And Khalil Fong is FINALLY back with a new song and MV! His latest plug "BB88" was uploaded by himself this morning, and I'm taking a break from studying from my finals to review this song ASAP.
For "BB88", Khalil keeps things fresh and interesting by composing a song that retains his signature R&B style and soulful voice but is fun, upbeat, and catchy. As much as I love Khalil's mellow music, this funky tune is refreshing and contains great hooks. Parts of the song remind me of Cee Lo Green's "Forget You" as both possess the slightly funky and upbeat yet soulful feel. This song has not got out of my head since I first listened to it this morning and has been on repeat.
Already a song that puts a smile on your face, the MV proves to be even more entertaining. The video finds Khalil running away from several violent and oddly costumed girls, presumably caricatures of his ex-girlfriends in an abandoned warehouse. The colorful clothes, from Khalil's baby blue suit to the girl's get ups create an eyecatching contrast to the video's setting. It ends with him meeting up with another girl (newcomer Diana Wong) in an old boxing ring, and the two engage in an amusing pillow fight. Fans of Khalil's "adorkable" charm will be pleased, as he is cuter than ever here with his action choreography and facial expressions. The MV is a bit odd, but extremely entertaining, vibrant and matches with the playful feel of the song.
It's great to have one of Asia's most talented musicians back! "BB88" is a fantastic song that makes you smile and want to move! Can't wait to hear more new material, Soul Boy!
A pink makes a comeback on May 9th with their new album "Une Annee." This album has a total of nine songs: "Une Anne," "Hush" (their title song), "Boy," "Bubibu," "Step," "I Got You," "Cat," "April 19," and "Up to the sky" (ft. Yong Jun Hyung.)
The Song: The title song "Hush" is a refreshing and energetic song with an upbeat melody. I really like the lyrics of it. This song is abouta person that dreams about being with someone they like, but they are too shy and afraid to confess their feelings. When I first heard the song it didn't really catch on to me. Don't get me wrong, I do like A Pink's music, but this song felt different to me. Then I listened to it again and this time however I liked it. The very day I heard this song it was stuck in my head.
The MV: The MV starts out with the seven girls in identical outfits and throughout the song they carry on their own solo parts with their cute and bubbly personalities. They make cute faces and a hush sign with their finger over their mouth, they also wink a lot (like every five seconds). I love their creative and flirty dance moves. This MV reminds me of SNSD's "Oh!"
Author's note:
I personally love this song. My favorite song from them is "My My" which is in their album "Snow pink" even though this isn't my favorite song from A pink it's still catchy. ^^
On June 1st Girls' Genereation's newest "sub-group", Tatiseo, made a guest appearance one the KBS variety show Yoo Hee Yeol's Sketchbook as a part of their Twinkle promotions. The girls were interviewed and performed their song "Twinkle". They also did individual covers of three popular English songs; "Take a Bow" - Rihanna, "Jack" - Pixie Lott, and "Rolling in the Deep"- Adele.
The first cover was Taeyeon's rendition of Rihanna's "Take a Bow." While Taeyeon doesn't have the R&B type voice, she still did a wonderful job with the cover. Her strong, clear voice really brought out the emotions in the song. Her pronunciation have also improved immensely through the years (I remember a while back I had to decipher her words). I've always loved Taeyeon's voice, it's strong and pretty unique, this has to be one of my favorite cover from SNSD.
Next is Seo Hyun's cover of Pixie Lott's "Jack." Now I loved the song and its rock element, but I thought Seo hyun's voice didn't really fit with this song. Her voice is strong and pulled of the notes just fine, but she sounded a bit too girly for me. Her pronunciation needs a little more work as her enunciation still isn't very clear, making it hard to figure out the lyrics. But her facial expressions were adorable and she definitely has grown more confident of herself. Overall it was a good performance, but I wished she would've done an alternative song.
