Monday, October 31, 2016

Girls' Generation - The Boys

It actually freaks me out how long ago this was released. It's been five years already since this album. I remember being so excited that SNSD was releasing an English version of the song and releasing the album in the States. Thinking about it now, I actually cringe a bit at the over excitement over K-pop stuff. I'm thinking that every teen fan of K-pop goes through that phase. Personally, I'm just glad that I was older in high school before K-pop began to become a thing so I avoided most of the middle school-esque insane fangirling. Beyond that, this was the first SNSD album I owned. It was also the first SNSD comeback I had seen in K-pop. I had listened to some of SNSD's songs before, like Run Devil Run and Hoot, but I hadn't been a fan during an actual comeback period before. It was crazy seeing all the hype of the release. As for the album itself, I remember thinking it was awesome and how much I wanted it. Nowadays, I don't think it's aged super well. Most K-pop albums never do.

Track #1, The Boys

The big title track. I remember it being absolutely huge. I was obsessed with the song. It seemed like the biggest thing ever to come out of K-pop at the time. Now, I think this is their worst aged title track. I don't know if it's because I listened to it so much back then, or if it just truly has fallen apart with age, but I'd rather not listen to it again. The only lead singles I think are worse are their newest stuff. It just kinda has that sound where you can tell it was released a certain year in K-pop, much like 2NE1's older material feels. I guess that happens with genre defining groups and singles, they become representative of the time they were released and sound odd outside of that scope. 3.5/5.

Track #2, Telepathy

I think this is one of songs on the album that has held up the best. The music is lighthearted and not that kind of heavy, noisy K-pop sound from 2009-2011. It fact, I could see a group like DIA or Oh My Girl releasing this now. 4/5.

Track #3, Say Yes

This song pretty much typifies the K-pop album of this era. In my opinion, most K-pop albums from my earlier years knowing K-pop outside of 2-3 songs are pretty bad or boring. Like all of the effort was put on the title track and they just randomly chose some songs from a vault to stick on the rest of the CD. It's probably just me though. I've never been a fan of the overly flowery cutesy track sound like here. 3/5.

Track #4, Trick

This song really sounds like a remix of Hoot in the chorus. It has that sound that I was talking about with The Boys, but not as noisy. The verses are the main culprit of the noisiness but the chorus is still really nice today. 4/5.

Track #5, How Great Is Your Love

Yawn. Oh, sorry. I mean, this song is one of those slow, boring, K-pop ballads that are a dime a dozen. Listen to pretty much every K-pop album ever released and you'll find one. I guess it's well sung. I can say that. 2.5/5.

Track #6, My J

I'm resisting the urge to talk about Tomomi Itano's Dear J in this lol. This song is like How Great Is Your Love except in a different way. Just like the boring ballad, there's also almost always one of those "quirky" tracks that are weirdly sung that don't sound like they were supposed to be done that way but the were. That's this song. 2.5/5.

Track #7, Oscar

My absolutely favorite song on the album when I was in high school. I just thought it was so catchy and awesome. It hasn't held up as well as I wish it did, but I get really nostalgic listening to it. To me, it feels like a sister song of Super Junior's Opera. They have that same sound to them. 4/5.

Track #8, Top Secret

To be honest, I'm uncertain if I liked this one a lot after Oscar or if that was Telepathy. It's been a while since I've listened to this album. It's another Hoot sounding song, with the whole James Bond thing going on. Whether or not I liked this a lot years ago, it's certainly held up better than Oscar. 4/5.

Track #9, Lazy Girl (Dolce Far Niente)

I hated this song then, still hate it now. It's another My J situation with the way it's sung but worse. The way the very beginning of the song annoys me so much. It sounds like the voice you make when you're mocking someone. The rest of the song is so sugary sweet it's terrible. 2.5/5.

Track #10, Sunflower

Here's where the album has really started to fall off. Before the song started, I couldn't even remember anything about it either good or bad. When it started, I still couldn't remember it. It's just a extremely generic K-Pop ballad. Bland and boring. 3/5.

Track #11, Vitamin

This is another track that was also just sort of there when I was younger. Now, it's kind of catchy to me. It's not like "how did I miss this?!" but more like "hey this is better than I remember" is a cutesy song but not an annoying one. Kind of catchy. 3.5/5.

Track #12, Mr. Taxi (Korean Ver.)

So that's my thoughts on one of the albums that defined my last year of high school. If it seems I was hard on it, it's because I was. I tend to review things I find very nostalgic with a sharper edge than things that don't have that nostalgia factor for me. I believe I do it that way because I want to remember it the way it was five years ago, but it's not and never will be the same again. Wishful thinking I guess is a big part of it. 3.5/5.