I've never actually listened to a Rainbow album before so I am going into this completely blind, or deaf rather. I have nothing to compare this album to other than the singles that they have put out over the years and a single doesn't always reflect the album as a whole.
Before we begin, as I am looking at the album cover I am once again annoyed at the chance that was lost in the "Black Swan" video. It could have been so cool and creepy and it wasn't! Dang it!
Second MV review of the year and it's a girl group! Who saw that coming? Not me that's for sure. I had forgotten that Rainbow was making a comeback so I was getting ready to put my VIXX hat on and while I haven't taken that hat off, that Rainbow hat is sitting on top at the moment.
I can't believe that it's almost March and I have hardly written anything yet, but none of the music that has been released thus far has appealed to me. I had high hopes for Amber's solo debut, but to be perfectly honest I didn't love "Shake That Brass". It wasn't bad, but it didn't grab my attention the way that I had hoped. "Beautiful" on the other hand was, well, beautiful. I much preferred that song to the former.
I have been waiting for this to begin! I have never watched a sitcom before, it breaks up all the sageuks that I am watching, and it has Ken and High Top in it, what more could I want right now?
After the initial joy of hearing that two groups that I liked had people in this sitcom, I was then fascinated about the drama itself. It sounds easy enough: six strangers in their mid-twenties come to live together in a boarding house. The trailer and the poster are strangely ominous though, like they are all coming to this house and becoming trapped and so far, that is the vibe that I am getting.
It has been a busy year in the K-pop industry and there have been a lot of comebacks and a lot of debuts. With all of those songs there is going to be a lot of wonderful things happening, but there is always the chance of disappointment. When a fan is waiting for so long for their favorite group to come back, and when they do and you finish the video you just sit there thinking, that's what I've been waiting for? We will not be talking about those sad moments in K-pop though, these are some of the songs that we thought were the best ones that have come out this year. These are the songs that came and whispered sweet nothings to us and then proceeded to have a love affair with out eardrums.
This was the first song that I heard from Tiny-G and I absolutely loved it. They are all just so petite looking, I just want to put them in my pocket and take care of them. I liked how they incorporated that into the video by making them appear like they were in a Honey I Shrunk the Kids movie. This song is crazy catchy and after I listened to it I was singing (or at least trying to sing) the chorus all day. It goes a little like "Nanananana Minimanimo" and repeat. Oh yeah, I'm good.
~ Alora
Why am I so embarrassed to say I love this song award - Becca
Rainbow "Sunshine"
This song is so fun, it was a nice addition to other summery type of songs that are coming out to welcome the season. Another reason why I liked it is because the girls are cute and sexy, but not to the point where I am uncomfortable watching the video, which is happening quiet often. The song and the video matched very well to create something lovely and happy. I talked about this song for a K-pop review so go read it if you want to know more about what I think.
~ Alora
Sunny Hill "Darling of all Hearts"
I know that I recently talked about this song, but I really like the sound and the message it has. Sunny Hill is one of those groups that is really good but isn't one of those super top groups that people drool over, at least I don't think that they are..... am I wrong about this?
~ Alora
Boys
MBLAQ "Smoky Girl"
This song was so smooth and loungy sounding. It was pretty different from what they have done in the past and it was welcomed. The chorus was repetitive, but that can be forgiven because it was so good. I've already written a whole post about this, so let me direct you this way! ~ Alora
Sexiest suits in a music video award - Becca
B1A4 "What's Happening?"
B1A4, how I love you are your craziness. This music video still creeps me out a little, but I have come to accept it, kind of, Baro still murdered Ken. This song was so funny and strange and it did really well in the combining of different song sounds into one giant song. I hope that they can get more recognition because they are quite talented. I also wrote about this song and created my own tragic story to go along with it, what do you think?
~ Alora
Most appropriately named music video award - Becca
BAP "One Shot"
Becca chose this video, but to be perfectly honest, it didn't really do it for me. Not that it is a bad song, I just wasn't really feeling it. I have the same issue with "Power" it's an okay song, but far from my favorite thing BAP has put out. I am in love with BAP's new song "Coffee Shop" though, so that is definitely my favorite BAP song of the year thus far.
~ Alora
Most surprising music video ending award - Becca
Nu'est "Hello"
You know why the girl is mad at Ren in the video? It's because he's prettier than her. That girl got some serious Nu'est action though, holy crap. I'm not really a fan of Nu'est, even though this song is quite good. I'll just leave this one for Becca.
~ Alora
I like your song, but your music video gives me anger issues award - Becca
I came to the decision to do Rainbow instead of BTS since Rainbow is an older group and I haven't done a girl group yet. BTS is still awesome though and I hope the do well!
That being said, this song is really fun. I don't listen to a lot of girl groups because they normally annoy me. They are either overly sexy or overly cute and I just can't handle it. Even in American music, I don't listen to popular female artists because they are just so far away from my style.
