Wednesday, March 11, 2009

»» Boys, Boys, Boys, and then some...

Lots of news, lots of new stuff. The new Tohoshinki single, Survivor, just came out. The new Super Junior song, Sorry Sorry, came out. BoA's english album is about to come out. The new AAA tour just started. Lots of news.

The new Tohoshinki song, Survivor, has had a demo (in english) out in the net for quite some time. While their last single, Bolero, was absolutely awesome, this sounds a bit rushed. In fact, I prefer the english demo over their version. The PV is no MIROTIC, but is ok. They're on a high right now, so I'm guessing avex wants to release as many singles as possible and profit all they can from them. Their new album is coming out later this month, and it's going to be called The Secret Code. If it's anything like their previous japanese albums, I'm sure I'll like it.

I'm not a SuJu fan at all. In fact, I actually dislike them. 13 people is too much for 1 group and some of them are simply not talented. However, I can't deny the fact that they've produced some damn catchy songs over the years. The M unit was also pretty great. Now their new song, Sorry Sorry, is probably going to set the Korean charts on fire, 'cause it's absolutely awesome. if features a lot of synth, synth vocals, electronic beats, a catchy chorus, and I can almost see them performing a killer choreography on the MV. SM knows how to do things, no one can deny that.

Another example of SM greatness is BoA's english album. Ok, they messed up by not promoting Eat You Up very well, but they certainly did things better then Se7en's and Rain's labels, who have been there for 2 years and they're nowhere to be seen. BoA's album comes out on the 17th, and I can tell from the previews that it is going to be E-P-I-C. First of all, and kind of a downer thing about it, there are no ballads. It's pure dance music with heavy synthed vocals and beats. BoA doesn't need that, everyone knows she can sing like hell, but they're obviously doing it to cover up her english speaking flaws. All I can say is that I hope she doesn't get better anytime soom, 'cause the songs are sounding absolutely fantastic so far. Another 6 days and we'll know for sure.

The new AAA tour has just started. It's called A depAture pArty, and here's the setlist:

01. SAVE YOUR SOUL
02. Red Soul
03. Samurai Heart
04. BEYOND～ｶﾗﾀﾞﾉｶﾅﾀ (karada no kanata)
05. 始まりのキセキ (hajimari no kiseki)

06. Getﾁｭｰ！
07. Wonderful Girls
08. a piece of my word
09. 唇からロマンチカ (kuchibiru kara romanchika)

10. 夢ノカケラ (yume no kakera)
11. 出逢いのチカラ (deai no chikara)
12. HORIZON
13. Mosaic
14. ﾊﾘｹｰﾝ･ﾘﾘ,ﾎﾞｽﾄﾝ･ﾏﾘ

15. ZERO
16. Let it beat!
17. "Q"
18. ハレルヤ (Hallejuah)

-ENCORE-
19. Jamboree!!
20. Winter Lander
21. 旅ダチノウタ (Tabidachi no Uta)
22. MUSIC!!!

I like the fact that it features almost all songs from depArture, but I'm beyond tired of Hurricane Riri, Boston Mari, and Winter lander!! isn't their best song. Other than that, I think it's going to be a nice DVD xD The pictures are looking good, the outfits are cool, and Chiaki's new hair is actually quite cute.

Not that many news, maybe?

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by Sairo!


Saturday, January 31, 2009

»» New singles and some hallyu love

2 new singles that were released not long ago, impressed me a lot: Buono!'s co.no.mi.chi and Tohoshinki's Bolero.

While Buono! and I go way back, I was never too fond of Tohoshinki 'til a few months ago, though I knew them ever since they debuted. I had a lot of stuff from them, all of their korean and japanese albums, and always downloaded their singles, but was never a fan, though I always liked a few songs from them. However, one of these days, I decided to play their second Japanese album, Five in the Black, and before I knew, I found myself liking it very much! I've been playing Begin like crazy ever since.

I ended up downloading their last japanese tour, and though their japanese skills seem to be rather weak, they put on an amazing show, with perfect vocals, amazing choreography and barely any lipsynching. It was also good to find out about some great songs who were hidden in singles and not released in any albums, like NO PAIN NO GAIN and Day Moon ～ハルダル～, which are both highlu recommended.

I also got to see how well YunHo dances. Boy, was I blown away by his dancing... He has probably the weakest vocals out of the five, but is by far the best dancer. They're very aware of that, so he has plenty of dance solos. I was also impressed with ChangMin's high notes and cute baby face. xD! Right now I'm listening to all the stuff I had from them and never actually listened to, and I just keep finding new hidden gems.

Back to their new single: Bolero is epic. That's the word. Epic. It starts off very slow and peaceful, with beautiul Junsu vocals, and kind of reminds me of The Wizard of Oz. Random, I know. YooChun kicks in with good vocals, and YunHo joins him creating great harmony. The chorus comes and it's pure JaeJoong + ChangMin greatness. The whole song is beautiful, and it's definitely not the average avex ballad song. No wonder they got their 5th Weekly #1 with this single. It's definitely recommended!

Other songs I recommend from Tohoshinki:
Rising Sun, My Destiny and One from their first japanese album Heart, Mind and Soul, their entire second japanese album Five in the Black, Purple Line, DARKNESS EYES (OMFG WTF IS GOING ON WITH THIS SONG?), Rainbow, SHINE, LAST ANGEL and Love In The Ice from their third album T, recent singles Beautiful you, If...!? and Jumon -MIROTIC-, and b-sides NO PAIN NO GAIN and Day Moon ～ハルダル～ from their Sky and Forever Love singles, respectively.

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by Sairo!


Saturday, October 25, 2008

»» Tohoshinki - Jumon -MIROTIC-

Tracklist:
01. Jumon -MIROTIC-
02. Doushite Kimi wo Suki ni Natte Shimattandarou? -THE LEVEL Remix-
03. Jumon -MIROTIC- (Instrumental)

This single was released on October 15th, 2008.

I had already heard the korean version of Jumon -MIROTIC-, so this was nothing new. I'm not fond of the korean version myself, but since I have most of their discography, I decided to listen to this single, thought it would be cool to keep my THSK discography updated. The song is pretty good, the chorus is catchy, but their pronunciation sounds a bit more off than in other of their japanese songs. This song was their comeback song in Korea, their 4th album's title song and all, but I really don't think it's strong enough for that... But hey! At least they didn't make one more version of Rising Sun ('cause that's what 'O' is).

When Doushite Kimi wo Suki ni Natte Shimattandarou?, their previous single, was released, eeeeeeeeeeeeveryone was totally in love with this song. I must have read like a thousand of people talking about how awesome and fresh it was. When I listened to it, I was like 'WTF?'. The song is soooooooo below average for me. I must've listened to the single twice, and not a single time after that. The -THE LEVEL Remix-, however, totally worked! I started listening to it, and I was like 'Holy crap, they finally worked this song out!', and by the end of the song I thought 'They really did :)'. This is by far the best Tohoshinki remix I've ever heard of.

Overall score: 8/10

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by Sairo!