Girl’s Day – “Something” Review

Girl’s Day – Something (Dance Version)

Girl’s Day – Something

Reviewed on July 11, 2014

Personal Message: Well there must be something going on…Girl’s Day  is that something! And alright I should stop with horrible puns for the start of a review, right? Anyways, as planned, time to review some Girl’s Day because these amazing, cute, sexy, beautiful, smart, and talented ladies are having a comeback in two days! Or was it three days? Doesn’t matter, it’s close enough. 

Personally I’ve been a Girl’s Day fan for a while ever since I heard “Something”. The very first song I heard from them was “Expectation”, and that greatly raised my expectation for their other songs (Note: I will review “Expectation” some other time). Ignoring the pun, I didn’t get truly hooked onto them nor their music until this song. From this song, I loved it and I also saw some extremely funny videos about them. Their care for each other and how sweet they are is what truly made me become a fan.

Anyhow, their cuteness nor sexiness isn’t a factor when it comes to their song’s quality. So let’s find out if there really is “Something” going on.

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Song Total Score: 8/10 (8/10 raw score) – Average score of the sub-categories, separate so Choreography Score doesn’t affect it.

– Vocals: 9/10 – Girl’s Day is packed with talented vocalists; in specific, Sojin provides very smooth, yet sustained high notes and Minah provides so much energy and power. Hyeri and Yura add in with their lines and further augment the vocals. 

“Something” is sang in a pretty high note, and seeing how these ladies pull it off is incredible; it’s quite respectable and the harmony and melody is well done. 

– Song Structure: 8/10 (8.33/10 raw score) – Going to have scores for “Verse 1 score”, “Pre-Chorus score”, “Chorus score”, etc.) 

The song goes in this structure and order:

Introduction, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Conclusion

So for “Song Structure”, I’m going to go through each section (Verse, Chorus, etc) and give a score per section. After that, the average is the “Song Structure” score.

1. Introduction: 9/10 – Already from the start, Minah’s voice is used to captivate the audience. Minah sings in a sweet melody, the introduction definitely leads the song in the correct path and the transition to the instrumental/beats works perfectly. Minah also does a fantastic job with handling the English lines. From what I’m noticing, her English is vastly improving. “You and I”, a song sung by just her for a K-Drama, had plenty of English lines and I felt that they were fluent for the most part. Anyhow, Minah does an excellent job.

2. Verse: 8/10 – Slow. Sexy. That’s really the best way to describe this verse. Sojin and Minah are in charge of this section. Both of them, in my opinion, are the star singers of the group so we can expect a lot for this. The verse starts off with a somewhat slow pace; it’s completely acceptable, though, since it helps build up the song. Their slow pacing along with reaching some high notes create an unforgettable melody.

3. Pre-Chorus: 9/10 – Once again, another extremely solid score. The very famous “Something” melody is introduced here. If I’m correct, Hyeri takes quite a few lines for the pre-chorus and she does an exceptional job. The low to high pitch melody is generated here by her, and that melody is what makes this pre-chorus and song special. Yura also chips in after Hyeri’s first lines and brings down the pitch to a lower end. Eventually, Sojin sings as well and brings in nice high notes for the end of the lines: “…wae deolkeok geobina, ison nwa…" Sojin does an excellent job with hitting the "ah” sound of geobina and nwa and creating a high note and melody. However, it’s not finished until Minah steps in and adds quite a decent amount of “power” and intensity to the song for the final words. That ending by Minah is the cherry-on-top, if I may utilize that saying. Transitioning to the chorus becomes no issue thanks to her.

4. Chorus: 9/10 – To be very honest, I didn’t expect myself to grade this song this highly. So far, three 9/10 scores. The chorus is definitely catchy. What’s awesome is the fact that it still plays off the melody while throwing in Minah’s powerful vocal for an added layer. Sojin’s initial lines sustain the melody and following up is Minah. Now she does a phenomenal job with adding the right amount of power to the song; it’s not enough to break the current, softer melody, but it’s sufficient with building up the song’s most intense part. After the chorus, the song takes a pause before starting once again on the verse section. I find that completely suiting since the chorus provides this song’s top energy. 

