Wheesung 1st mini album

To start off, I want to see that I absolutely love this album! Its like the best R&B album I have heard this year. I shall henceforth make a vow to buy the album when I can reach the yesasia free shipping target. =P

This album is really quality…unlike several other albums. Not only the artist has excellent talent, the album also shows the effort of the artist. This really shows that taking a long time to produce an album can give the music scene a winner. Wheesung’s vocal’s are very much suited to this album. I personally LOVE the main track, fading star. I feel in love with the song after watching the MV for this song. Thanks to the translations, I was able to understand the song. Love the lyrics, they are so pensive and wheesung is able to really convey the emotions of the song well. Not to mention it has Hyori inside, which really makes the point of the song. The extremely beautiful girl whom wheesung loved and supported to become a celebrity ignored his love in the end. A very sad MV. The other song I love in this album is the 6th track, Prayer4soul feat. Lovelyn. Lovelyn’s voice is very nice in this track. Love the melody of the song, excellent song for a rainy day. Makes you feel relaxed and want to just enjoy the excellent vocals. Best album of 2008!

Rating: 10 out of 10 (no pun on 2pm’s song) =)

Definition of artist and idol

It has been brought to my mind that many cassies are going hyper over the way DBSK is the first ‘Idol’ group to have won the best album. Some are even ignoring the previous winners. Doesn’t this irk you, non ‘idol’ group fans?? For me, artist is defined as those who write and produce their own music, who tell the world who they are with what they showcase. Idols are, on the other hand, pretty people who just take the songs of songwriters to sing. Just as someone said on soompi, the best album award is given to the group/person who has participated in the whole process of producing of the album. FYI, this to me, means that the lyrics count as well. Some of them are just denying the success of WG and BB. They too, especially BB and Epik High, have EXCELLENT albums. The cassies are harping on album sales which show how well the album is. Let me tell you something, readers, that album sales for DBSK are high because of their fanbase, the loyal fans they have gathered over the years. These fans would buy the albums because they believe in their idols, not because the songs were good or not. A good album and good songs, will last, not because of the sales, but because of the quality of the songs.

On a final note, i want to make emphasis (cassies forgive me if you are reading this, I’m just supporting my fave artist): Big Bang – ARTIST, NOT IDOLS. Making the world shine with their music, not their faces.

My heart’s broken…cassies are the cause

I really need to vent out my displeasure. This year’s MKMF awards in Korea caused many differing opinions to be voiced straight after the show was shown. Cassiopeias, DBSK’s fanbase are critisizing the awards in a very LOUD and OFFENSIVE manner. They are the reason why my heart is broken. Just go to any forum, like soompi or such, and read those comments, anyone who isnt a die hard fan of DBSK would puke blood at all the bashing going on. Even some cassies would not agree with all those comments. Please la, die hard cassies, get past this. You all can’t expect DBSK to win all the awards, there are many good singers out there, DBSK is not the only one. If you really wanted DBSK to win all those awards, please, just go and arrange to have an award show just for them. With all this bashing, I think DBSK themselves would feel sad just looking at their fans who only care about material stuff. A true fan should love their idols no matter whether they win or not and spoil their image and the image of the other fans in the same fanbase by defaming others. Has rationality gone out of the world? Or have the fans just been eating too much red meat, until they get so worked up over this? It’s true that any fan of the artist who won, would feel estatic; and similiarly, feel sad if they did not win. But there is a limit, there is NO NEED to bash other artist who have worked equally hard as DBSK. Do you deny their hard work, their sleepless hours, the same conditions they worked in as DBSK? Sad…like me, I feel sad that Gummy or Younha did not win the best female singer award, but did I bash Hyori, certainly I DID NOT. Even though I do not really love Hyori’s music, I respect her as an artist who has great stage presence and I loved her performance with Big Bang which was very interesting.

Every artist you love, is a good artist. Awards do not make a difference. Just support them and they will never let you down. Please be rational and magnanimous, there is always room for improvement no matter who the artist is. I personally believe that Big Bang can always improve themselves more, their receiving the best singer awards does not mean they are the best, the other singers like seo taiji with more experience and talent definitely deserve this title more.

My 3 cents worth on MKMF 2008

Ok…here is my 3 cents worth on this topic. Overall was quite happy with my fave group winning Best Male Group and Best Singer. However, what makes me irritated is the attitude of the cassies. I don’t get why they get to worked up over Big Bang winning the award instead of DBSK. It shows how immature they are. I read comments which were really spiteful such as MNET is best friends with YG so of course Big Bang would win. For me, as a VIP, I would not bash DBSK even if they won the awards instead of Big Bang. I would of course be sad that Big Bang did not win, but not to the extent of saying spiteful things about DBSK. Now..on the other hand, what would the cassies say about DBSK winning best album? They’re of course estatic and how does this show that MNET is showing favouritism ONLY when Big Bang wins? I wish they would grow up and try to be more open minded. Besides that, I’ve read blogs detailing how happy the blogger would be when Big Bang finally gets the ‘beating’ they deserve. It makes me really sad to see all these fake ‘battles’ among these 2 groups. Both of them are worthy artistes. And of course, so are the other nominees. I believe SG Wannabe and epik high has as much talent as both DBSK and Big Bang and even if they won, I would not have started bashing anyone. Please cassies, get a grip on yourself.

