I didn’t feel like reviewing these releases individually, so here’s the second edition of my K-pop Round-up-Reviews. First up, the return of BIGBANG.
BIGBANG – “Monster”
One of South Korea’s best groups makes a return with a re-package album titled ‘Still Alive,’ just three months after the fantastic ‘Alive‘. I’ll make a mention of the other three ‘new’ tracks later, but let’s first get to the lead single:
What can I say about G-Dragon that hasn’t already been said many times before by pretty much anyone who knows how talented this guy is. This song is awesome! Penned by G-Dragon and T.O.P, produced by G-Dragon and Choi Pil Kang, “Monster” is a great single and has already become one of my favourite BIGBANG tracks. I rank it higher than 2011’s “Tonight” and it’s only unfortunate the group aren’t going to be promoting it on the music shows.
Unlike “Blue” and “Bad Boy” which were a change of pace for the group, “Monster” is pure K-pop. Piano melodies, thumping beats and strong vocals by Taeyang and Daesung. It isn’t a song that you can label ‘quintessentially BIGBANG,’ because the song structure is something you hear from a dozen other idol group songs. As for the video, it sure looks expensive. Lot of action, special effects and outrageous Prodigy-inspired styling. As usual, I’m not going to comment on the fashion or choice of clothing because the quality of the music outweighs both. – 5 out of 5 (Excellent)
As for the other tracks on ‘Still Alive,’ the title track is a full version of the intro track found on ‘Alive’. “Feeling” and “Ego” are Korean versions of their previously released Japanese tracks. “Bingeul Bingeul” (not to be confused with U-Kiss’ track of the same name) is rock-infused and a pretty good album track. The rest of the track-list includes “Blue,” “Bad Boy,” “Fantastic Baby” and “Love Dust” – making this a great collection for people who were holding out from picking up ‘Alive’. I’ve got my copy on pre-order at YesAsia!
Wonder Girls – “Like This”
Another super group returns to the Korean music scene a few months after a stellar previous effort. As much as everyone is anticipating the American debut of the Wonder Girls, JYP has released the Girls’ second Mini Album ‘Wonder Party’ in Korea. Comprised of six tracks, the lead single is “Like This”:
I must say the song caught me by surprise. It’s a sound I never expected from the Wonder Girls. Very edgy, unique and more hip-hop than k-pop. It’s another track by their mentor J.Y. Park, but all that time spent in America seems to have influenced his musical style too. It took me a few listens to like the song but I think it works for the direction the girls are heading towards as they venture into the Western market.
If I heard the audio before watching the music video, I would have picturized it very differently. Quite ghetto in fact. It’s weird. The song doesn’t sound like a happy-go-lucky song you like to bop to, but the way the girls dance to the beat (and everybody else in the MV) – the video seems to convince you otherwise. For once you get an idol group video in an open environment and not confined to a set. So everything the Wonder Girls have done this time seems to be a welcome change. “Like This” may not be a favourite, but I won’t skip the channel if the music video ever came on. – 3 out of 5 (Excellent)
As for the rest of the album, it didn’t really fit my fancy as much as ‘Wonder World’ did. I didn’t instantly fall in love with the other tracks like I did when I first ‘Wonder World’. It may take me a few listens, but just like “Like This” the rest of the album is altogether a sound you’re not used to hearing from Wonder Girls.
Teen Top – “To You”
This is the first time I’m writing about Teen Top. The six member boyband debuted around the same time as INFINITE and seemed to be on the same path of progress alongside INFINITE. But INFINITE gained pace far quicker and are already one of the best (and my favourite!). After “Supa Luv,” my favourite song by Teen Top to date is “No More Perfume On You” (produced by Sweetune). I hoped the songs would get better, but instead the Brave Brothers-produced track “Goin’ Crazy” was chosen as their 2012 comeback. I didn’t like it. I’m not a fan of the “Brave sound”. So when I heard Teen Top’s next comeback track was also going to be produced by Brave Brothers, I doubted I would like it.
When I heard the audio first, I thought the song was quite dull. But I must admit it was a poor quality upload. My opinion soon changed when I saw the MV. I loved the hard beats, 90s-inspired vibe and for once, Niel doesn’t get all the lines to sing! I especially loved the dancing. Like INFINITE, Teen Top are fantastic performers and their dancing is very in-sync. “To You” isn’t better than “No More Perfume…” but it is now my second favourite song by the group. It suits the image of the boys well and I look forward to their live performances.