Lastly is Tiffany's cover of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep. First of all I want to say that I personally love Tiffany's husky voice, but it was clear that some of the notes were a little too high for Tiffany and her voice would waver during times. During the beginning her voice lacked the proper emotions of the song, but after the start of the chorus she had fixed that by not worrying about the cute expressions and putting her all into the song. The other thing that sort of bugged me was how she skipped the word "feeling" just before the first chorus. Now I'm just being nit picky here but, I was wrapped up in the momentum as it builds to the chorus, then there was a sudden pause, and the feeling of something being cut off annoys me a bit. Tiffany had great energy in this performance, as she usually does, and I really liked that.
Bonus ^-^
Besides the three broadcasted performances, the girls also performed Destiny's Child's "Cater 2 U". The girls showed off wonderful harmony here and the song is just beautiful. Why it wasn't included in the broadcasted version of the show, I don't know. It should have been included though.
All in all the girls did a great job showing off their own individual styles of singing and performing through these covers. Performances like these makes me start to like the idea of SM promoting Girls Generation in small groups like Taetiseo, it makes it a lot easier to focus on the girl's individual charms. My favorite cover has to be Taeyeon's since she sounded amazing, but I loved Tiffany's energy and Seohyun's facial expressions. But that's just my preference so, feel free to comment about which cover was your favorite, which members you like best, or any other feelings you have!
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author's note: It's been a while since I've written a full length post, but this has been fun. I told myself to do this before I get lazy or preoccupied again. I'm not a huge fan of SNSD and frankly am a bit intimidated by them as a group, but I decided to do a post on this since Iris and I had talked about uploading covers of songs on here. I ideally wanted to include the full episode and do a review on it as a whole, but there were several problems. First of all, SM wouldn't let me share the video on any other site. Secondly, there are no subs for this episode and I don't know Korean xD, so I just went with reviewing the covers. I also tried not to review it based on the original artist but rather to the song itself, since I realize different artists have different styles and comparing them might not be fair. Alright, now I'm just rambling so...I'll shut up now and I hope you liked the post ^^
Close friends and WarnerHK label mates Khalil Fong and Fiona Sit performed and were interviewed on RTHK's "Music on the Move" on June 2nd. The performances were exceptionally enjoyable due to the simplicity and raw feel. The lighting and candles also created a wonderful atmosphere.
For her live performance, Fiona sang her song "甜蜜蜜/Sweet Honey" as Khalil played guitar for her in the background.
Fiona's live singing has improved so much! She sounds very sweet here and had good voice control. The high notes were done well too. I love how Khalil is such a down to earth and nice person with a passion for music that he's willing to do something as simple as play guitar to another singer. The friendship between the two is too cute!
Of course, Khalil was able to take center stage too, and performed two songs. He performed a short cover of Stevie Wonder's song "Lately". Along with singing, he also played a piano accompaniment. His performance was near flawless, as his voice was controlled yet so soulful and soothing.
In addition, Khalil sang his hit "好不容易/Finally", from the successful album "15". It was short, sweet, and simple. With so much talent and soul, Khalil does not need more than just a guitar or piano and his voice to impress!
Great performances from both Khalil and Fiona. I hope to see them perform together again in the future. I would've loved to see them perform "All You Need is Me" and for Fiona to finally sing "Better Me" live, but it wouldn't fit the mellow and relaxed atmosphere they had going. Soon please?
Talented and underrated young HK singer Keeva Mak's latest plug "Revolver Juliet" boosts lovely melody and vocals. The mood and pace of the song is refreshing, as it possesses a feel that is neither too heavy or too airy. It is a sweet and beautifully produced song that boosts a serene and thoughtful tone. The use of instruments like the piano, guitar, violin, and drums are integrated beautifully into the song, something I love about great Cantopop. I particularly like the climax with the drums and sound effects used.
Keeva's strong, clear, and sweet vocals also faintly remind me of singers from the golden age of Cantopop back in the late 80s and 90s. There's something about them that leaves an impression on me, like those of the golden age.
From the beautiful composition to the vocals, everything about this single is well done and pleasing. Overall, the song just sounds magical.
