PTT : BTS- 화양연화 Pt.2 (In the Mood for Love Pt.2): Album Review

Hello everyone!

WOW.

Not gonna lie. It's been very long since you've heard from me. Heh... let's just say I don't follow a certain schedule, neither do I have the discipline to. Heh. Heh. Heh.

ANYWAY-

Excuses aside -HEY- look who's back! 

WHOOP WHOOP

It is your one and only very much dedicated kpop fangirl-
*cue the drumrolls*

LOU!
YAAAAAAAAAY!

Ahem.
Sorry, that was rather awkward.

That aside, today I'll be doing a review on Bangtan's (방탄소년단) new 4th mini album by the name of 화양연화 Pt.2 (Korean) , or In the Mood for Love Pt.2 (English). The album, containing 9 tracks, was released on the 30th of November 2015 along with a music video to their title track, "Run".

After a successful release of the first part of the album, fans were eager for the second of the two part series; a request which has now been delivered!

All 9 tracks were topping Korean Music Charts upon the album's release, with "Run" even claiming the seat of several number one spots. Yay for another milestone reached!

Below are the opinions provided by my brain alone. Please take no offence if what I say does not reflect your opinions. Also, yes, I'm a fan so... slightly biased... maybe?

TRACK #1: INTRO: NEVER MIND

Bangtan has always impressed me with their rapping, that's for sure. And they don't disappoint this time either. This time's intro was done mostly by Suga, with Rapmon and Jhope only rapping about 2 lines each.

One thing about Suga's lyrics is that they always make you think. He likes incorporating metaphors and similes into his raps and it gives each line a poetic feel.
Never mind is full of raw emotions and honesty. He tells us his experiences through his rapping and some of the struggles he's had to go through. I really like how he shares some of his stories like that with his fans. Sometimes, it just shows that they are human too and maybe have it harder than it seems.

random thought: Suga swearing. Idk why but I actually laughed the first time hearing it hahahahha...ha.. *cough*

TRACK #2: RUN

This album's title track!
It does give me a similar feel to I Need U (Tri said that too) but I think that is because of where the rap verses, bridges, pre choruses and choruses are placed. In this aspect, I believe Run mirrors I Need U.

There is a definite EDM feel to it. Very dynamic. There are definitely many layers to this song and they probably took a very long time to produce this. As a title track, I think it has delivered. However, comparing it with the other tracks in the album, you wouldn't really consider it 'superior', like what title tracks usually are.

A thing I'm sure everyone has noticed is that Jhope has been getting those rap-singing lines quite a lot these days, before going in with his rapping. Jhope was a more neutral (?) sounding voice and it makes the song more interesting. 

On another note: V's solo bridge gives me all kinds of feels. And Jimin's vocals have come a long way too, compared to previous songs.

No doubt is it a great song, with even line distributions too. I can't wait to see the live performances of it.

Random thought: The mv. LIKE WHAT EVEN.
BIG HIT.
YOU EVIL POTATOESSSSSS

TRACK #3: BUTTERFLY

Two words: SOOOOOOO AIRYYYYY

And I love it! This final version of the song has a different feel than the one in the Prologue. The piano introduction has been taken out and guitar chords have been added in. It does make the overall song slightly more upbeat. But either way, this has to be one of their best tracks.

They did a good job incorporating rap parts into it too without it sounding off. Originally having thought that this track was going to be a vocal-only song based of the Prologue, the raps were a pleasant surprise. The only petty complain about this song would be that Jin only has one line (if my ears aren't lying to me) at the very end. It would have been great if he could have showcased his voice more in this track.

And hey,once again Jhope does the half sing-rap thing.
Love the adlibs and backup vocals too.

Overall; a great track.

Random thought: urghhhurgurgfhhdhdhd *melts* Jimin's adlibs are keeling meh

DO YALL SEE HOW CUTE HE IS

TRACK #4: WHALIEN 52

Now, y'all. This song is kinda depressing. Rapmon took part in the making of this song and its inspiration is taken from a whale that lives in the sea alone because it produces sound waves at 52 Hz, which no other sea creatures can hear. Thus, this song talks about loneliness and being alienated.
It isn't really that difficult to figure out upon having a look at the lyrics. Hohoho...

This track does not disappoint but it does somehow remind me of "Move" from Pt.1.
Slightly?
Hmm maybe because of Rapmon's influences in both the songs.

Also, the high-pitched whale like (are they? I don't know?) sounds in the background add a nice touch to the song.