When I heard SISTAR’s “Alone,” I was quite wowed. I never knew the Brave Brothers could produce such a good track! So it’s a sign the “Brave sound” has evolved and Kang Dong Chul is experimenting with newer sounds as supposed to sticking to the uptempo formula that churned out “Bingeul Bingeul” and “Man Man Ha Ni” for the likes of U-Kiss. “To You” may not be a classic, but I ended up liking it more than I thought I would. – 4 out of 5 (Very Good)
Back on top
Honourable mention
The other song I felt I should give some attention to is “My Way” by rookie girl group She’z.
She’z from Line Entertainment
Pop-rock with really strong vocals. The traits very common with, erm, I dunno… Kelly Clarkson? And Kelly is exactly the artist that came to mind when I heard the first line of the chorus. Sounds like “My Life Would Suck Without You” doesn’t it? The selling point this group has is a fresh sound and all four of them have really good vocals! Hello Venus, another rookie girl group that debuted just recently, caught my attention too. But their debut single “Venus” is the typical cutesy concept, which although good, doesn’t hold the candle to a debut song like “My Way” by She’z. I appreciate it when companies know what the market is saturated with and then take the tough decision to offer something different.
Here we go. It’s the return of one of the biggest names in Korean pop music: BIGBANG. The much anticipated comeback comes after, let’s face it, a pretty bad last year for the 5 member group. But whatever, I’m here to talk about the music, not their scandals. And when it comes to music, you just know Big Bang never disappoints!
Here we go, my F1 weekend begins! Oh wait… I had to shift hostels first.
I really enjoyed my stay at WoW hostel, and today I had second thoughts of checking out and moving to the other location I had chosen (to be much closer to the F1 circuit). But since it was too late to cancel the other reservation, I collected my deposit and they wished me well. I told them I would definitely stay at WoW Hostel again, if I were to return to Singapore. (I seriously would, I really liked the place!)
I took the MRT and got off at Clarke Quay station, which is housed under Central MallNew Bridge Road, Clarke Quay is walking distance from hereCrossed over to the other sideCentral Mall is pretty hugeThe hostel I needed to get to was on this streetQuite a few other hostels in the area (The above were all taken on my phone)I arrived at the building which houses River City Inn… and I had been warned it’s a few flight of stairs upYou pass another hostel – Rucksack Inn, which is very popularAbove Rucksack Inn, on the 4th floor, is where River City Inn is located
I was tired! The staff at River City Inn greeted me with a glass of water (I’m sure it’s a common gesture now, with each guest appearing tired upon first arrival). Footwear must be kept outside, which I did, and I then entered the hostel to check in. First impressions? Very nice! Looked new, clean and well maintained. I had reserved a single bed in the 24-bed mixed dorm room, which cost SG$32 (Rs. 1,261/$25/€19) a night.Yes, it cost way more than WoW Hostel, but you’re paying the location.
Other than that, the hostel looked nice and it was the usual facilities. Complimentary breakfast and wi-fi, two desktop machines in the ‘living room,’ a decent kitchen with all the requisite quick-meal facilities, a large screen TV, XBOX 360 — and pretty much all the furniture is IKEA!
I would have shown you photographs of the interiors but the staff told me they didn’t allow anyone to take photos of the hostel. Oh well.
The yellow building on the right is where River City & Rucksack Inn are housedBang opposite is another hostel — City BackpackersAnother oneGiven you have a large shopping mall and an MRT station a short walk away, the location isn’t bad at allWent around the blockRucksack Inn has another branch in another lane
I was on my way to the Gate 4 entrance of the F1 circuitCross the road and you get to Boat Quay, in just 5 minutes from the hostel
Down the river is Clarke QuayOne of the River Cruise boats
Passed by the Singapore parliament
I walked towards the Gate 4 entrance, which was a right turn from up aheadIt was only 2pm, and gates weren’t going to open until 3… so I sat and waitedThere was a reason why the queue was this long an hour before the gates openedI patiently waited
At 3pm, the gates opened and people were slowly allowed in. First a security check. They saw my bag full of camera equipment and the staff asked me whether I was ‘Press’ — I said ‘no’. They still requested that I go up to the Press registration counter and sign a declaration saying I will not sell these photographs, to which I replied “sure”.
Once past the security check, I quickened my pace of walking. So did everybody else. Then as soon as I reached the Padang grounds, I ran — and so did the others!
