Infinite goes "Over The Top" with their first studio album!

The boys of Infinite (L to R): Hoya, Sung Gyu, Woo Hyun, L / Myung Soo, Sung Jong,
Seung Yeol, and Dong Woo

It's raining comebacks for male idol groups, and another one of my favorites has returned with a whole new salvo of songs for us to enjoy - INFINITE!

For those who were able to read my last review for Infinite's last mini-album "Inspirit" (if you haven't, click here), I was pleasantly surprised at how great these guys sounded as a group. What sets them apart from a whole host of male idol groups is that they have a great sense of musicality when they blend their voices during the choruses of their songs.

The title of their first full studio album, "Over The Top", speaks for itself. After listening to it, I'm convinced that these guys have truly stepped up as artists and have delivered gold this time around.

(L to R) 1st Row - L / Myung Soo and Woo Hyun, 2nd Row - Sung Yeol
and Hoya, 3rd Row - Sung Gyu and Dong Woo, 4th Row - Sung Jong 

Compared to their last mini-album, Infinite has done a little bit of growing up... literally! They look like they've grown into their bodies since they look more physically mature. They've gone for a more urban look, which is certainly more masculine... and look fits them well.

Apart from the physical, their voices have slightly changed for this album. Although the caliber of their high tones are still there, I could hear a rounder quality to their voices. Their harmonies seem more solid and put together compared to the songs in "Inspirit" (not that they sounded juvenile in their last release, they just really sound better this time around).

"Over The Top" seems to follow the same general muscial theme from "Inspirit", since I could still feel a tinge of retro 70's-80's pop rock in most of the songs. It makes the album the more interesting, but the excellent sound engineering and mixing didn't make the album feel dated at all.

Their launching single for the album, "Be Mine", is a good example of what I was explaining earlier. It starts off seeming like an electro-pop dance track, but in the background there's that electric guitar riff and the violin going off after the chorus that reminds me of some 70's era Motown hits. As usual, the boys don't disappoint with their delivery of the song --- the highlight of the track is the excellent harmony when the boys sing the chorus.

"Be Mine" by Infinite (MV with English Subs)

My favorite song in the album would most probably be "Julia", the 5th track in the album. It's such a well-written song, with a wonderful and catchy rhythm. As most love songs go, it's paced moderately, and uses a good mix of genres to provide a nice amount of flavor to its sound (R&B, electro-pop and acoustics). The song's theme focuses on love lost but not forgotten. It's probably the most romantic song I've heard from Infinite.

"Julia" by Infinite (Audio with English Subtitles)

Another cool song with a strong retro feel is the 2nd track of the album, "1/3". From beginning to end, the song felt psychedellic and had a swing-ish bend to it. Again, the strength of this song lies in the boys' harmony.

What stirred my interest in this song is it's title. "1/3" is the title of another favorite song of mine that was sung by the Japanese rock band, Siam Shade (it was used as one of the ending themes of the classic anime, Rurouni Kenshin - click here to listen to the song). Both song tackle the theme of unrequited love --- love given, but never returned.

"1/3" by Infinite (Audio with English Subs)

As with every good Kpop album, there has to be a good ballad there somewhere. It just so happened for this album, Woolim Entertainment had two of the boys do solo tracks --- Sung Gyu and Woo Hyun. Woo Hyun sang a top notch ballad in the album titled "Time". Woo Hyun is surprisingly soulful (and I guess my surprise is justified since this is the first time I'm hearing a ballad performed by someone from Infinite). Hopefully we get to hear a beautiful ballad like this performed by the entire group. That would be awesome!

"Time" by Woo Hyun of Infinite (Audio with English Subtitles)

My head is telling me that I'm already featuring way too many songs for this article, but I couldn't help but write about Infinite's 8th track in their new album, "Amazing". It's another beautiful song that perfectly captures the boys' wonderful blending and harmony. It's a relatively simple song, but it's catchy and easy to listen to. You'll love it!

"Amazing" by Infinity (Audio with English Subtitles)

I think I've already made my point, right? THIS IS AN AWESOME ALBUM! This is such a great album that two of the regular subbers who I subscribe to in YouTube subbed THE ENTIRE ALBUM... yes, the whole thing! I do hope they don't get into trouble for copyright stuff, but this makes a good case to prove how well made this album is.

Infinity has truly grown as artists, and they've done such a wonderful job with this album. Hopefully this album becomes a huge hit... these guys deserve nothing less than becoming the stars that they ought to be. "Over The Top" is definitely going to be their ticket to the top!