Debuting as a talented female soloist with stunning vocal ability with the powerful "I'll Back Off So You Can Live Better", G.NA found herself losing her original musical direction as time went on. With the release of "Top Girl, her music started lacking more and more substance. It seemed that after just a short time, the beautiful and talented girl was being manufactured by Cube Entertainment into something she wasn't, some pop princess. After taking a break from her music career, G.NA is back with her EP "Bloom".
How does "Bloom" fare? Does it return her to her roots or propel her further in the direction of creative control doom? Oddly enough, it does both. Of the 6 tracks on the album, some show the manufactured pop princess G.NA, and some show the soulful G.NA we first got to know.
The album opens with "Green Light", featuring Jay Park. It's obvious club feel makes it too intense and busy. Put humorously, it's like how a dance club would like if if you were high on some heavy drugs. It's still a very upbeat and fun dance track, but there's so much going on in its musical production it feels like a musical seizure.
"2Hot", the album's lead single, marks G.NA's worst single and lowest point yet. It's like a blown up version of "Top Girl", only instead of being girly and a wee bit full of itself, "2Hot" comes off as plain conceited. Do I mind if G.NA does upbeat and playful songs? Of course not, "Black & White" is one of my favorite songs of hers. However, "2Hot" has absolutely no substance and sounds vain. The music video is laughably bad. It looks like she escaped into Barbie's dream land. And firefighters coming in with axes, really? The song and MV shows no class. Instead of being sexy and mature, the song, along with the dance routine, is raunchy, tasteless, and ridiculous. G.NA herself is not tacky or cheap, but everything about this single is.
After the not so hot mess of "2Hot" comes "Summer Star", which is the redeeming and best track of the album. It is a mellow and soothing song that fully showcases G.NA's beautiful and soulful voice and range. This is the first time in a while she has gotten to do that. I love the gentle acoustic guitar strings that open and close the song, and everything flows quite well.
"Oppa Dasseng", featuring Sangchu, opens on a cheesy note with a phone conversation, but isn't bad. The beat is nice and blends well with the piano in the background. It's not a great song, but still cute and sweet. It boosts a carefree and airy atmosphere that is easy on the ears. Her voice here is very sweet and thoughtful sounding.
"Drop It (Cut It Off)" is another strong track on the album. With a heavy R&B beat and influence, it shows G.NA's soulful vocals in a lighter and more gentle way. It shows emotion with a more laid back feel.
"Bloom" closes with the English version of the powerhouse song "I'll Back Off So You Can Live Better". The English lyrics flow well with minimal awkwardness and instances of loss in translation, making it one of the better, if not the best, English remakes. Although it's odd how the English lyrics flow into the original Korean rap, I'm glad they left that part untouched to avoid a potential and likely disaster of a translation.
Overall, G.NA's album "Bloom" has contrasting styles: the original soulful songstress and the manufactured pop princess. It's content resides at opposite ends, as it includes some of her best work yet, as well as her worst. Although its lead single is disastrous, it's the only song here that's actually bad. "Bloom" is still worth a listen. If you can get past the fun but slightly headache inducing "Green Light" and the dreadful "2Hot", you will see that the G.NA we know and love is still there. However, if it's one thing "Bloom" fails to do, it's prove how she's "blossomed" into a grown woman as a musician. And for an album with such a title, shouldn't that be its purpose?
Recommended Tracks: "Summer Star", "Drop It (Cut It Off)", "I'll Back Off So You Can Live Better" (English Version)
For our June banner Iris has picked 8 of her favorite artists to be on the banner. This banner is to celebrate Iris's (belated) birthday. It should have been up around mid-May, but both of us had been busy with school and tests. The banner includes both K-pop and C-pop artists: Eric Suen, Kary Ng, Younha, Miss A, G.E.M., ALi, Patrick Tang, and Ella Koon. I hope you guys enjoy the fresh new image this banner brings to A.E.E. This is also the first banner featured on the site to be made by Iris herself. (Iris: See, told you Niki's better at creating graphics. :P)
On a personal note: Happy Birthday Iris! Thanks for all the hard work you do for A.E.E. I couldn't have done this without you, you're the best partner and Jie Jie.