BUT.
DID YOU GUYS HEAR WHAT I HEARD?

"I'M A WHALE."

Wow, Kookie. That's definitely something new.
I couldn't stop laughing after hearing that, not gonna lie.

Random thought: I have a feeling this will be their follow-up song... hmmm *ponders forever*

TRACK #5: MA CITY

HO. HO. HO.
So this track was released for pre-streaming for a day before the official release of the album, making this one of the first songs I heard of this album.

The rappers tell their stories in their own styles. Thumbs up for that. I also quite like the electric guitar in the instrumental. Maybe it's just me, but it makes the song have an... old-fashioned-ish... vibe to it? I don't know why, but it just makes me picture city scenery in black and white Haha

The best part of the songs for me would be the pre- chorus.

"자 부산의 바다여! SAY LA LA LA LA LA"

WOOOOOOO~

Random thought: HAHAHHAHAH. MIN. YOONGI. HIS RAP LYRICS FOR THIS. ABSOLUTE GOLD. *wipes tear*

note: But this song also sounds quite similar to Rihanna's Bitch Better Have My Money.

TRACK #6: 뱁새

Looks like we're going back to what Bangtan is known for; questioning and going against the stereotypes of society.

♤

(T/N: * 뱁새/ Baebsae is a Korean Crow-Tit but it is also used to call someone who ruins themselves by trying to imitate/ copy people who are better than them. It comes from the saying
새가 황새 걸음을 걸으면 가라이 가 찢어진다 meaning "If a crow-tit walks like a stork, it will tear its legs"

Trans cr; Mary & Sihyun @ bts-trans

♤

The lyrics go real and hard and are in your face. Seems they have nothing to hide, making this sound almost like a diss-track.

Sad that they don't have Cypher Part 4? Worry not because we have 뱁새, which ultimately makes up for the missing cypher. This probably being because of the hip hop elements in the song.
There's no doubt that this track will make you move along to its beats.

Oh and lol. It is so hard to differentiate the members' singing parts in this song.
Gah!
WHY DOES EVERYONE SOUND LIKE TAEHYUNG. (Unless he sang almost everything hahaha)

Random thought: YOU -YOU MU' BE KIDDING ME. YOU MU' BE KIDDING ME. YOU -YOU MU' BE KIDDING ME
KOOKIE. I SWEAR.

TRACK #7: SKIT: ONE NIGHT IN A STRANGE CITY

Bangtan has got to be one of the extremely few groups left that still do skits. As always, I really enjoy just hearing them bicker about random things. But if you don't understand Korean, you might need to see an English translated video for it heh (like me lolol. I only got about half of what they were going on about. Soooo yeah. STUDY KOREAN, EVERYONE! Or just look up the translation huehue)

Random thought: Bangtan bullying Jimin as usual pshhhhh and Suga being the grumpy grandpa he always is.
BUT HOSEOK NOOOOOOOOOO...

TRACK #8: 고엽/ DEAD LEAVES

YASSS Suga's track! I absolutely adore all the songs he has produced, Let Me Know and Tomorrow being two of my all time favourites.

Suga has a distinct style to most of his songs and it is something this track is not missing. He manages to make all the members shine individually in their lines with their own styles. 

No surprise here, but the vocal parts are wonderful. The rap sequences are also soothing to the ear.

Seeing that Suga likes producing things that are more on the emotional side, I say his songs are usually a great chance for Bangtan to show a softer side to the audience, different from their usual strong hip hop image.

All in all, a big clap to Suga for producing this song. A great job indeed.

Random thought: ALL THEM FEELS OMG. MY FELLOW ARMY, ROLL WITH ME.

TRACK #9: OUTRO: HOUSE OF CARDS

*sharp inhale*
OKAY.
THIS.
SONG.

I FLABBING LOVE IT.

It has a haunting melody accompanied by soothing instrumentals to give you the chills. It also has a jazzy feel to it and I love the effect the bboom-bba bboom-bba sound at the back gives. (sorry I'm not musically capable enough to use real terms hahaha)

Ah and the harmonies and adlibs; wonderful.

House of Cards is certainly my favourite track in the album.

Random thought: kaxjcgsksknsbxksjxhxxkssjdh *drowns*

OKAYYYYY and that is the end of the track list.

To conclude, the album as a whole was on fire! Nothing less to be expected from Bangtan. Great songs, great music, great production.
This mini album surpassed my expectations and may just be their best album to date.