Something that can be applauded for these girls is that the song sounds the same from the beginning to the end. This song doesn't give me whiplash like so many other songs that have come out this year. I also didn't mind the rap sequence since many times raps seem to be put into songs just for the sake of having one there. This one was cute and it didn't detract from the feel of the song.
How's the video?
This video was silly and it didn't take itself too seriously. The girls really looked like they were having fun and I think that some of the best music videos are the ones where the members look like they are just goofing around instead of being strictly choreographed.
Now it's story time, so hold on and let's go!
Being smarter than the average girl group, Rainbow discovers that there is only one boy in their music video that is dating all of them. They make the decision to hunt him down and use him as an example to all other music video boys who think that they can pull one over on music groups.
After making their poster, Jaekyung gets her girls ready for battle, arming them with super soakers, her own shoe, pink baseball bats, and telling them to use their charms to destroy the boy who sought to make a fool of all of them.
They had not been able to find the guy (is his name Soo Won or Jerry or what?) so they went to have some afternoon tea. While they were there, they noticed that he was sitting right beside them. They were all ready to destroy the scum, until Jaekyung lost her mind and followed him with hearts in her eyes.
It was all just a clever ploy though. Jaekyung tricked him at his own game and the girls were able to take him to DSP where they each demanded their own boy in videos. We will see if their demands are met in the future.
Not my best story, no one was murdered, but it will have to do.
How's the styling?
I'm going to start out by calling the fashion police on JaeKyung
White socks with black pants and shoes? For shame. Okay, that was pretty lame, but I thought it was funny.......kind of.......
There are a lot of outfits in the video and while they are all very cute, they cross the cute spectrum from edgy cute to cute cute.
Here we have our edgy cute. I like it in videos when members aren't wearing the same outfit, but they are still all cohesive. It is more fun to look at and you can actually tell when your favorite member is.
Here we lose a little of the edge seen above, but it is still not super cute because of the black and the cut outs and angle designs.
Here we lose any semblance of edge and we are pretty cute with the poofy skirts and crop tops. I like that these outfits have the 09 on them since that is the year that they debuted.
This is probably the girlyest outfit that they wear. It is super freaking short and it is all pastel and lace. They were also drinking tea to make it even more frilly and fancy.
The last outfit, or rather the first one I guess, has kind of a retro sailor look. I think that this could easily be a swim suit patter that people would love to buy.
Overall, I really liked their outfits. None of them made me go, oh gosh, why? Is the dance super amazing?
There were two main parts to the dance, there was a hand movement at banjjakbanjjak part and there was also a movement when they "ooooo"
The banjjakbanjjak move makes me think that they are doing an advanced version of patty cake. They're patting the cake here, if no one gets that reference and thinks that I am spouting nonsense, which is kind of true anyways.
After you make a cake you of course have to eat your masterpiece and according to this dance move, Rainbow made a pretty good cake. Yum.
Which member owned it?
I'm not terribly familiar with Rainbow, the only member that I am aware of is Jaekyung and that is because she was on Oh! My School. After watching this video though I have decided that I really like *quick looks it up on the internet* Jisook. She was so funny throughout the whole video.
Seriously, how cute is she?
Someone else that I noticed was Yoon Hye because her eyes freak me out. They are really big and in her first head shot, it made me jump back a second.
It's like she's staring into your soul
Then as I watched more of Rainbow's videos, I noticed her for another reason, she always seems to be wearing more clothes than the other girls. In "Tell Me Tell Me" you never see her stomach and in "A" she kind of has a Jasmine from Aladdin costume going on whereas some of the other girls are practically naked.. In this video she does show her stomach, but you never see her belly button. Modesty (kind of) for the win, yeah!
Did the English make you ears bleed?
The English all sounded pretty good. They had a few full sentences "I'm feeling pretty good. I can't stop loving you" and sporadic English "sunshine boy" "rock and roll" and "go Jerry go". Even though I still don't know who Jerry is, everything made sense and their accents didn't make me cringe.
What else is happening?
Ivy "I Dance" - That music video almost gave me a seizure.
After School "First Love" - My emotions ping ponged between bored and uncomfortable the whole time. This was a little too "my body is ready" for me.
BBde "Halo" - debut song, I think that they are way better than this cheap video and average song lets on
Crayon Pop "Bar Bar Bar" - It kind of had an eighties feel, but it wasn't really my cup of tea
ODD EYE "Catch me if you Can " - debut song, Well that was different, but kind of cool. It will be interesting to see what they do in the future
Heyne "Dalla" - debut song, I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first because her voice is very cutesy and unique, but now I can't stop listening to it!
Taecyeon and Gui Gui "I Love You" - I normally don't do any OSTs, but this one is sung by a We Got Married couple and it's adorable and I love it.
Baek Ah Yeon - "A Good Boy" - I wasn't blown away by the video, but I liked the song
LEDApple "Bad Boys" - This song had a little Spanish flair which was kind of cool. Also......boobs......
Lee Hyori "Crazy" - Another fantastic song by the queen
