SNH48 - Princess's Cloak

And we're finally back with another review post! China48 is so interesting to me. They keep expanding so rapidly to the point where it seems excessive, however with the population in China I don't think they'll reach that saturation point as fast as Japan48 did. It's also interesting how few graduations they seem to be having in the past year or two. When SNH first started, I remember hearing about members leaving all the time but it seems to have stabilized. I wonder if them getting more work/original stuff curbed the graduations or if there were changes in management. I'm really glad that they're getting original music now. I hate cover groups lol. Like, I'd love to know more about JKT48, but all they do is cover Japan48 songs and that's so dull. I don't care about personalities or TV shows or stages or magazines so there's nothing for me to latch onto without original music. I do wish that China48 would slow down on the releases though. Not a big fan on how all three release their EPs at generally the same time...can't afford to pick them all up at once that way.

Princess's Cloak is SNH48's 3rd original EP and their release after their Senbatsu Sousenkyou. It was released in two editions (a Princess's Cloak version and a Romantic Melody version) with different tracks on both versions. When I first saw that there would be separate tracks on the versions I was upset because I really don't like how Japan48 does it because it makes it impossible to get all of the songs for me. Japanese CDs are so ridiculously expensive, even when I get them off of ebay the prices seem to be going up. However, SNH's prices aren't super bad for a full EP. At least, the guy that sells them on ebay doesn't price them crazily. I can't find them elsewhere to buy in US, so I'm glad that it's not very expensive for the EPs. Although if anyone wants to buy from ebay and haven't before, I do have to warn people that all 48G sellers on ebay can sell for so cheap because they remove the photos/event tickets to sell or use themselves. I personally don't care because I can't use event tickets anyway and I already have a bunch of useless photos around my house from CDs I couldn't get on ebay so I don't want them either. I think I'm blathering again lol. On to the review!

Track #1: Princess's Cloak [Both Versions]

SNH's original music had very little appeal for me up until this EP. There was only one song (Hand of Justice off their first original EP) that I really cared about. I feel like their music had a lower quality of production and it was pretty offputting. They seem to have corrected that now because I was really surprised at how good this EP sounded in quality. I also don't really feel like the Chinese language itself fits poppy music like 48G and it really showed on their earlier EPs where on this one it flows much more smoothly. The Chinese language thing might just be me though because I'm not used to it like Japanese or Korean. I probably thought the same thing with both of those languages when I first listened to them, although I can't remember that was almost 7(!) years ago. Anyway, song itself. I do like this song quite a bit. It's catchy and it has a dancey background to it, but it's not EDM. It reminds me a lot of early 2000s teen pop in the States. That's not a bad thing at all though because it works for SNH. Kind of a blend between Japanese idol music and more Westernized Korean music. 4.5/5.

Track #2: Romantic Melody [Both Versions]

Now this song I really love. It hasn't quite surpassed Hand of Justice yet, but it's up there in my top two of China48's music. On the surface, this isn't the type of song I'd generally attach to because it's a rather laid back pop track with guitar pieces, but it is so catchy. It doesn't even really have a noticeable hook (think like the Ra Ra Ra Ma Ma Ma in Gaga's Bad Romance for a super hooky song) like a lot of pop songs do, but the singing style in the song really hooked me into it. 5/5.

Track #3: A Yo Ai Yo [Both Versions]

This is where the EP starts to falter a bit. This song is a really Chinese pop track. That sentence probably sounds super weird, but outside of Jolin Tsai, every Chinese pop girl group/singer I've tried to check out seems to have this weird rock-pop-dance attempt type of song that just sounds dated and odd. It also sounds like something Hilary Duff would have done as an album track in her Disney days. Again, not bad by itself, but it's just so odd for a song on a release in 2016. The production even sounds like it could've been done in 2003. It's ok, but really not my kind of song. 3/5.