5. Bridge: 9/10 – One of the more solid bridges I’ve heard in songs. Yura starts off this section with a higher pitch, but she remains soft and sustains the already well established feel and melody. Minah then takes over and doesn’t continue the softness; in fact she starts building up intensity and ends with a high amount of power through the lines: “…bye bye bye, out” This bridge does its role well; to transition back into the chorus/song and “Something” definitely has that bridge. The transition back to the chorus goes smoothly thanks to it. 

6. Conclusion: 6/10 – Unfortunately, this song struggles with closing itself. The conclusion’s purpose here was to “de-escalate” the song’s intensity, if that phrasing doesn’t sound too awkward. After such an intense and powerful bridge along with a final chorus, which was actually even more powerful since Minah performs a “2 part” (Not sure what the actual term is, but it’s pretty much an extra layer of singing. For example, if you listen, while the chorus is taking place as usual, Minah throws in an extra line and “ohhhh” part), the conclusion tried to bring down all that high intensity for a smooth, calm ending. However, with continuing the same high note and by actually singing relatively quickly, it didn’t feel too much calmer. I do give credit to the very last line though, that did close the song, but the conclusion was lengthy and too quick paced to truly bring the song down in one final farewell. If they were singing with a mix of either being less high pitched or slower, it might’ve been better.

– Line Distribution: 9/10 – Honestly looking at the distribution, it’s near perfect. Sojin and Minah can be seen with more lines and being a bit dominant, but Hyeri and Yura definitely got their important lines that were vital as well. Everyone sang where their strengths were and everyone had a decent amount, so overall, a perfect share. I guess the only thing that might be worth complaining is how Hyeri is missing near the end, but she did her job earlier and it would be hard to fit an extra person anywhere near the end. 

– Instrumentals: 7/10 – The instruments definitely suit the song and mesh well with the vocals, however, nothing was special about it. They weren’t bad at all, but nothing was sticking out nor augmenting the song directly from the instruments. It was the chemistry among the ladies and the instruments that pieced together the song, not the instruments alone. 

– Meaning: 7/10 – Before we get started, let’s actually take a look at the full lyrics, in English. Although keep in mind, it’s not 100% accurate although the meaning is very blatant, nevertheless.

Anyhow here they are:

Don’t you look
Into my eyes and lie again
I’m sick of being alone

Your shaking face and words
Seems like something is up
A strange scent is all over your body
Seems like you’re possessed by something

Maybe you felt guilty at my guess
I caught you off guard and you’re so out of it
Your story keeps changing here and there, what’s wrong with you
Maybe you felt guilty at my guess
I caught you off guard and you’re so out of it
Why, are you scared all of a sudden?
Let go of my hand, don’t lie to me

I was the only one who didn’t know about this something
I clearly feel it, must be something
Your obvious lies,
it’s over
Nothing, it’s something,
stop it

That rainbow inside the gray skies
The sadly crying piano
A strange scent is all over your body
Seems like you’re possessed by something

Maybe you felt guilty at my guess
I caught you off guard and you’re so out of it
Your story keeps changing here and there, what’s wrong with you
Maybe you felt guilty at my guess
I caught you off guard and you’re so out of it
Why, are you scared all of a sudden?
Let go of my hand, don’t lie to me

I was the only one who didn’t know about this something
I clearly feel it, must be something
Your obvious lies,
it’s over
Nothing, it’s something,
stop it

Don’t try to gain love so easily
Don’t regret
You deceived
and made a girl cry
You’re only up till here
Bye bye bye out

I was the only one who didn’t know about this something
I clearly feel it, must be something
Your obvious lies,
it’s over
Nothing, it’s something,
stop it

Was the love I gave a joke to you?
Were you sick of the love I gave you?
I don’t want to show you
the tears I held back
Was the love I gave a joke to you?
Were you sick of the love I gave you?
Are we over?
Are we over?

So the song is, in summary, about a woman catching her partner cheating. Pretty much, she feels “something” is wrong and now addresses him about it. 

While I do enjoy the story behind the lyrics, I just feel there’s a lack of anything deeper; as a result, the lyrics become average. Don’t get me wrong, this song is VASTLY more meaningful than plenty of other songs, (such as “Nice Body” as I reviewed a few days ago) but it’s just about the man’s reaction to being caught and how the woman is responding to it. Definitely not bad, but nothing super meaningful nor interesting. 

Nevertheless, I would say the lyrics are good and I enjoy them.

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Choreography Score: 8/10 – This dance is sexy and beautiful; you can see for yourself by clicking the link above this review. The dance video should be shown. 

