Single Review: 2NE1's Ugly

So the new 2NE1 song dropped a few days ago. This time I decided to give myself some time to listen to it before writing up.

2NE1 have always been near the forefront of the "bolder girl group" movement. If there was a scale of girl group "boldness", with 1 being low and rather girly, and 10 being rather bold with hints of power, Dal Shabet would rate 2, SNSD would rate about 6, and 2NE1 at 9.

Naturally, being one of the fore-runners of this movement have led to immense pressure to live up to expectations, but fortunately, the girls (and YG entertainment) have always met them, leading to success.

As a result expectations are high with this new song, so it would be interesting to see if they are met.

Revisited: The Brave Sound

The Brave Brothers have practically collaborated with almost every artist at some point of time (SiSTAR, U-KISS, After School), excepting SM/JYP artistes

With the multiple works they have produced, it's a good time to revisit their imprint on K-Pop

The Untitled Post

So I saw some of the criticism about my "negative review". I would like to take some time out to state a few points.

I hoped those that criticised took some time out to take a look at this.

Short spins: Teen Top's "Don't Spray Perfume"

A new release from one of the many groups sitting slightly under the radar, but which i take notice of.

The new song is about a standard cheating guy on the benefits of older ladies, with some twists and a big time cameo.

More thoughts after the break:

EDIT: Red, Blue and shades of diappointment

After School made quite a fair bit of noise about their two sub groups. Unfortunately, they did not really impress.

My thoughts are not long enough, and I am not interested in recapping some thing I do not feel strongly about, so this is a good time to try my "short spins" format.

Music Bank in Japan recap

No awards, no comebacks, just another show to sell the Hallyu in the moneyed land of Japan.

Still it was a worthwhile watch, and most of the performances were up to snuff (hey gotta impress the neighbours)

The key performance (if there were more than one) below, and some short words on what I thought.

Single review: miss A's Good Bye Baby & CSJH (Dana & Sunday)'s One More Chance

Having in the last few weeks heard a lot of very girly songs from the likes of Girl's Day and A-Pink, it was refreshing to hear over the past fortnight songs that were less on girls calling on their "oppas", and more on girls asserting their boldness on the various parts of their life.

The first one to call "Unnies unite" was SM senior outfit CSJH, who feature two members Dana and Sunday in their latest outing, "One More Chance", with JYP's latest girl group miss A following with "Good Bye Baby".

One is a girl group making a comeback after lying low for 4 years (an eternity in K-pop land), while another is one that burst onto the scene last year, capturing the public's attention with their bold front, sweeping awards in the process.

So which impressed more?

Revisited: JOO's Bad Guy

This is the first in a series where I'll re-look at some under-rated recent releases.

Album Review: T-ara's John Travolta Wannabe

As a fan of sorts, this album certainly had a lot weighing in its shoulders. Admittedly, after the fail that was YaYaYa, which apparently sent its composers, E-tribe hiding for a while, it was going to have to take something credible for T-ara to restore its credibility amongst K-Pop lovers and resume its upswing in the K-pop girl group hiearchy.

Question is, does it stand up to the scrutiny?