To give it a visual and more definite standing point, I would give this album a solid 9 out of 10 points.

AAAANNNNDDDD
It looks like I'm done here!

Last words would be that (like many have said) I'm glad Bangtan has evolved their music to what it is today and have finally managed to find their own style and colour. 

There's no doubt that their more recent songs sound very much different from their past albums, but this is without question, a good thing.

Keep going Bangtan. I look forward to what they will come out with in the future.

And that is all for me today.
Have an enjoyable day/afternoon/morning/night and I'll see you in the next post, that hopefully, won't take very long to exit its 'draft' status.

GOODBYE!

credit to all owners of pics, gifs and videos.

MV Review: BTS - I Need U

HELLO FELLOW READERS!

It's Lou here and today, I'll be doing a music video review on Bangtan Boy's (or BTS or 방탄소년단 or whatever you wish to call them. They have too many names . Ahem) most recent comeback song, 'I Need U'.

Before we begin, I'd like to clarify that I'll be judging based on the following criterias:
1. Song
2. Lyrics
3. Story
4. Overall feels + other thoughts

 Check out the music video first! And remember to turn on the CC for English subtitles

BTS's I Need U is the title song for their third mini album called In The Mood For Love Pt.1, or 화양연화 in Korean. After almost a year since their last full length album, Dark and Wild, they have finally returned! Whoop whoop *fist pumps in air*

Flower boys. Literally.

This time, they're bringing with them a fresh new look and style as what the internet calls, "the flower boy concept". (I mean yeah,true since they were literally posing with flowers for their teaser pictures.) And of course the fandom was hyped up and expecting something that would blow them away. Well, was I impressed? 200 PERCENT YES!

First off, I Need U gave me a pleasant surprise with it's more soothing, soft instrumentals and vocals. Compared to most of their previous songs like Danger, We Are Bulletproof Pt. 1 and even War of Hormones, this song's "hardcore-ness" was evidently much more toned down and generally easier for non hip-hop fans to listen to. It's less heavy for the ears, if I could say, while still maintaing the signature raps from the rap line(Suga, Rap Monster and J-hope), added with the heart felt vocals of the rest of the members.

So shall we begin?

"하늘이 파래서 햇살이 빛나서
내 눈물이 더 잘 보이나 봐"
-BTS Jin, I Need U

1. SONG

Before we dive right in, I have a small confession to make: it's been about 2 and a half months since this song was released and I'm still endlessly having it on repeat. The obsession is real with this one. And I'll go ahead and say that this is probably my favourite (and best) song that they have released as of yet.

So will my opinions be biased? Yes, slightly. Maybe.(Most probably huehuehue sorry not sorry) BUT I shall try to remain unfazed and fair in all decisions and remarks that I'll make. Aherm.
Right. Let us continue:

                                                                                                       

Upon first listening to their 58 second teaser, it earned an immediate "wow" from me. Instead of the usual heavy, hard beats they often have to their songs, I Need U greets you with the soft, soothing melody of the piano and the short vocal parts added into it made it an even better experience. Both Jimin and Jungkook's voices blending effortlessly together.

  The teaser, below:

Now for the song itself.
The song starts off quite slow, with a rap that sounded almost lazy and uncaring from Suga. But right after that, it starts building up and creating hype, beginning from J-hope's part onto V's. (That's around when you know some awesome stuff is going down)

The chorus is simply stunning. It's almost as if it jumps at you, sucks you in, grabs you by the collar and yells,"SWEG" at your face. Well at least I was completely awe struck by the time the chorus was sung. With both Jimin and Jungkook's chill inducing high notes that display the raw emotions one would feel when singing about this topic, I don't know how you would not at least feel slightly touched. 

Suga so swaggy he got the swag stuffed into his swaggy swagsters

For the post chorus, I feel like they took quite a risky route by only choosing an instrumental with no vocals. But it worked out wonderfully. It gives you time to appreciate the music and take a break from the hectic singing and rapping before that. Also, perfect for a dance break down for live performances, which they indeed have!

The bridges before the chorus were sung by V and Jin and I think they executed them superbly. Especially the bridge sung by Jin before the second chorus. In fact that may be my favourite part of the song.

In conclusion, this song is near perfect in my opinion. I can't really find anything that I don't like about it. Oh but there's one thing that Tri pointed out when I made her listed to it. That of which is that she feels the phrase, "I need you, girl" is used too much. But I'm all fine with that but yes, it was repeated like 24 times. (Yep I counted) And occasionally "girl" sounds like "gurr" but I won't complain about that since I probably sound really bad trying to speak Korean so I don't expect them to be speaking excellent English either.