Pretty much the dance is slow paced and more graceful when the song is the same, and of course, once intensity increases for the song, so does the dance. To see a song sync with its choreography provides a lot of joy, and that’s what “Something” does well.

Now the only negative things I would say would be the very start. The “cat dance” as Girl’s Day calls it (I think, anyways. Feel free to YouTube: Girl’s Day Something Let’s Dance to see the sweet ladies teach some key points of the dance. It’s funny, cute, and awesome to see and learn) is quite strange. It’s somewhat sexy and it matches the beat somewhat, but it does NOT fit with the rest of the song’s theme. Contrast the rest of the dance to that one start and you’ll notice it; the cat dance is out of place. And unfortunately, since there’s such a huge gap from that, I’ll have to give it an 8/10. In the end, the dance is still awesome and there are a lot of key points that are super fun to watch. 

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Overall Score: 8/10 (8/10 raw score) – So overall, this song comes out with 8/10 or 4/5. So definitely above average, but it’s not something that will break out as the top K-Pop song for my personal list. And alright, I am sorry for that pun. 

Anyways, the song is great with its melody and well timed changes in intensity. The transitions are great, and the dance goes perfectly with it, minus the beginning. This song is still worth a listen, and Girl’s Day definitely deserves the attention and fans due to this song.

Girl’s Day will be coming back soon with a new song, so I will be looking forward to supporting them and reviewing it. From what I’ve seen “Darling” will be the title, so perhaps a cute concept versus a sexy concept this time? Although since it’s Girl’s Day, they’re essentially both: cute and sexy.

Girl’s Day, fighting!

Well now it’s the end of the review; I spent only an hour and 20 minutes this time, but it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. Hopefully you guys found this entertaining as well and I hope it provokes YOUR thoughts about the song/music in general. 

Thanks for reading, and expect more reviews to come.

Hyomin – “Nice Body” Review

Hyomin – Nice Body (Dance Practice Version)

Hyomin – Nice Body (ft. LOCO)

Reviewed on July 9, 2014

Personal Message: Well it’s time for my first review! Pretty excited, slightly nervous, but hey we all have to start somewhere. I decided to review “Nice Body” since it’s a relatively new song, and I personally have been enjoying it. What a great song to exercise to, right? Perhaps. Let’s find out what’s really in a “Nice Body”.

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Song Total Score: 7/10 (6.75/10 raw score) – Average score of the different categories, separate so Choreography Score doesn’t affect it.

– Vocals: 8/10 – Honestly, Hyomin’s voice here is pretty nice. She has a very distinct voice and she hits the melody extremely well. Everything leading up the chorus is wonderful; she’s in tune and sounds so smooth. Her high notes are decent. The biggest strength has to be just how her pitch flows, from low to high and such. I often find myself just humming to the melody of her voice. Even in T-ARA, Hyomin isn’t an awful singer.

However, while her voice itself is unique, nothing is special nor does anything stand out about her singing. In fact, there’s a “frail” sounding voice at times. During the chorus of “nae mommaen nice nice body…” I feel her voice sounds a bit on the weaker side. It’s not a huge flaw, though. Overall, it’s above average and for this song’s style, it completely fits. Unfortunately, nothing sticks out to give it a perfect 10/10.

– Song Structure: 8/10 (7.57/10 raw score) – Note: I’m pretty sure I’ll change this section up. Seems way too messy as of now.

The song goes in this structure and order: 

Introduction, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Rap, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Bridge, Conclusion (Chorus)

So for “Song Structure”, I’m going to go through each section (Verse, Chorus, etc) and give a score per section. After that, the average is the “Song Structure” score.

1. Introduction: 8/10 – LOCO takes the wheel for the introduction. It’s a basic introduction, but for this song’s style, it’s fitting. Instantly singing would be way too much, rapping instantly would also be way too fast paced. Slowly singing to create build up would also not work, so just the casual “Hyomin, LOCO, let’s do this” works. Nothing bad but nothing unique. 

2. Verse: 8/10 – An extremely solid verse for this song. Hyomin’s able to come off as extremely smooth and sexy with her voice; the lower-mid tones and the length of every line is perfect for a start. The pauses are also to the benefit of the verse; besides aiding the choreography, the pauses just leave this lingering effect that makes you want to keep listening. This verse also transitions to the pre-chorus extremely well. It’s well done to fit the entire song itself.