You see, the reason why so many of us queued up so early is because they were handing out FanZone wristbands, so that we could get inside an enclosed section much closer to the main stageLuckily I managed to get mine, and so did the others who queued early — most of whom were VIPs* (I’ll explain later, they’re not *really* important people)Phew, well worth coming early for — but now I needed to grab something to eatI tried looking for the ‘Press’ tent, but couldn’t find it. Honestly, I wasn’t even too bothered to look for it, I wasn’t going to sell these images. Heck, I’m writing about a September 2011 event in January 2012!It was past 3pm and I hadn’t eaten yetI went in search of foodThe Cenotaph War MemorialAhhh, food!Ahhh, shawarma!
It’s expected food and beverages inside such events were going to be pricey but what to do, I was hungry. So I paid the SG$10 (Rs. 390/$7/€6) for the roll — the most I ever paid for a shawarma in my life, ha ha! (I grew up in the Middle East, so I’m used to having paid only a tenth of that)
Checked out the boothsPlenty of official merchandise on saleSingTel is the title sponsor of the Singapore F1, so they had a massive booth
Make-shift lounge bars
Tan Kim Seng fountain
You can walk under this bridge to get to the Theatres by the BayEsplanade Drive is a part of the F1 track — and thus closed from public use for an entire weekOn display were the classic cars the Formula 1 race drivers were going to be driven around the circuit for the Drivers Parade before Sunday’s raceVery classy line-upThey mention which car is assigned to which driver
Ah, my peopleIt was nearing 4:30pm, the Porsche Cup Asia practice session was about to startI took out my 70-200mm zoom lensThe safety cars were doing the roundsThe cameras were ready as the sound of the car engines grew louderHere they come!
I decided to walk to another viewing pointMind you, I was still behind barricades. You can’t simply walk closer to the circuit.
I had enough of cars zipping past, so I moved on
I exited the circuit areaI was going to meet my friend Aimee now
I waited for Aimee at the UOB buildingRemarkably, I got sunshine today!
After catching up with Aimee, a visit to the ATMWe set off on our walkGreat Eastern buildingAimee was going to take me to Chinatown
Even in Chinatown, there’s an Indian temple and a mosque
Chinatown food streetLike Little India, and Kampong Glam, Chinatown has its share of retro architectureAimee took me to this temple, the most famous in Chinatown it seemsThe name of this temple? Buddha Tooth Relic templeSeemed like a nice place to take photos of Aimee
There is a dress code, so they give shawls at the entrance to cover up
Inside, it was rather impressiveGo read up on the ‘Sacred Relic of the tooth of Buddha’ — it’s quite an interesting storyVery impressive designThis temple is in fact a newly built one, opened only in 2007
We left the temple
Aime and I then walked through the Chinatown bazaar
We had the urge to have some ice cream — bread ice cream in particular
Couldn’t get the kind of ice cream we were looking for, so we just had juice. I chose water chestnut – because it sounded weird, and I never had it before. It tasted okay though.
Aimee and I took the bus back to Central mall, as I wanted to reduce the weight of my camera bag by offloading equipment I didn’t need.
It was very cold inside the busEven though the distance wasn’t much, I experienced Singapore evening traffic today. It took some time to cover around a kilometre distance.
After giving our feet some rest at the hostel, we headed towards Boat Quay.
It was 7:30pm
It was Friday nightThe bankers and officer goers of Marina Bay were all out filling up the bars and eateriesWe sat by boat quayLook, Mithun!And we finally got bread ice cream!I had durian flavoured ice creamYayKids jumping in?Not reallyI still had some time before I needed to get back insideSo we goofed off in front of the camera
One final shot against the backdrop of Singapore’s famous skyline
Aimee and I said our goodbyes as she had to go meet her fiance and I had to head back to the Padang grounds.
I went back to the circuit
The JK Racing practice session was going onNothing exciting, until…… this guy crashed!Didn’t see the others cars race past until this car was lifted off the circuit and all the debris clearedI walked past the many hungry attendeesThe concerts on the main stage were about to begin, and lot of people had already gatheredBut since I already collected my FanZone band, I could walk straight up close to the stage!As the noise from the JK Racing series subsided, a band began to playWho was it for?Philippine songstress Charice!The many Filipinos in attendance surely showed the Glee-star some loveShe belted out her hits “Pyramid” and “One Day,” and even sang her (then) upcoming new single “Louder”
Charice and her band even took a dance break to do the “Dougie”Charice also sang covers of other popular hits like Jessie J’s “Price Tag”She maybe pint-sized, but her voice packs in quite a punch!Amazing singer — and a good show by her!After Charice’s performance, the Friday practice lap took place
Plenty of fangirls (VIPs* mostly) were awaiting the main acts for Friday’s concert. I didn’t go too close to the stage as many had already stuffed themselves as close as possible and I didn’t want to be in the midst of girls screaming their lungs out. Trust me, it’s not fun!The lights were readyThe balloons were readyThe fans… you get the ideaA DJ came on and began spinning some hip-hop jams, and then some 2NE1 — so we knew it was YG** time!
