Love at first sight.
24 August 2008 @ 10:30 ; 0 CommentsI'm so so so hot hot!
Yay! New layout! Time for a change, it's been two months I've been having the Britney one here. Not disrespect to my Britney, but it's time for some brightness and contrast, aye? Plus I'm on a Korean craze right now, no thanks in part to The Queen Bee (isn't it nice to blame someone for your bad behaviours?) for introducing me to "So Hot" and subsequently, to the Wonder Girls (read: urmmm they're the group who sings that song??? Doh.)
The Wonder Girls (left to right, following the layout header: Ye Eun, So Hee, Sun Ye, Sun Mi and Yoo Bin) are the proteges of Park Ji Young (aka JYP) and JYP Entertainment. Touted as Korea's (not sure if it's only applicable to North or South but we're not dealing with geography here) answer to the Spice Girls (I do believe so), the girls burst into the entertainment scene in 2007 with "Irony", causing a massive explosion and capturing the hearts of girls and boys alike (probably more of the latter, those horny pre-pubescent bastards). Since then the girls just keep getting bigger and bigger, with the release of their debut album The Wonder Years and second single "Tell Me" being hailed as the top song of 2007, sparking off a wave of fan-made videos imitating the Para Para-esque dance moves (YouTube these if you are really bored).
The Wonder Years has been on heavy rotation everytime I log onto the computer that I think the whole house is bleeding from the Korean overload (I do believe my mangling of the songs/language is much to be blamed for this). Let's do a review, shall we?
The Wonder Years (2007)
With Asian pop music, you shouldn't really expect much. Aside from Japan, whereby the musicians have made it big (regionally and all over), the rest of the Asean countries hardly register a blip regionally other than in their respective countries. The Wonder Girls, initially, exemplified that thought. With their cutesy looks, easy-listening songs and can-be-considered-hardly-legal choreography, it would be hard to not sit up and take notice for the first three minutes, before dismissing them callously as another fad girl band that wouldn't survive within the year. However, look past all that and focus more on their music, and surprise, surprise, they do have what it takes to survive and perhaps even dominate. Upon (repeated) listening to their album, it is more than obvious that The Wonder Years is a joy to listen to. The thirteen cuts on offer are really strong on their own, so lumping them together makes a good - no, scratch that, a great debut. And they have JYP to accredit that to, whose production skills here can be proudly compared as an Asian collision of super producer Timbaland (Justin Timberlake) and powerhouse British outfit Xenomania (Girls Aloud). The fast-paced numbers are easily identified as the gems, which seem to draw influences from Japanese faux-R&B and early 90s dance. Of course, let's not discount the Cantopop-lite ballads that feature on the album; they do sound good, but compared to the rest of the album, it just hit a slightly above average note. At times reminiscent of any Agnes Monica and other times can be mistaken for a Japanese release, The Wonder Years serves up every slice of easy listening music jam-packed with a collision of sass and cutes. If this is what they have on offer for their first attempt, more are expected of them for their sophomore effort. And you know what? Knowing JYP, he will not let the girls falter.
Aural fixation: "Bad Boy"/ "This Fool"/ "Tell Me"/ "Sorry Heart ~Tears~"
Okay I want to get back to my Wonder Girls. But before I leave, I'm ending this post with what I think is one of their best performance of "So Hot". Lovelovelove the dance break (go Leader Min!); pity about the vocals. (There's this group called Girls' Generation (or SNSD, whichever you prefer) who did a live performance of "Tell Me" recently that, as much I wouldn't want to admit, was vocally superior compared to the Wonder Girls. Hmm.) (YouTube that yourself, I'm not gonna put up a rival's performance on here despite it being slightly better. Hah.) I know they can sing, they sounded really good in performances last year. Maybe it's fatigue and being (over)worked to the grind. Anyway.
So hot dae bak!