Track #4: 48 Secrets [Type A]

I have mixed feelings about this song. It's catchy, but it reminds me of 2008-2009 K-pop music mixed with AKB stage songs. The production doesn't sound as dated, but it doesn't stand out enough because of it and it gets drowned out in the sea of much better songs from both parties. 3.5/5

Track #4: Dreams Flag [Type B]

I really don't like that translation (I prefer to translate for Chinese/Korean songs while I keep Japanese just romanized. Weird preference, I know). Is that really the closest translation? It feels clunky. That's another issue I have with China48 songs. Most of the translations I see online just sound so off. I'm guessing that they're more of a literal translation and that's why. I don't know enough Chinese to even attempt something smoother with Google Translate so I've just dealt with it. This song is pretty average. It's a typical pop song with guitars in it. Actually, I keep thinking of old Hannah Montana songs when I'm listening to it. The sound is very dated, but like most of the EP as a whole, at least the production sounds current unlike their earlier EPs. 3/5

Track #5: Do It [Type A]

I expected this song to be an awesome EDM track based on it's title. Imagine my disappointment when it ended up sounding like a bland idol pop track. I do give it credit for sounding more like a Chinese pop idol track than a Japanese one. Again, not sure if anyone gets what I'm trying to say here. From what I've seen of Chinese girl groups they have a very distinct "idol pop" style that is reminiscent of Japanese idol pop yet has it's own identity in my opinion. I might just be making it more confusing. I don't know. It makes sense in my head but I feel like I'm explaining it very poorly. 3/5

Track #5: It Has To Be You [Type B]

Although I don't care too much for this song, I think the style really fits SNH. SNH to me seems like a girly group (think Nogizaka) that would do well with pop tracks flavored with light dance music. I do like their heavier EDM stuff, but I don't know. The group's image doesn't seem to suit that. In fact, I feel like this would make a good Nogizaka song and I'd love to see them do something like this. They have kind of done it with Inochi wa Utsukushii, but that was darker than this. 3/5.

Track #6: Brand New Love [Type A]

Ah. Here's the AKB style idol pop track. It actually sounds a lot like the old AKB summer singles. It's not my style and I wish they'd stay away from sounding like AKB. 3/5.

Track #6: BEJ48 - Love Of The Spacious Items [Type B]

They certainly went AKB single with this one by including the sister groups. I don't mind too much, but I'd hate to see SNH start releasing as many types as AKB does. This title translation I truly hate. It has to be a direct translation because that sounds bad in English. Actually, by putting it in Google Translate, it says the same thing. Not sure if that means that Google has it right or if someone literally just copy/pasted from Google Translate and used it as the translation. Tried Googling it, can't find anything else about it. I don't even know what it's trying to say. Is it a pun/saying in Chinese that doesn't translate properly? Is it trying to describe something metaphorically? It's driving me crazy because what even are 'spacious items'? Wait....this is about the song. Ignore rambling. The song is good, but forgettable. It's really girly K-pop sounding. Imagine A-Pink for early SNSD. Not really my thing, but A for effort I guess. 3/5.

Track #7: GNZ48 - Flashing Dream [Type B]

Now this song I really like. The dance line in a midtempo track just catches the ear immediately. This style would be amazing for GNZ to stick with. I think the China48 groups don't have an "identity" at this point. I think that it's good that they have musical diversity, however, to be noticed in the general public, they should have one particular style where people are like "Yeah! That's SNH!". Like how AKB is known for easy dance/catchy KFC type tracks or SKE is the dance heavy group or HKT is the cuter younger sister group. All the groups do plently of different song styles, but they have that niche that they explore. 4.5/5.

On YouTube:

Type A is also on Spotify so I'll also link that (their newest EP is on Spotify as well!):

Overall, I think this is the strongest EP SNH has put out so far. Their new EP sounds like it is really meh and their EPs before this are also mainly meh. SNH needs to take whoever produced this, came up with concepts, made the music, etc. and run with it. This EP is SNH. It's the most clearly SNH release they've ever had and shows that they are capable of being their own thing outside of the constraints of the 48G label. 4/5.