3. Pre-Chorus: 8/10 – I’m going to give the exact score as the verse. If I were to be biased, I’d give it a perfect 10/10, but nevertheless, it’s almost there. The melody here is amazing; Hyomin going to the higher notes was well executed and it just leaves a melody stuck in your head. “…geoya” definitely sticks around and becomes catchy. Also similar to the verse, the transition from the pre-chorus to the actual chorus goes well.

4. Chorus: 7/10 – The chorus isn’t awful; it still keeps Hyomin’s melodic voice going which is great, however, “give me love, give me love, give me love” is not a strong piece at all. It may be a “background” voice, but that doesn’t excuse it from being a component of the chorus. That line doesn’t give much melody nor flow. In fact, to me, it’s rather choppy. It’s a memorable line, but it just doesn’t add anything to the previous sections of Hyomin’s melody.

5. Rap: 7/10 – LOCO’s rap! His rap wasn’t too bad. It is average to be honest; flow is average, pacing is average, etc. Adding a rap here, though, was a decent choice. It fit well and I actually liked that it was in the earlier part of the song versus being near the end. Nothing shined from it, but it didn’t make me cry so that’s a bonus. A confession: I’m not too skilled nor experienced enough to truly gauge raps, but I’ll do my best.

6. Bridge: 8/10 – A part for Hyomin to shine even more. As usual, instruments die a bit down during this time, although I believe there is a nice piano melody going on. It works well and complements Hyomin’s singing and her line of “…maepsi naneun seutail gibun joha seumail…” sticks out with some added power/intensity here (slight, but still there). Above average for a bridge.

7. Conclusion (Chorus): 7/10 – Pretty much a conclusion that recycles the chorus, which is not a bad thing at all. What’s nice here is the “intensity” is slightly increased through LOCO throwing in his lines along with Hyomin continuing her singing. What leaves me a bit unhappy, though, is just the somewhat abrupt ending. It ends with the introduction’s “ooh” sounds. Not a bad ending, but it could have been stronger.

– Line Distribution: X/10 – Although LOCO is featured, I won’t be counting any line distribution for this song. Any featured artist will be excluded. 

– Instrumentals: 7/10 – The electronic sounds along with a very present bass line (assuming that’s the correct term) mix very well with Hyomin’s voice. It’s nothing amazing and graceful, but it’s good. The beats can get you moving and feeling happy, but that’s just it. Nothing fancy but for this song’s style, it’s a well suited fit. 

– Meaning: 4/10 – Such a bummer. It honestly is. “Mechanically”, if I may toy with that word, the song IS good. Hyomin’s vocals are great, the instrument meshes with them well, the song structure is pretty solid. But the meaning of the song is cringe-worthy. I remember the day the music video came out; comments on YouTube were on fire. It was extremely controversial. 

For some examples of the lyrics, here they are in English:

Any woman would love to show off
Any woman goes on a diet at least once
When you’re a woman, you of course want to receive love
The prince of my dreams will certainly appear to me

(I take note on everything I want to eat)
I live noxiously everyday
(I endure all the pains)
I’m going to be prettier
I’m going to love you more, I’m going to show you more of it
I will change, you will see
You do deserve it

My body is a nice nice body
Legs are very slim, with my hot waist
(give me love, give me
love, give me love)
My body is a nice body
As if everyones surprised they turn back at once to look
Now, they can’t ignore me

Any man would wish for such a woman
Any man, as if they’re all the same, love pretty women
Every man thinks about sex at least once
If only they were thinking about me,
would be great if it were me

I’ve gone through so much
You don’t know hard I worked because of you
My nice style, My good feeling style
I’m also proud now

Now that isn’t the full song lyrics, and of course it’s not 100% accurate with translation, but we get the general idea.

Pretty much, a woman goes through the work of achieving a “nice body” in order to attract men. Or, from one of the stanzas, a man. 

What I personally find racy about these lyrics is the fact that it implies women have to a “hot waist” or “slim legs” in order to be attractive. Also, I don’t think it’s a healthy idea to be hot for the sake of someone else; being attractive for the sake of yourself and feeling better is different than losing weight and such just for the purpose of attracting one person. Furthermore, besides being offensive towards women, it also offends men as well. “Any man, as if they’re all the same, love pretty women”. Alright, as a male, I’m pretty annoyed at that. The lyrics are subjecting males as if they are ALL animals that only seek out sex in women. 

