B1A4 - Beautiful Target
Recognise them:
0:18 - Jinyoung (leader), 0:26 - Gongchan (maknae), 0:31 - Baro (rapper), 0:45 - CNU (vocal), 1:15 - Sandeul (main vocal)
Review:
Ahhh B1A4. I remember their debut fondly, OK was a fantastic song and the cute concept was a breath of fresh air when most of the other guy groups were into the 'I am man, I wear black and breathe heavily into the mic' concept. And with their new comeback with Beautiful Target, the cute concept still works. However what doesn't is the styling courtesy of SHINee knockoffs from the Juliette era. Granted this particular performance isn't the worst I've seen them in (I have nightmares of the harem pants that they were in a week ago) but please stylists, can we stop with the ridiculous clothing? The boys can be just as cute and fun in y'know, normal boy clothes. One day there will be a guy group whose concept clothing will be white shirts and jeans and I will fall head over heels in love. Still, B1A4 perform their concept extremely well despite the clothes - young, cute and fun was the whole point of this comeback, and man do each of the members pull it off. It's like it's only natural to be that cute and have that much fun butchering the english language on stage.
In terms of vocal ability, Jinyoung has improved so much since their debut. I was enamoured of him in their first music video, completely taken in by the eye smile but disappointed by his weak singing skills during the live stages. Now he's much steadier and you can actually hear him! Points to their vocal teacher. And every time Sandeul jooms jooms my heart like a locket a little part of me quivers in ecstasy. Boy has got talent, and he's one of the most reliable performers currently promoting. Yet right at the end his big note seems to be testing him, it sounded strained today. Hmm. Better look after that voice, Sandeul. Second vocal CNU also has lovely singing chops as well, but he's just that bit less reliable then Sandeul. His voice, while beautiful and with a huskiness I've always had a soft spot for, can tend to the shaky side. Maknae Gongchan doesn't sing enough for me to really get a handle on his true vocal ability, but he's good enough. Rapper Baro has a much deeper voice than I imagined, but as rappers go he's steady and doesn't run out of breath.
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Kan Miyeon - Don't Wanna See You
Review:
Miyeon, Miyeon, Miyeon. She first got my attention when she released Crazy feat. Mir of MBLAQ, and I absolutely adored the tongue-in-cheek concept of Paparazzi. There was something about those songs, about how catchy they were that made me watch every single performance. However this latest comeback doesn't impress me as much as her others did. The song is not catchy enough for me to forgive her average singing skills and the dance's signature move doesn't work enough for me to forgive how simplistic it is. While I get that Miyeon is a respected senior in the industry, I find her singing only so-so. It's not unpleasant to listen to her, she's certainly very steady and stable live, she does sound like the actual track, but that's about it. There's no special something about her voice that could convert me into a full on stan. I find that Miyeon always delivers on point, but this comeback does nothing for me. However it is only her first performance, and I will keep watching until I can't take it anymore.
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Jewelry S - I'm All Right
Recognise them:
0:23 - Semi (maknae), 0:51 - Yewon (vocal)
Review:
I was eagerly anticipating this subunit debut, mainly because Semi and Yewon are my favourite members from the newest incarnation of Jewelry. While all are great performers, Semi and Yewon in particular really impressed me during Back It Up promotions with their consistency and their stable voices doing the ridiculous choreography the song required. The teaser came out and I was psyched. The music video came out and I was satisfied. However this live was on the disappointing side unfortunately.
Semi has a beautiful voice. Gorgeous and with a lower tone, with that touch of grit which I love. However, possibly due to that, Yewon's voice becomes a touch nasally sounding in comparison. The note she hits at 1:24 has a slight whine to it which was not what I was expecting. Plus at 1:01, then again at 1:08, Yewon does one of the things that is at the top of my pet peeve list. She gasps for air. This is a very nitpicky thing to get annoyed about, but man does it annoy me. It's a sign of inaccurate breathing technique, you should not be able to hear a performer gasping like that into the mic. It's not just a KPop thing either, I was made aware of it through Idina Menzel of Wicked fame (though you might know her from Glee) - her gasping was infamous and exceedingly distracting. At first it was excused because of her asthma, but miraculously the gasping went away after some months away from the stage. I call that intervention from a vocal trainer. Not to mention, when Yewon goes to take a breath at 1:12, the inhale is quiet. As it should be. Yewon isn't the only KPop idol to do it though, don't worry, I'll point it out when I hear it. And ooooh the harmony at 2:31 is rough. I don't expect harmony at all from KPop artists, when they can do it (like 2AM) it's fabulous, but otherwise I'd prefer it if idols steered clear from attempting it.