On another topic, Big Bang’s performance with hyori was awesome! A different style than the other performances, I feel. Not to mention TOP’s kiss with hyori. A jealous but not hating fangirl here. DBSK’s performance could have been more, I still feel it was too normal, like their usual performance on the music shows. It should have had a higher mood, a more extensive layout. not DBSK dancing in the usual choreographed way where every members moves in the same way every time. If I was a cassie, I definitely would not feel satisfied with the low key performance. enough said…

On Epik High winning the hip hop award, I couldnt be more happy for them, since I’m their fan too. WG however…best song? A bit hard to swallow for me. I personally feel that Nobody is a catchy song but not really a good song in the sense that it does not do anything for the singer, like showcase their vocals or their talents (lyric writing or otherwise). Even Mirotic is a far better song than Nobody. I don’t mind WG winning the best female group as I think they have it in them, but song wise…please, what was MNET thinking? I feel the best song award should really be given to a song which has a good melody, good lyrics and is able to showcase the artist’s good points. Nobody fell short in my last 2 categories.

JJ Lin’s new album

Ok, for this post I’ve decided to blog about CPOP!! Well, first on my ‘hit-list’ (actually it is the only one) is JJ Lin’s new album, Sixology. As of the time of this post, me, the author, has only heard several songs off the album through the PVs released. Now for my judgement based on those songs….*drum roll please*

Verdict: UNSATISFACTORY

Now to the finer details of the verdict. The songs are a disappointment. They are typical JJ style songs which do not showcase any variety in music as compared to his older albums. Maybe I have been focusing too into the JPop and KPop scene and my standards for music have increased. To tell the truth, I think even the WG’s newest song, though repetitive, sounds much catchier and interesting than any of JJ’s songs. Sigh, and I was so hoping there he would come out with a better array of songs. Ok, to be fair here, I think comparing WG to this album is not the proper way to go about this criticism. Erm, the songs that I have heard so far are all ballards, which sound like very typical ballards which can be found in any corner you care to look. Not much creativity in terms of lyrics as well (guess I’ve just been too pampered by the awesome lyrics by Big Bang and Epik High). To compare songs of the same genre, I’ll take Clazziquai’s Alex as comparison. WAYYY different standards. But then again…this is still unfair, as it is a slightly different music scene in CPop and KPop.

Enough said about this album, not one for keeping at all. Neither is it one I would even bother to listen to again, unless some other song included in the album has a more star quality about it.

rating: 4 out of 10

Wonder Girls new album(The Wonder Years-Trilogy)

Ok, here’s a short gist on this the title song of this album – tedious. Not a song with good range to showcase vocal skills, which I personally think several members of WG are seriously lacking in. Sigh, what kind of music scene are we looking at now, please lah…..I see some people even commenting on the youtube’s video page that they like this song…..there is no more justice in the music industry. Artist who can SING, not just carry a tune, have been delegated to the back of the music charts. I despair at the degrading state in which consumers choose to support artist with no vocal skills at all. But, I digress….so far I’ve only heard the title song, but the rest of the album does not bode well in the sense that half of the album is instrumental music. Again….where is the sense in that? Beats me. I certainly hope that the remaining songs have some redeeming quality about them. Anyway, they will surely get many supporters, due to the ‘deafness’ if not ‘blindness’ of the consumers. OK, i concede that blindness is alright(note: for guys only) as they are quite pretty, but seriously ‘deafness’, give me a break.

Bring on the elephants so that we can have a circus!! Yahoo!!

Tegomass – Aiaigasa PV

This is my current favorite song. The song is really nice and soothing. A very relaxing song that takes all your worries away. Both the members of Tegomass harmonize nicely.

Ayaka’s new album – Sing To The Sky

Ayaka just recently released a new album titled Sing To The Sky. This is Ayaka’s 2nd album.

Track list:

1. Power of Music

2. Ai wo utaou

3. SKY

4. Jewelry Day

5. Good Night Baby

6. For Today

7. Why

8. Gold Star

9. Mahoutsukai no Shiwaza

10. Te wo Tsunagou

11. Ai mo Uso mo Shinjitsu

12. CLAP & LOVE

13. Kimi ga Iru Kara

14. Okaeri

15. Kon’ya mo Hoshi ni Dakarete

16. WINDING ROAD feat. Kobukoro

17. I Believe (English ver.)

Now for the review of this album. Overall this album is satisfactory. This is because the new songs that are included in this album are not that fantastic. The older songs attract my attention more, namely songs like Te Wo Tsunagao, CLAP&LOVE, Okaeri and WINDING ROAD. For the new songs, I prefer Kon’ya mo Hoshi ni Dakarete. Quiet music with wonderful piano sounds. A good Ayaka song, although technically it is not a new song as Ayaka has performed it during her live performances. The other new songs do not attract my attention when i first listen to the album. Suffice to say that they are not Ayaka’s best work.

Introduction

First time blogging in this new blog. Wanted to create a blog for my J-Pop, K-Pop music stuff. Well, I’ll try to update it as much as possible. Hope to make this blog a success.