25 Days Of Christmas Countdown Day #20: Top Non J/Kpop 2016

Yeah yeah I know I missed a day. This is the busiest week of the year for me and this isn't a top priority so I'm unconcerned. I also missed a day last year so it matches lol. Last year this one was known as "Top Western" but I don't like that because there's way more music out there than just stuff from Western countries (and I really really wanted to include that G.E.M. song in this so I made it work lol). I actually haven't listened to that many albums this year from any country or genre. I just haven't really had the time. I want to, and I have a HUGE list of things to get to, but I just haven't yet. That's why most of my list is just main singles and such because I haven't had the chance to delve into albums where usually there's better songs than the singles. This is also going to be an unranked list. It's going to go over 10 songs on purpose & I don't want those restrictions on this list. I'll do it alphabetically by last name/stage name/group name/whatever you get the picture.

Sabrina Carpenter - On Purpose

Sofia Carson - Love Is The Name

Daya - Sit Still, Look Pretty

Fifth Harmony - The Life

G.E.M. - 死了都要 ‧ 愛

Ariana Grande - Touch It

Olivia Holt - Phoenix

JoJo - FAB (ft. Remy Ma)

KOLAJ - Into You (ft. Eric Nam)

Krewella - Broken Record

Zara Larsson - Ain't My Fault

Little Mix - Shout Out To My Ex

Neon Hitch - Please

Pentatonix - Hallelujah

Peter Possession - Have You Here (ft. Matt Pardus)

Samra - Miracle

Sia - Move Your Body

Lindsey Stirling - Hold My Heart (ft. ZZ Ward)

The Weeknd - Starboy (ft. Daft Punk)

25 Days Of Christmas Countdown Day #16: ?????

So. I really don't like last year's day 16 category and I couldn't think of anything else to put. Sure I could've just bumped everything up a day but meh. So I'm gonna put so music recommendations instead! For those wondering, last year's category was H!P/48G songs that weren't from the main groups/from disbanded groups. I didn't like the idea of doing that category again because neither company has really released any new side music in a long time. Because of that, nothing in the countdown would have changed & there would've been nothing to talk about. That's boring. So, random music recommendations instead.

G.E.M. - 死了都要 ‧ 愛

Anyone know what the English title of this is?? I have no clue & I don't like using the actual script for non-Latin charactered songs. Obviously the last character means "Love" but I don't know the rest of it. Whatever. It's a GREAT song. I adore G.E.M. She's one of the very few Chinese acts I really like. Her music is extremely well produced.

Sixth Sense - Don't Go

I REALLY like them. It's been years since I liked a non-major label new K-pop group. Two songs in a row that have been really good.

Sol-T - Bad Girls

Surprisingly another new unknown K-girl group with a great song. A different tone than Sixth Sense's song. They remind me of an updated To Anyone era 2NE1.

That's really all I've got for this. Not a whole lot of stand out stuff since the last time I did this type of post. Tomorrow everything will be back to normal on the countdown.

25 Days Of Christmas Countdown #3: Top SNH48, BEJ48, & GNZ48

Last year they were never included because they had no original releases, this year they do! I know that they are no longer part of the main 48G, but to me they still belong to that umbrella "48 Group" thing. When they announced that they were breaking off from AKB & forming new groups, it didn't really surprise me. SNH always seemed much more separate from the Japanese groups that JKT ever did. While I think that morally it wasn't very nice to just be like "Oh well we're taking your concept for ourselves & cutting you off bye bye!", I like the fact that they are getting their own original music now. Cover songs are soooo boring. I wish that AKS would allow JKT to have an original release for once because I love collecting 48G CDs, but I'm not going to waste money on CDs from a glorified cover band.