Song score: 9.5/10

2. LYRICS

From what I get from the lyrics,  it's that they have been left completely heart broken and ruined by the girl they loved. They regret and look back to the past when they were still together and it's almost like they're telling themselves to let go of a relationship that can't be mended anymore, yet they are still hesitant amd confused, still wanting to be together with the girl deep inside. 

It also appears to me that they are puzzled and perplexed about what they want/feel. Sometimes they are saying that they want nothing to do with the girl, scolding themselves for wanting to get back with her, but other times they say that they are sorry and are pleading for her to come back.

"But you’re my everything You’re my
Everything You’re my
Everything You’re my
Please go away huh

I’m sorry I hate u
I love you I hate u
Forgive me"

The same thing can be seen in the chorus when they first say that they need the girl and she's so beautiful but then proceed to say the opposite by stating that she's so cold, in other words, heartless.

"I need you girl, you’re beautiful
I need you girl, you’re so cold
I need you girl I need you girl
I need you girl I need you girl"

By the end of the song, they still don't have an answer and would rather just the girl break up with them so they don't have to make a choice. Basically, choosing the easy, yet painful way out.

To read the English translated lyrics, go here:  BTS- I Need U Lyrics

Lyrics score: 8/10

3. STORY

This song actually has two separate music videos, the official one (rated 15) and the original, uncut version (rated 19). Don't let the 19 rating scare you. Yes, there might be a stabbing scene and such but honestly, it's nothing worse than what you would expect from a PG13 rated movie. (But this version also includes them playing with french fries so...)

 Watch the original version here:

By watching the original version, the story line becomes so much clearer compared to just watching the official one. The story line is really quite depressing and somehow or rather they all end up dead (with the exception of Jin, buuuut we'll get to that later) Anyway, basically:

Suga burns down a motel and himself along with it.

Rap Monster kills himself in a fire at the gas station.

Jimin drowns himself in a bathtub.

J-Hope, depressed, overdoses and collapses on the highway.

V, blinded by rage, ends up killing a man and is probably given a death sentence. 

Jungkook is beaten up then gets hit by a car.

Jin, who probably suffers from depression, is the only one left among his friends. (But there are some theories that say he died too but yeah. It's all quite confusing)

Quite pitiful, isn't it?
Other than all the dying, the mv tells a story of how all of them are dealing with their problems (or the inability to). It shows how when together, they are happy and without a care in the world, while alone, they are miserable and vulnerable. Is shows how the company of others can act as a temporary shield to sadness and grief, which unfortunately, eventually wins over.

I feel like the acting skills that they displayed further enhanced it and made it such an enjoyable watch, allowing it to be easy for you to relate and understand their feelings as they seemed so real.

By the end of the mv, there's a shot of them sleeping and then a shot of the calming sky and sea. I'd like to think of it as they are finally in a peaceful place. Be it either they overcame their problems with the help of their friends or that they all ended their own lives.

Of course there's a lot of other symbolism in the mv. But I'll leave that to the fandom detectives to explain. (ie how the 6 flower petals Jin is holding represent each member that has died etc etc)

Story score: 8.5/10

4. OVERALL FEELS + OTHER THOUGHTS

Having a slower comeback song (okay it's not actually slow, but it's slower than most of their other title songs), I thought that they would tone down their usual intense choreography. But nope, how I was wrong. Their choreo is as fast-paced as ever and you gotta admit, the choreographer did a great job! (Both in pleasing the fans and making a visually aesthetic experience BECAUSE THEM BODY ROLLS THO *wink wink nudge nudge*)

(I'm sorry but Rap mon looks so awkwarrrddddd doing this [it's da dude to the utmost right])

To say the least, this music video was wonderfully shot and the director managed to create a somber feel by using toned down/ washed out colours for some shots, and bright, contrasting colours that stand out in dark backgrounds in others.

And so, as you may already have noticed, I absolutely LURVED this song and mv. What else can I say? Therefore, until their next comeback, sit back, relax and let this song serenade you.

They got their first music show win with I Need U YAAAAAASSSSS

Overall score: 9/10

 

Thank you for taking your time to read this mv review and feel free to stare your thoughts about this song/mv in the comment section below! (*cough* So we can spazz together *cough*)

GOOD DAY, GOOD NIGHT AND BYE BYE!