ZE:A - Spectacular

So I'm going to do something I've never done before.....an album review. I'm fairly certain by the end of this post I won't be saying anything constructive at all but I thought I'd try it. What I'll do for album reviews is review the title track(s) and music video(s) first and then review the rest of the tracks & embed the songs (hopefully) in a playlist from YouTube so I don't fill up the page with videos and make it super slow to load. So hopefully I can figure out how to do that. I'll also put my individual track ratings at the end of each track review and put the full album review at the end. I'll try and keep album review posts brief I promise.

ZE:A is a male K-Pop group that formed in 2010. They currently have nine members: Kevin, Kwanghee, Siwan, Lee Hoo, Taeheon, Heecheol, Minwoo, Hyunsik, and Dongjun. I personally have never been much of a fan of ZE:A. They've got some cool songs, but nothing really interests me about them. However, I tend to not care about male groups anyway so... xD. This album is their second album which was released in 2012. The only reason I bought this album in the first place was because it was super cheap during a sale and I needed to hit $39 for free shipping on YesAsia xD. But in the end it wasn't a bad purchase. Note of caution: I can't speak Korean at all, so any English titles of songs that have Korean titles are titles I got off of Generasia or Google Translate....can't promise they're accurate.

The single for this album is called Aftermath. Honestly this song is just meh. Usually the lead tracks for K-Pop albums pre-2013 were really good (I say pre-2013 because for me, K-pop took a huge nosedive in quality starting in 2013). It's not a bad song, just uninteresting. The music video I feel is the same way. Uneventful and doesn't do anything for the song. 3/5.

Aftermath MV:

Track #1, Love Is Gone: This song definitely feels like an album opener. From what I've noticed in K-pop CDs, the first track of an album if not an intro or the lead single, is a midtempo track that begins with some kind of spoken piece. This is very much that. Again, it's just an average song. I do really enjoy the electro undertones throughout the song. It's too bad they weren't more prevalent. The pre-chorus is also very nice with the vocals. It also features a completely irrelevant dubstep piece in the bridge. I forgot that 2012-2013 had that weird dubstep influence phase in K-pop that totally didn't work at all except in a few cases. 3/5.

Track #3, Hunter: I'd have to say that this my favorite song on the album, which probably isn't saying much in an album full of very average tracks. I do wish that the song was a little more powerful though. For a song called Hunter, it seems more restrained than it should be. And again with the random out of place dubstep....to be honest the track could earn a 4.5 if it wasn't for that. 4/5. [For the record, I like dubstep, but no K-pop company can incorporate it properly where it doesn't sound out of place or stupid.]

Track #4 Coy Girl: This song is one of the better ones on the CD as well, however it falls into the generic category of EDM-ish influence. My definition of generic is just that it's a sound that you've heard A LOT from other songs from anywhere. There's times when generic can be fantastic, and then there's times where it just doesn't work. This is in between those two. It sounds cool, but by the time I heard it, I had heard so many songs just like it that this seems second rate. 4/5.

Track #5 Body To Body: Before I even started the song to remind myself what it was like, I had the chorus running through my head. I don't think a whole lot of this song, but one thing it does right is it's catchiness. It's been a few months since I checked out any of the tracks from this album (according to my iTunes I haven't since May 2014) and it says a lot about a song if you're able to remember even a piece of it after not hearing it for a while. 4/5.

Track #6 Never End: This song suffers from being in the middle of the album and right after three fairly good songs. It has the same kind of feeling that the lead track has. The instrumental is more interesting than the lead track, however it still isn't enough to make me pay attention to the song. 3.5/5.

Track #7 Begin With Kiss: Have I ever said that I hate ballads? I realize that this song is really more on the border of midtempo than ballad, but this is just boring. There are very VERY few ballads, especially K-pop ballads, that I can sit through and enjoy. This is not one of them. I guess the English in the song actually sounds good? Despite the Engrish title. Such an average ballad, at least it's not obnoxiously long like most ballads. 3/5.

Track #8 Daily Daily: This track actually was their third Japanese single first. This is the Korean version of it. I've never heard the Japanese version, so I can't say if this is any different besides the language. It's too bad this song is boring too. It's a really really bad idea for pop artists to put two ballad-type songs right next to each other. And when I say pop artists, I obviously mean singers that have the pure pop, EDM, dance influences. I realize that there are pop artists that do exclusively ballads. I just don't listen to them. Again, this is an average track. It's better than Begin With Kiss though. 3/5.

Track #9 Someday: Ah. Now I remember why I found this album so uneventful. THREE ballads in a row? Please no. This song would've been so much better if the violins were all the way through it. Not even it's more "powerful" chorus can inject any life into this song. I could actually go for a power ballad right now. And the rapping? Gosh it sounds BAD in this song. Now, I know nothing about rap either, but it just does not sound good. This one also just drags on for over 4 minutes. Blahhh. 2.5/5.

Track #10 Dirty Cat: Heh. I CANNOT take this song seriously. Even from the first time I heard it, it was just laughable. I mean that spoken intro? It's just HILARIOUS. It's too bad that this song is so hilarious because the song itself sounds cool. I'll give this song a 4 just because of it's novelty. CAT CAT CAT CAT CAT xDDDD. As an owner of way too many cats, it makes this song even FUNNIER. 4/5.

Track #11 SAD (Something In A Dream): This is the final track of the album (besides the instrumental of the lead track). This song also feels like an album closer. It has the same overall feel as track #1. Even though I really like midtempo songs, I tend not to like K-pop midtempos for the same reason I dislike K-pop ballads, but this song works VERY well. It's a good song that closes an overall average album. 4/5.

Album playlist (audio only; doesn't include the lead track):

This album really would have worked better as a mini album. Cutting out at least five of the tracks would have served it better. Although even out of the good tracks there was nothing completely amazing. The album as a whole is easily a 3/5. It's just average. Enjoy listening to the tracks!