Now, the only good thing about the lyrics is it encourages, although in an extremely negative method, that working hard can potentially net you a “nice body”. Also, nothing is wrong about feeling like you have a sexy body; everyone wants to feel that way. Man or woman, feeling confident about your body is great and that is one of the things the song does shed some light on. 

Overall, though, the lyrics are extremely controversial and can be deemed offensive towards men and women. I actually laughed at the lyrics when I first heard it. Just kidding, I cringed first then I laughed. To save Hyomin a bit, I know she definitely did NOT write the song lyrics. In fact, from an article or video (can’t remember), Hyomin does address some of the violence in media towards women. The idea that a women has to look this way, etc, Hyomin heavily disagrees with it but she knows that in order to compete, she has to go with the system. Note: I think it was either an article or video about T-ARA. They spoke up regarding to whether or not they had plastic surgery and Hyomin speaks up and addresses women in media and such.  

Now what Hyomin DID write for a song, a rap in specific, is brilliant, and I will hopefully review that later but if I don’t, “Overcome” by Hyomin is a great song she wrote. Or at least I heard it was self composed by her with the help of other rap artists and such. Anyways let’s move on.

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Choreography Score: 9/10 – This dance is extremely fun and entertaining to watch. Sort of. I feel like bashing first so let’s do that. Butt rolling at the start and at the end: No. Yes, typical men might scream at that and be like “that’s sexy!” but, unfortunately I dislike dances that are blatantly sexual.

Somewhat off-topic, “classy” dances is what gets me and my hair on the edge; not classy like slow dancing and in dresses, but I prefer dances that work with the music versus with showing off some body parts. For example, Nine Muses (my favorite group still, despite losing 3 great ladies, one of whom is role model, I was quite saddened) remains very parallel to the song with their dances. They’re not doing any silly butt shaking or whatever, they keep it “classy” but that just makes them even sexier. 

Anyways, went totally off topic. Apologies. Back to “Nice Body”, the butt rolls at the start and end is just too plain for me; yes, Hyomin’s butt along with back up dancers is sliding on a railing and going to the left and right. Nothing special at all. Another thing that just hurts the Choreography Score is the chorus. By now, I’m sure it’s a hit with “give me love, give me love, give me love”, and by that, I mean the butt shake with the tape measure when she says those words. While I confess the other butt rolls are on the sexual attractive side, this butt shake orientated part is just awkward. It’s just the dancers (and Hyomin) arching their backs with a tape measurer and doing a really awkward, and vague shake. To be honest, I didn’t see they were doing a butt shake until I watched the dance a second time. 

So now you must be wondering, “Uh but Atrocity/Chris, you gave it a 9 while you’re complaining this badly, what’s up?”

While it should be an 8/10, everything else about this dance is phenomenal. Amazing. The use of the staircase is interesting. The back up dancers are a HUGE piece of this dance, something that rarely happens from my experience. Normally back up dancers are there to just fill space; with smaller groups, just having 4 people dance, for example, may seem empty, so back up dancers are added to remove such a void. In a sense they’re “props” like in a play. But for Hyomin’s “Nice Body”, the back up dancers are dancers, not “back ups”. The synchronicity with the song and movements are extremely clear and just provide a great sight. If a certain beat happened, so did a specific move. The transitions were almost flawless. Once the male dancers enter the dance, it’s nice to see the continued sync with music with an added layer to the choreography. Overall, it’s well done to fit the music with movements, little details come into play (tape measurer, etc.), back up dancers prove to be main dancers, it’s just so much fun to watch. Despite the cons of the butt orientated dance parts, everything else covers those flaws.

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Overall Score: 8/10 – So in the end, Hyomin’s “Nice Body” comes out with an 8/10 or a 4/5, whichever way you prefer to see it.

I think overall I do agree with how the numbers came out. It’s definitely a very fun dance and song. The only big issue is just the meaning; it can come off as offensive and racy, but if we’re looking at it from just a dance and sing perspective, it’s good. 

So this brings us the end of my first music review, and I know what I need to revise now. I spent about…2 and a half hours writing I think? Did not expect it to take this long, so I guess I’ll end up cutting some things back.

Thanks for reading this, if you made it to the end, congratulations.

More reviews to come up, but for now, stay sexy with your own, personal “Nice Body”!