With SNH's original music, they've only gotten better as the year's progressed. Engine of Youth's EP was ok at best. One song was incredible while the others were just ok. Dream Land's EP was the same and to be honest I can't really remember anything from it besides that it wasn't awful. Princess's Cloak though. Both versions of the EP are pretty dang good. Romantic Melody is so awesome. BEJ & GNZ's songs are much like SNH's first two EPs, ok, but nothing amazing. Since SNH had such a huge jump in quality from the start of the year to now, I'm really looking forward to what their sister groups have in store for the future.

I don't know why, but I've never liked using pinyin for Chinese songs, so I'll be using the English translation for the song titles that I've seen. So the English might not even be completely right lol. The translations I've seen seem a bit "clunky" although I'm not sure how difficult it is to convey the meaning of a song title between Chinese and English so it might be as good as it can get.

#10

SNH48 - Dream Land (2016)

#9

GNZ48 - You Don't Know Me (2016)

#8

SNH48 - A Yo Ai Yo (2016)

#7

GNZ48 - Flashing Dream (2016)

#6

SNH48 - 48 Secrets (2016)

#5

BEJ48 - Hello! Mr. Future (2016)

#4

SNH48 - Engine Of Youth (2016)

#3

SNH48 - Princess's Cloak (2016)

#2

SNH48 - Romantic Melody (2016)

#1

SNH48 - Hand Of Justice (2016)

I just love how these are all actually on YouTube. Not like Japanese songs. I also never saw any of their MVs until looking them up for this. Holy crap the budget! These rankings will probably change so much by next year lol.

New Music Thursdays (Nov. 5, 2015)

Sorry this is a day late! I can't even blame being busy on the lateness....I just simply forgot. Gotta get back into the routine of doing it after missing two weeks' worth lol.

Track #1: Twice - Like Ooh Aah

I didn't like this when I first heard it, but now I love it. It's such a grower of a track. Reminds me a lot of earlier K-pop tracks from SNSD or KARA. On a side note, I ADORE Tzuyu's outfit with the black crop top. Twice's first mini album, The Story Begins, released on October 20th.

Track #2: f(x) - Papi

I was so incredibly disappointed with 4 Walls (the song, not the album). I guess I just had such incredibly high expectations because it was an f(x) comeback and they fell short. I immediately listened to the album clips to see if anything was better, and this stood out above the rest. I haven't heard the rest of the album in full yet, but this is certainly the most instant (and more "mainstream" K-pop, I guess you could say) song on the album. It's crazy catchy and would have made a great title track. f(x)'s new album, 4 Walls, released on October 27th.

Track #3: G.E.M. - Blindspot

I'm actually glad I didn't post this yesterday because this wouldn't have been on it. I've followed GEM on and off over the years and I was just absolutely blown away by this track. It's so gorgeous (THAT BRIDGE. WOW.) and the music video is equally as gorgeous. GEM's new album, Heartbeat, releases on November 9th (which, now that I look up the date, is coincidentally my birthday xD)

Enjoy!

Song Recommendations (April 11, 2015 Edition)

Who's ready for some new music to discover! I know I am. If anyone knows any good songs that I haven't covered at all feel free to leave them in the comments & I might feature them! :)

EXO - El Dorado

When I heard everyone gushing over this track, I was positive that it wasn't as good as people were saying. I generally don't trust K-pop fans (especially boy group fans) on the quality of a group because being a fan of something can really blind you (case in point: me & H!P xD). So I was bored and looked this up for the heck of it and fell in love. I haven't been impressed with EXO since their debut and this is just so much better than that.

GEM - Oh Boy

This is actually kind of older, but I was going through my liked videos a couple days ago and came across this. It reminded me how wonderful of a song this is. This is Chinese pop.

Alyson Stoner - Pretty Girls

Not really sold on the lyrical content, but wow she really stepped it up with this single. The beat is awesome and her voice sounds so much better than it did in Dragon.