Past 11pm, the lights dimmed and the DJ introduced the first BIG BANG member to hit the stage…
… and VIPs screamed as loud as they could when Seungri hit the stage!Seungri kicked off his performance with “VVIP,” from his debut EP of the same nameSeungri obviously didn’t have too much material as his solo effort had just came out earlier in the yearBut he still performed his best
Seungri ended his brief set with his big solo hit “What Can I Do”Imagine dressed up in a suit and dancing under the stage lights in Singapore humidity!Feel free to caption this. Only thing I could think of was “Pew, pew.”We were well warmed up for the next act!
And when those two other boys from BIG BANG hit the stage — oh man, the screams!
GD & TOP leaped on to the stage and began their set with “Intro,” the first song on their albumFor those who don’t know: G-Dragon (Left) and T.O.P (Right) are two popular members of the hugely successful K-pop boyband BIG BANG, and as the sub-unit GD & TOP, released an impressive album in late 2010.T.O.P, the really good looking member of BIG BANGG-Dragon, the talented song writer and composer of BIG BANG — and one of the richest idols in S. Korea!For all his hip-hop swagger, I couldn’t help but laugh when G-Dragon would speak to the crowd in his limited English by saying something like “… you want to make crazy?!” T.O.P on the other hand wasn’t too hyperactiveThey performed other great songs from their album like “Knock Out” and “Oh Yeah”
The boys spoke to the audience briefly before ending their set with everybody’s favourite “High, High”!Eventually a sweaty G-Dragon took off his overcoat and sunglassesSeungri then joined his group mates to close out the show with (what I believe) was a Big Bang song
Given what a tumultuous year 2011 was for Big Bang – with Daesung’s involvement in the rather unfortunate car accident and G-Dragon’s drug ‘scandal’ – it was still quite a thrill for me that I got to see 3/5th of Big Bang. If only Taeyang could have been there as well, because the K-pop concert only lasted around 45 minutes in length — Seungri and GD&TOP’s performances included.
Oh well, in some ways I was glad it was over — I was completely drenched in sweat! I was so hot, and my arms were aching as I struggled to hold my heavy Canon 7D with the even heavier 70-200mm lens mounted. I took photos the best I could.
I also managed to record some video but if you plan on watching it, I suggest you turn down the volume…
The bass was just too damn loud! I wasn’t even that close to the stage or the speakers, but even from where I was standing, my rib cage was trembling with every thump! I looked up YouTube for other fancams and most of them weren’t any better.
I left the Padang grounds and walked back to the hostelIt was well past midnight
I initially thought about reading a fan account of the K-pop concert but my body was just so damn tired after the long walks today and the heat at the concert. I had dinner, took a nice bath and just laid in bed.
And to think this was just the first day of the F1 weekend!
*VIPs are what BIG BANG fans call themselves
**YG Entertainment is the company BIG BANG is under
As for the other tracks on ‘Still Alive,’ the title track is a full version of the intro track found on ‘Alive’. “Feeling” and “Ego” are Korean versions of their previously released Japanese tracks. “Bingeul Bingeul” (not to be confused with U-Kiss’ track of the same name) is rock-infused and a pretty good album track. The rest of the track-list includes “Blue,” “Bad Boy,” “Fantastic Baby” and “Love Dust” – making this a great collection for people who were holding out from picking up ‘Alive’. I’ve got my copy on pre-order at YesAsia!
And Kelly is exactly the artist that came to mind when I heard the first line of the chorus. Sounds like “My Life Would Suck Without You” doesn’t it? The selling point this group has is a fresh sound and all four of them have really good vocals! Hello Venus, another rookie girl group that debuted just recently, caught my attention too. But their debut single “Venus” is the typical cutesy concept, which although good, doesn’t hold the candle to a debut song like “My Way” by She’z. I appreciate it when companies know what the market is saturated with and then take the tough decision to offer something different.
