a very popular stop for tourists.
And boy, does this one-way road live up to its reputation!
Opposite ION Orchard, Lucky Plaza is very popular among Filipinos working in SingaporeNgee Ann City mall, the largest mall on Orchard RoadPopular for housing Japanese department store TakashimayaYou can get into Ngee Ann city to get to the underpass which comes out the other side of Orchard Road
Paragon, a high-end mall housing luxury brands like miu miu, Prada and more
Once Loi met up with his cousin, I was on my own to explore the rest of Orchard Road for some time.
I got back to the other side to continue from where I left off.
Next up, Mandarin GalleryYou’ll find a few street performers on Orchard Road… and for the love of god, do not taunt them like a few tourists did. They don’t like it.
This can be found in front of the Mandarin Gallery
This is the Singapore Tourism office where you can get info, maps, make reservations and suchCourts is a large multi-storey electronics storePretty innovative ad
This was a pretty cool looking mall
After this point, the malls slowly disappeared.
Crossed to the other side and made my way back
Tangs is a local department storeThe Orchard Road MRT station is connected to Wisma Atria mallIon Orchard, from across the road
After catching up with my friend Loi, we decided to see off his cousin at the bus stop and take one ourselves as we hadn’t done so yet.
My friend Loi with his cousin sister who studies in SingaporeThe buses use the same MRT cards
Since we didn’t really know where to get down, we just got off at the end of Orchard Road.
There were still more malls this side
As I looked at the map, we realized that Victoria Street wasn’t very far from where we were currently, so I asked Loi if we could just keep walking.
The School of the Arts Singapore campusWe passed by quite a lot of landmarks
It was nearing 11pm, so we stepped into a food court to have dinner and to quench our thirst with some beer.
Open 24 hours, Kopitiam has mostly Chinese and Pan-Asian fareWe weren’t really hungry so we just had roast duck and pork with our beer
After ‘dinner,’ we resumed our walk towards our hostel.
This was the Singapore Arts Museum
I couldn’t help but remind ourselves how good a location we chose to be stay in, given how close we were to a lot of what Singapore has to offer (especially if you a re shopaholic!).
Singapore Management University campus
The Bugis Street Shopping centre… closedSultan Mosque down the street
We were finally back in our room…. oh wait, we ran out of drinking water.
(Steps out again)
Once back from the nearby 7-Eleven I was finally done with day 2! As we checked out out our merchandise, we also counted how much we had already spent and soon realized we were running out of Singapore dollars.
We just had one more day left in Singapore, so it was either going to be Sentosa or the Singapore Zoo. I also wanted to hit the sky deck at Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Casino.
My favourite girl group (and pretty much the group that got me hooked on k-pop) are back with a new single and a new look!
The new concept image goes for a very retro spy-inspired vibe
Written by Yoo Young-jin, the man behind “Genie (Tell Me Your Wish)” and (still) my favourite song of 2010 – “Lucifer,” the new single “Hoot” sounds a lot more grown up compared to their earlier releases. It’s still fun! Take a listen:
EDIT (28/10/2010): Embedding the recently released music video…
On first listen I went: “Hmmm, different.” Then I played it again. And then again. And again.
This went on for nearly 2 hours straight in office, I’m not kidding. It didn’t really take me long before I realized I really like this song!
The girls sound great and my only grudge against the track is the constant laughter of the girls that appears after the choruses. Quite annoying — and distracting. Maybe it has a part in the video but I do feel it couldn’t have been done away with in the audio release.
The music video is out on October 27th and I will update the post with my opinion on the same then! EDIT (28/10/2010): After watching the video (which guest stars Choi Siwon of Super Junior as a Bond-like agent), I don’t feel any indifferent about “Hoot”. The music video compliments the song very well. Particularly liked the idea of 3 rooms with 3 girls in different colour palettes. Dance choreography is okay, the “shooting arrow” move is very well done but I did notice that Jessica got more screen time in the front. I love her and all but I hardly saw Yuri & Hyoyeon get some good screen presence. I also feel the bits of the video where all 9 girls dance in black looked futuristic, which made for a disconnect with the rest of the video’ s retro vibe.
EDIT (27/10/2010): Just finished listening to the whole album.
I know it’s just a mini-album, so I’m not going to write in great detail to critique it! Here’s my track-by-track review:
01. “Hoot” – It took me a few listens, but I really like this track. I honestly didn’t want another “Gee”. They’ve grown past that. This really is a different sound from them so I had high expectations that the whole album would be, well, “different” – 4 out of 5.
02. “내 잘못이죠 (Mistake)” – Supposedly written by Yuri, it’s a good R&B ballad. Not great, but good – 3 out of 5.
03. “단짝 (My Best Friend)” – Sounds like a mish-mash of 3-4 k-pop songs – 2.5 out of 5.
04. “Wake Up” – Essentially “Run Devil Run” 2.5. Heard it once, don’t think I’ll be clicking on it again – 1 out of 5.
05. “첫눈에…(Snowy Wish)” – Early X’mas track, catchy & sweet. Probably my second favourite after “Hoot” – 3.5 out 5.
Though I was expecting a “different” sound throughout, the new mini-album from SNSD is not that good in my opinion. With the whole retro-vibe concept, I was expecting more funky sounds.
I had it on pre-order on yesasia.com but having listened to it in full, I think I’m going to cancel it and wait for a full album release or an album re-package in a few months time.
