And the girls of f(x) are back!

It's been a week more or less since I've last posted since I've been preoccupied with a class that I've been handling since early April. Apart from that, it's Lent (if you're Catholic, you'd know that it's an important time of the year).


It's been an interesting time too for Kpop, considering that we've been bombarded with a whole lot of group debuts and comebacks. Lots of good music coming out of the woodwork... sadly, I don't have that much time on my hands to review every single thing that comes under my radar. There are days when I wish that someone could just pay me for blogging all the stuff that I'm into... hahaha! Wishful thinking, right?


To make up for the lack of content this past week, I've decided to do a coup... three reviews for two interesting groups that have recently earned my interest --- f(x), and B1A4. I'll be posting my review for f(x)'s new album "Pinocchio" first... I'll try my best to post my review for B1A4 before I go to work tomorrow!


~ D

The lovely ladies of f(x) --- Amber, Krystal, Sulli, Victoria and Luna

Although they've been around since 2009, these gals have been on hiatus for an entire year. I first encountered f(x) when I was watching one of my favorite reality shows - "We Got Married". Nickhun of 2PM is a personal fave of mine (who doesn't like him, right? hahaha!), and he was paired off with Victoria of f(x). That got me googling to check out who Nickhun was paired off with, and I found out about the five incredibly lush ladies that make up this group.

In an industry dominated by cheeky, sugary electro-pop cheese that Kpop songs are known for (which, trust me, isn't an entirely bad thing hahaha!), f(x) brings a refreshing take of Kpop fare that isn't overloaded with too much vomit-inducing "aegyo" (cuteness). Their first full-blown album, "Pinocchio", is a very good example of that.

SM Entertainment (yup, the same company that manages Super Junior, SHINee, and mega girl group So Nyu Shi Dae / SNSD) released their new single and MV, "Pinocchio (Danger)" last week. When I saw the MV for the first time, I was amazed by the visuals and their dancing.  With a little bit of research, I found out that f(x) has always been known for their bright and energetic image. I immediately noticed that they they don't fit in the cookie-cutter mold of girl groups - each member has an individual sense of style (which makes it easy to distinguish one member from the other). The settings for their videos are pretty psychedelic (as you'll see in the videos I'll be posting later), and they're strong as a dance group too, as seen in a couple of their past MVs (LaChaTa and Nu Abo). They can give groups like T-ara, After School and 4Minute a run for their money.

As for the song, like most girl group songs, it was catchy electro-pop. What got me a bit surprised was the fact that they had strong vocals (which isn't a common staple for many of the girl groups, unfortunately), and had very distinct characteristics. I'm particularly impressed with Amber since she has a deep androgynous voice that fits well with the sexy and powerful image that they're portraying (apart from the fact that she can speak impeccable English - since she's Chinese American). I could hear auto-tuning done on this track, but it didn't outwardly distort the quality of their voices. I guess they didn't need that much tweaking in the first place.

When I got to sample the album this weekend, I was delighted to find out that my initial impressions based on "Pinocchio" weren't a fluke. The girls are rather consistent with the quality of their vocals, and they're able to deliver variety. When SM Entertainment did teasers for this album, they were trying to evoke a retro feel with color-filtered instamatic-esque pictures --- I guess they tried to evoke the same retro theme with the tracks in the album.

Most of their songs fall under the pop-dance category, but they're able to pull off a good soulful ballad with a strong R&B flavor with "Beautiful Goodbye" (track 4) and "So Into You" (track 9 - kind of reminded me of "The Braxtons" I dunno hehehe!). "Stand Up" (track 7) is another impressive addition to their songbook because of the strong guitar and electro-synth work that give it familiar 70's vibe. They did something similar to "My Style"  (track 8) since I felt Motown there somewhere --- it immediately earned a place in my iPod together with "Pinocchio"! Strong vocals and electro-synth work that made you feel like there was a full funk band grooving along with you. They even got to work with SHINee on this album (which got me worked up!) with "Lollipop" (track 10 --- which is funny since 2NE1 also has a collab track labelmates Big Bang with the same title).

I'm a picky person when it comes to music that I listen to. If I can't find at least 2 songs that I like in an album, I won't even get it. Well... I liked 5 songs in this album! It's a keeper ^^,


p.s. 
I'd like to give a shout-out to DJ Drake Pineda --- he just created a wicked mash-up for both Pinocchio and SNSD's "Mr. Taxi", and he gave me permission to share the music through my blog. Listen to the track on my sidebar folks and leave some comments. Find time to visit his site @ http://djdrakepineda.tumblr.com/ 

"Pinocchio" (Danger) by f(x)

"Stand Up!" by f(x)

"My Style" by f(x)