X21 - Shoujo X

I really wish that the full video of this would be uploaded on YouTube....Jpopsuki is too slow to use on a regular basis. Absolutely stunning song though. Wasn't expecting it from them.

Fairies - Kiss Me Babe

Love these girls. Hope they put out another album this year.

Enjoy!

Super-7 - Mai Luo Suo

I'm sure people will just love this post lol. If anyone remembers back a few years ago that Taiwanese girl group that said something about SNSD & everyone got all mad? Yeah, that's these girls. I think they're actually still a group today, but it's really difficult to find any kind of information on them. I'm going to probably have an unpopular opinion: I don't hate them. I think it's pretty pointless to hate people you never met just because they said something you don't like. If anything, hate their company. They probably made them say what they did and were the ones in charge of concepts for their songs. But anyway, onto the music.

Track #1, Mai Luo Suo: I bought this album mainly because of this song (the fact it was $2 on YesAsia helped too...). It's not the best produced song in the world, but it's extremely catchy. It's too bad that these girls have such a stigma attached to them because of that incident because this song is on par with most of the small company K-pop groups out there. 4/5.

Track #2, Kiss Me: This song I'm not that interested in. It just gives off a vibe that bothers me. The song is Indian influenced right? I'm not sure if that's exactly correct, but I love the influences of the song. I really would like to get into other countries' pop music besides the "big" music scenes that people usually think of (You know, like the US, Japan, etc.), but it's so difficult to find any type of good info online...unless I've just been looking in the wrong places. I guess I got really off track there huh? lol Well the song pretty much goes nowhere so you do check out halfway through. 3/5.

Track #3, Ai Dao Mo Yao Yi: And here's where I'm unsure if my romanizations are correct. Since it's very difficult to find information on the group, I haven't found a place that says what the titles would be in English or if I even have the proper romanizations....if anyone knows for certain I'd love if you could tell me. This is the best song on the EP. It's well produced, catchy, and should have been the title track. I think they could have gotten less backlash if this had been their lead single. 5/5.

Track #4, Qingchun Wudi: This song isn't exactly a ballad, more of a midtempo, but it's so boring. It has the same issue Kiss Me has. There is nothing about it that makes it stand out. 3/5.

.Track #5, Peng Zhi Shou Zhongxin: This is the second best on the album. Very catchy. Sounds well produced, vocals aren't beaten to death with autotune. It's nice. 4/5.

Mai Luo Suo (Audio-excluding track #5):

So I couldn't find track #5 on YouTube. I'll upload it someday but I don't feel like putting together a YT video a the moment. Sorry.

Altogether the EP is actually pretty good. Well, at least it's better than the internet would make you think. I hope that anyone who remembers the incident will put aside the hate to at least check out the songs based on their own merit. 3.5/5.

Song Recomendations (February 4, 2015 Edition)

So trying something new here as I figure that I'll never be able to keep up with those top 10 lists. I'm almost always listening to music and I always discover new things that I love so I figured that I might as well share some because by the time I'd get to doing actual reviews they'll be quite old. So here's what I've been loving the past few days!

Jolin Tsai - I'm Not Yours (ft. Namie Amuro):

This song is perfect! So ridiculously catchy and the attitude is amazing. There's some unfortunate English pronunciation (particularly from Namie), but for me it's easy to look past.

Angerme (S/mileage) - Taiki Bansei:

Angerme (S/mileage) - Otome no Gyakushuu:

Kind of cheating because there's two Angerme songs, but their new single came out today so please support them!

Cupitron - Battery:

Not many songs that I hear from indie idols interest me. This one is really wonderful though. Electronic-ish even. I swear that the red girl looks like Sayumi Michishige mixed with Nana Yamada, the green one looks like Aika Mitsui, and the blue one looks kind of like Yuu Kikkawa to me.

And that's pretty much it! I hope you enjoy checking out these songs!