It really bothers me that their first Korean album and first Japanese album are named the exact same thing....even though they have COMPLETELY different songs on them. I'm also surprised at how much this sold in Japan. I know they were more popular there when this was released, but I can't believe that it sold as much as Generasia has. I didn't realize they had been that popular in Japan. I wonder if they're still popular in Japan or no....it will be interesting to see how their new single does especially since it's the first release since Jessica was fired. This review is on the repackaged version...because it's the one I have. I won't be giving any ratings for Japanese versions of Korean songs.
Track #1, The Boys (Japanese Version): I used to love this song....my friend and I even recorded a cover of it. Can't really stand to listen to it anymore though. Never play something to death if you still want to love it four years later. I'm also very used to the English version since that's the one we played to death while making the cover, so hearing it in Japanese is odd. Since I can't speak Japanese I probably shouldn't bring it up, but is it just me or is their pronunciation off? Usually when listening to Japanese songs I can pick out a few words but this really sounds like gibberish to me. It's just a small nitpick...I realize that for them that Japanese is not their first language so expecting them to sing in it perfectly is ridiculous. It's like when I try to sing in Japanese it sounds nothing like the language at all xD.
Track #2, The Great Escape (Brian Lee Remix): The most annoying thing about this repackage is that they don't include all of the original songs and instead have remixes for some. I'll provide both the remix and original versions in the playlist. Thankfully, I hadn't heard any of the album songs before receiving the CD so I didn't have to deal with knowing the originals and having the remixes instead. However, now to me the remixes are the main track and the originals sound off. For this song, I really enjoy the music of the remix, but the over-processed vocals don't fit with it. It would work better if the vocals were arranged differently. For the original version, I feel like the vocals work, but the music doesn't. The vocals certainly fit a more electronic track, but the original doesn't go far enough for them to fit. 3.5/5.
Track #3, Bad Girl (ft. Dev) (The Cataracs Remix): I always wonder how much money SM spent on getting this remixed by The Cataracs. It's not like they were complete unknowns at this time. Dev was semi-relevant then too so I wonder how the decision to make this came about instead of doing a new song...because I feel like if you're going to spend the money on well-known producers/features, why just slap them on a remix? Especially because they were testing the waters in America. They probably wouldn't have gone anywhere, but they could have had a shot (miniscule, but still) with a new song produced by a known producer. This remix also suffers from issues with the vocal track. It just sounds so quiet in the song compared to the music. The instrumental is awesome though. As a standalone song this would have been awesome...and probably a hit for an American artist. Dev is so out of place on a Girls' Generation track anyway. The original track doesn't do the vocals any favors. The chorus is stronger, but as a whole I don't feel like this song really works....in fact I keep wanting to sing the words "Hurricane Venus" over parts of the original's chorus. 3.5/5.
Track #4, Time Machine: Finally out of the remixes. This is the only brand new song on the repackage. It's all right for a ballad. The verses really make the song. I wish the feel of the verses would be in the chorus since they feel like they're building up to an explosive chorus but it doesn't. 3.5/5.
Track #5, Mr. Taxi: Another song I played to death. Also their first original Japanese song. I had first gotten this song from their third Korean album and ended up getting used to the Korean version after hearing the Japanese for so long and then having to get used to the Japanese all over again when I got this was a pain. (Horrible run-on sentence...don't want to fix it though xD). Personally, I think this would have been a better song to go with for their Korean comeback than The Boys. It's catchy, it feels much more like the K-pop scene at that time, and it's really a better song. 4.5/5.
Track #6, Genie (Japanese Version): I never paid much attention to this song at all. I know it's one of their biggest hits, but it never caught my attention. I actually think I like this song better in Japanese, which is strange. Maybe it's because I haven't really listened to the Korean version.
Track #7, Gee (Japanese Version): This one is the opposite of Genie. It just sounds so strange to hear it in Japanese. Still one of their best songs ever no matter what language though.
Track #8, I'm In Love With The Hero: I was so hoping this song would be cooler than it is when I first read the title. The beginning of the song is so incredibly promising too. However, the song suffers from the same issues as the remixes. The vocals are really over processed, and I'm not sure if it's just me or iTunes or what but the vocals sound very low compared to the rest of the song. I don't understand why they opted to over process the vocals like they did on this album because not only are the girls quite good at singing, they also were able to pull off songs like this (Run Devil Run) without the annoying effect in these songs. 3.5/5.
Track #9, Hoot (Japanese Version): Another song I played to death in Korean. I'm actually surprised how much the Japanese lyrics work with the song. It works very well and unless I'm paying attention to the song I generally can't tell if it's the Korean or Japanese version.
Track #10, Let It Rain: This is my favorite of the new songs on the album. I can't really explain why I love it so much because it's not the type of song that I usually latch on to on an album like this. I guess it's a mixture of the fact that the vocals aren't ridiculously over-processed and it reminds me a lot of Jordin Sparks' Let It Rain, one of my favorite songs. They don't sound alike, they just have the same type of feel to them. 5/5.
Track #11, Beautiful Stranger: This has nothing on f(x)'s Beautiful Stranger. Just saying. I don't get why the more upbeat/K-poppy/electro tracks have such horrible vocal processing. Was it intentional? Is it just me? Cause I never really noticed that until I started this review....it would explain why I never play many of the songs from this album. They would be so much better if the vocals didn't sound so off. 3.5/5.
Track #12, You-aholic: This one is slightly better on the vocal issue, the verses are blah but the chorus sounds ok. As a song, this is one of the better new Japanese songs. It's very catchy and I'm not sure if I've ever heard them do a song like this in their Korean discography. There might be, but I haven't heard it. 4/5.
Track #13, Run Devil Run (Japanese Version): Funny story, I actually heard the Ke$ha version of this song before I heard SNSD's version. And to be completely honest, Ke$ha did it better. SNSD's version is still one of the best K-pop songs of all time though. I don't think this one works super well in Japanese though.
Track #14, Born To Be A Lady: And again the vocals sound fine here and it's a slower song. I don't get it. Were the dance tracks just mixed really badly or is my brain having processing issues. Whatever. Doesn't matter at this point. Really this song is kind of boring. The bridge is probably the only interesting thing to me because of the beat. 3.5/5.
Girls' Generation (The Boys) [Audio]:
Now that I get through it again, I can't understand why this album sold as much as it did. It's ok, but certainly not up to the quality that SNSD can do. I've always wondered why I could never remember how this album went at all, and now through writing this I finally understand. It's just very underwhelming. 3.5/5.
No comments:
Post a Comment