A crazy day with new releases --- SPOTLIGHT on 2PM and After School!

Album jackets for 2PM's "Take Off" and After School's "Virgin"

It's another crazy day in Kpop-dom, and it seems that a lot of the agencies just chose to drop a lot of their new songs and MVs this week! It's always a welcome problem to have new stuff to listen and watch to, right? I'm sure the fanboys and fangirls are just going nuts with all the new stuff coming out one after the other... hehehe!

This time around... we're going to focus on a new song and an MV release.

From who? Why 2PM and After School, of course!

"Take Off" by 2PM

The boys of 2PM --- (L to R): Taecyon, Junsu, Wooyoung,
 Junho, Nickhun, and Chansung

I fell in love with 2PM when I first saw their MV for "I'll Be Back", their last Korean single release in 2010. 2PM is another powerhouse male idol group with endowed with the trifecta of showbiz talents (remember... acting, singing and dancing!). The group is just amazing since nearly all of them are talented vocalists (or rappers, in the case of Taecyeon), plus they're all awesome dancers! It's no surprise that the "beastly" idols have become unbelievably popular all over Asia --- their next path of conquest being Japan.

"Take Off" is their flagship single in their attempt to top the Oricon charts yet again in the Land of the Rising Sun. It's cool how they still sound like themselves when they shifted from Korean to Japanese lyrics --- I find it funny that some popular Korean idol groups who have debuted in Japan tend to sound "different" when they launch their Japanese singles (not really sure if anyone's noticed the same thing... or maybe it's just me).

The theme of the MV was rather amusing --- alien abduction! No aliens though... just a cute robot attendee helpingthe  boys board a futuristic ship, and shows 2PM having fun while flying around. The sets and effects were pretty impressive, giving you the impression that the guys are really going all out for their Japanese comeback.

The vocal arrangement was well-done --- it allowed the boys to showcase their distinct sound, while allowing everyone to harmonize during the chorus. The choreography essentially takes advantage of their extensive training in hip hop (and jazz... since there was a lot of that in the vid too) from their boss, JYP. Lots of creative formation shifting, which makes the vid true eye candy.

I can't wait until they do a comeback in Korea, and they include a Korean version of this track! For now, I'm posting two vids --- the main MV, and a dance version of the vid.

"Take Off" by 2PM (MV only)

There aren't any HQ vids posted in YT for this song yet; 

once I find one, I'll update this ASAP! Watch the dance 

version of this vid for the English subs.

"Take Off" by 2PM - Dance Version (MV with Eng Subs)

"Play Ur Love" by After School

NOTE: For those of you who haven't read my review of After School's 

first full album, "Virgin", you can click here.

The girls of After School --- (Bottom) E-Young and
Jung Ah, (Center)  Jooyeon and Kahi,
(On couch) Uee, Nana, Lizzy,
(Standing) Bekah and Raina

It's cool that After School did a follow-up MV and single release after their successful release of "Shampoo". The album instantly clicked with me, since the new songs were just as catchy as the re-worked hits that they included in the album.

It's funny though that I wasn't able to include "Play Ur Love" as part of my feature when I did my review (I really hit my head on that... my bad). The song didn't hit home at first since I was pretty preoccupied with listening to Raina's solo "Leaning On Time", but as I listened to the tracks more, the song grew on me.

"Play Ur Love" is a slow R&B insired pop ballad (sort of reminded me of Mariah Carey for some reason) that showcases how well the group harmonizes together, and takes advantage of the vocal range of Kahi, Raina, Jung Ah and Nana.

The MV takes the theme of the song (it's a break-up song --- like I've been saying, regular K-pop fare, right?), and shows the girls of After School in pensive poses. Since the setting seemed of looked similar to the dorm scenes in "Shampoo", I thought it was going to be a continuation of the MV where Raina was left behind by the male lead. Well... apparently it wasn't. Got a little disappointed there (it would've been a good idea though), but I'm just glad that the song was good enough (and you'd have to admit they were uber pretty too!) to plow through the cliche' visual treatment.

"Play Ur Love" by After School (MV with Eng Subs)