Chocolat - I Like It

This review hurts a little bit to write. I'm still devastated that Chocolat is gone. I'm almost positive that they've disbanded even though I'd like to hold out a little hope that their company might surprise us, but I doubt it. I very rarely get super attached to any group because I realize that it isn't forever and I actually find it pretty exciting when groups lose members/disband (I'm weird, I know....but it's also one of the reasons that I like the graduation system of J-pop....the first thing I do everyday is see if any girls announced a graduation xD), but I really grew to love this group and it's so sad that they never released a lot of music. The music industry is a cruel place.

For those who might not know who Chocolat is, they were a K-pop group that debuted in 2011 with the concept of having some members being half-Korean. Their original members for their first digital single "Syndrome" were Min Soa, Jaeyoon, Julianne, Melanie, and Tia. Julianne, Melanie, and Tia are all half Korean with Min Soa and Jayoon being fully Korean. After the release of their first single, Jaeyoon left the group; leaving them as a four piece. They came back with this mini album at the end of 2011. In early 2012 they re-released one of the songs on this CD as a single and recorded a video for it. It wasn't until 2013 that they released another single, Black Tinkerbell, and haven't been heard from since. They were supposed to be adding another girl, Lori, to the group, but I don't know if that was ever official.

Track #1, I Like It: The absolute best song of their small discography. I had enjoyed Syndrome when it first came out, but when I heard the live performance of this song, I fell in love with a group for the first time. For me, loving a group means that I have to get every release as soon as it comes out. I hadn't been like that with any group before (this was before I really got into Hello! Project/48G). It's still probably one of the greatest K-pop songs of all time. Too great to be ignored like it is. I do listen to the English version more often though (for obvious reasons). 5/5.

Track #2, Haruman Deo (Same Thing To Her/One More Day): Now this is the type of midtempo/ballad I love. It's sung well and you can feel the emotion in their vocals. Even the random rap in the middle fits. I really like how they got a male rapper to feature in the song. Still tragic that they didn't get any recognition when this song was re-released. This is the type of song that would be huge today, especially with the video and choreography. 5/5.

Track #3, Shireo Shireo (World Domination/Hate Hate): Another really fantastic song. It's got the attitude of the title track but isn't as electro-Kpop (making up subgenres here xD). Not really certain why the company calls it "World Domination" though. I've always wondered about that. 5/5.

Neomaneul Bogo Neomaneul Geurineun (In A Heartbeat/Only See You, Only Think Of You): Probably my least favorite song in their discography. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great song, but when you have a discography as strong as Chocolat does, even good songs can feel mediocre. It's very well sung. I still find it difficult to believe that Melanie and Tia were only about 15 when this was released. Their vocals are stellar. 4/5.

I Like It (English Verson): I adore that this song is in English. When I was in high school I used to imagine myself performing this song in front of my school as kind of a "screw you" kind of thing xD I know, I'm a dork lol. The English lyrics actually aren't horrible. Sometimes when there's English versions of K-pop songs the lyrics are kind of wonky in some places. 5/5.

I Like It (Audio):

To be honest, I'm probably really overselling this mini album. I'm incredibly biased towards this group and to be fair a lot of what is on the album is your typical K-pop fare. I do recommend checking them out for yourself though so you can decide if I'm crazy or join me in my fangirlism xD 5/5.