Overall the performance is awkward. When Yewon sings during the chorus, Semi looks as if she can't decide whether to stand and move slightly, or to bop about with the backup dancers and winds up doing something awkward in between those two options. I find that when the stage only has two performers, it's best to go with both not doing any choreography at all or doing bits of choreography together. Otherwise it winds up being what this performance was. However I'll keep watching, I am biased for these girls and I think their song has potential and they definitely have vocal chops. Plus they just look so pretty don't they?
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Teen Top - Special Stage + Don't Spray Perfume (remix)
Recognise them:
2:53 - Niel (main vocal), 3:07 - Chunji (vocal), 4:20 - Ricky (maknae), 4:31 - Changjo (dancer), 5:05 - CAP (leader), 5:10 - L.Joe (rapper)
Review:
Niel + Chunji feat. glorified backup dancers return to the stage to perform a medley of HOT's We Are the Future, Kara's Mister, 2PM's Heartbeat and then a remix of their own Don't Spray Perfume. In terms of performance, I adored Don't Spray Perfume. I loved the choreography enough to ignore what I didn't like musically about the song. Then when I found out what the lyrics for Don't Spray Perfume were about (a younger guy telling his older noona girlfriend not to spray perfume otherwise his regular girlfriend would find out he's a cheating bastard) I loved the choreography enough to keep watching despite the horrendous message of the song. But there is only so much I can take of Niel and Chunji stealing the show while the other four members of the group basically get featuring credits in their group's song. Look, I get it Teen Top management. Chunji and Niel are the steadiest singers of the lot and the most reliable to deliver every single time. But that doesn't mean they should get the whole song to themselves should it? Changjo has a very nice voice, and Ricky's got a decent enough one, please let them sing. And to be quite honest, Niel's voice is in a very nasally timbre which can be grating to my ears after a while which means for the most part, I don't enjoy most of the singing that goes on anyway.
Yet I keep watching these boys because I honestly believe they're one of the more talented groups to have debuted recently. They don't get a lot of credit for it, but their dancing skills are on point and they are ridiculously in sync with each other. Don't Spray Perfume had the most recognisable and inventive choreography this year in my opinion, and Teen Top executed it flawlessly with every performance, and this one is no exception.
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U-Kiss - Neverland
Recognise them:
0:08 - Kevin (vocal), 0:15 - Kiseop (vocal), 0:19 - Eli (rapper), 0:28 - AJ (rapper), 0:32 - Hoon (vocal), 0:35 - Dongho (maknae), 0:40 - Soohyun (leader)
Review:
I've loved and followed U-Kiss since ManManHaNi back in 2009, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Neverland is so far my absolute favourite ever song from them. The part distributions are finally spot on (instead of Kevin and Soohyun basically carrying the entire song) and I love everything about it, the choreography, the song, the message of the song and their performance of it. There's intense emotion on that stage, something really quite close to aggression and for the life of me I don't know why I find it so attractive. In fact I don't even know why they're all so aggressive in the first place, the song is about convincing a girl to stay out and party the night away because there is no tomorrow and there are no repercussions in Neverland. Surely a more coaxing state of mind would be more beneficial for that purpose, but here there is a lot of aggressive arm slamming and punching and kicking the air and jumping and I am not complaining. All of them carry off this concept spectacularly (even though Eli seems spaced out a lot of the time, but I'm attributing it to the painkillers he's on) but damn it works so well for AJ. Mmmm AJ. Come to me.
U-Kiss also has what I consider to be two of the best live performers currently promoting, and those two are Kevin and Soohyun. Not once in a bajillion performances have either of those two failed to be less than stellar live. Barring a couple of times when Soohyun's voice has cracked on stage due to him pushing it too far, but otherwise those two are the bee's knees at dancing hard and singing perfectly at the same time. Soohyun's voice in particular I adore, there is power and emotion and every time he does his three note sequence - 3:10 to 3:16 - my knees actually go weak with pleasure. Though it appears he's been having trouble with his money notes: at 2:40 he opted to sing the melody line instead of his adlib, though he performed the adlib at 2:50. While as much as I love hearing him belt - and he has a gorgeous, gorgeous belt utilised beautifully here and in their previous title song 0330 - I would rather hear him sing the melody line than crack spectacularly. Special mention to Hoon whose glorious husky voice I also adore and am rather saddened that you don't get to hear that much in this song, but all is forgiven because he's sleeveless and oiewjrkwarms.
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