The Rundown: SHINee | Dying For Drama

Annyeong!

I feel like all I've been doing recently is write reviews (all the comebacks - it's great!), so I decided to talk to you guys about a group I very much like, and whom are very reputed in the k-pop industry, and also possibly the longest haired boy group in the industry as well - SHINee!

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Name: SHINee
Debut: May 2008 - Noona, You're So Pretty
Agency: SM Entertainement

Members
Onew

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Real name: Lee Jin Ki

Age: 26 (14/12/1989)

Position: Leader, Lead Vocalist
Fun Facts: He speaks Mandarin
                  He feels shy presenting himself to people, and because of that he didn't dare audition.
                  He makes the most errors in practises.

Key

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Real name: Kim Ki Bum

Age: 24 (23/09/1991)

Position: Vocalist, Lead Rapper

Fun Facts: He has a love-hate relationship with horror stories and movies.

                  He's scared of heights.

                  He likes to water-skii.

Jonghyun

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Real name: Kim Jong Hyun

Age: 26 (8/04/1990)

Position: Main Vocalist

Fun Facts: He's the shortest in the group.

                  He speaks very quickly when he's nervous, but no one actually noticed seeing as he talks so much normally.

                  He plays guitar, bass and piano.

Minho

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Real name: Choi Min Ho

Age: 24 (9/12/1991)

Position: Main Rapper, Face Of The Group

Fun Facts: He plays football and basketball.

                  He's been a model three times. In Ha SangBaek's Fashion Show in 2008, 2008/2009 F/W Pret-A-Porter and the Busan Fashion Show in May 2008.

                  In Ha SangBaek's Fashion Show, he walked down the catwalk like a robot.

Taemin

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Real name: Lee Tae Min

Age: 23 (18/07/1993)

Position: Vocalist, Main Dancer, Maknae

Fun Facts: He plays the piano.

                  He's considered the best dancer of the group despite being the youngest.

                  He's very close to his brother, Lee Taesung and misses him a lot.

Who's your bias in SHINee? As always, let me know if there are any groups you'd like me to talk about! 

Fighting!

M x

Agust D 'Agust D' Mixtape Review | Dying For Drama

Annyeong!

Okay... *heavy breathing* you can keep calm... *heavy breathing* OKAY NO I CAN'T.

YOONGI FINALLY DROPPED HIS MIXTAPE. I CANNOT DEAL. OHHHH MY GOOOOSH.

It's okay, I'm fine. I'm good. I'm just very excited. So for those who are thinking "the fuck. Who the hell is Yoongi and why is his mixtape so exciting?"

Min Yoongi is the real name of BTS' Suga (my boyy!). For about two years now, he's been hinting about this mixtape that just never seemed to come. He tortured us and tortured us and made us wait for two long years, and then, all of a sudden about a month ago, Yoongi finally announced that he's releasing his mixtape in early August - and here it is!! He's decided to call himself Agust D (backwards it spells Dt Suga, Dt for Daegu town which is the rap group he was in before he came a trainee and Suga, well, because that's his rap name in BTS) instead of Suga which I can kind of understand seeing as he probably wants to show that it's not an extension of BTS, and more his music.

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Can we just take a second to appreciate how his mixtape cover looks like an Instagram edit?

The mixtape has 10 songs:

1. Intro; Dt sugA (feat. DJ Friz)
2. Agust D
3. Give It To Me
4. Skit
5. 치리사일사팔 (724148)
6. 140503 새벽에 (140503 at dawn)
7. 마지막 (The Last)
8. Tony Montana (Feat. Yankie)
9. Interlude ; Dream, Reality
10. So Far Away (Feat. 수란 (SURAN))

And here's what I thought of them:

  1 - Really catchy beat. It's only short seeing as it's the mixtape's intro but gives a good taste of what's to come.

  2 - The title song of the mixtape and oohh lordy is it worth it! It’s incredible. The production is gorgeous and you can tell he’s put a lot of work into it. The lyrics are really well placed and it’s just generally a bloody great song. It’s hard-hitting and when you actually read the lyrics it’s even better. See the MV here.

  3 - This is quite different to the other songs. At first, there's just a very distorted violin, think drunk guy playing the violin. It's very catchy in any case like almost all of the songs on this mixtape, really.

  4 - Even though it's in Korean I found the translation and it's basically Yoongi talking to his brother at a cafe about the mixtape and how thankful he is for having his brother supporting him all this time.

  5 - The beat to this reminds me of 50s style ad music at the chorus which made me chuckle a bit. As for the actual song, I really like it, there's nothing particularly incredible to it but it's cool to hear him just spit some rhymes. 

  6 - This sounds basically like the previous song without the double bass (I'm guessing it's a double bass).

  7 - THIS TRACK BROKE MY HEART. I have no idea what he's saying (I prefer it that way when I listen to k-pop) but you can just hear the pain in his voice and it broke my heart. It starts and sounds like a usual hip-hop song, then it kind of all goes batshit and the beat gets insanely intense and Yoongi's rapping like his life depends on it and it's amazing! It's probably one of my favourite tracks on the mixtape. You can hear all the emotions in his voice and it's truely beautiful.

  8 - I didn't like this song as much as the others. It's got a weird feel to it that I can't quite place. It's a good song, there's no doubting that, but it just wasn't really to my taste. It sounded a bit too white-washed for my tastes.

  9 - I'm not really sure what to think about this song. There's no actual lyrics to it, just Yoongi saying "dream" at regular intervals. It's very much based on the composition and the instruments of the song.

  10 - And to finish up the whole thing, this beautiful song. I think he did really well to add Suran to sing the chorus. It adds a certain softness that wouldn't necessarily have otherwise. It's very different to anything else in the mixtape, but in a good way. It's a lot more gentle, rather than the harshness the other tracks had in the forefront of the tracks.

All in all, I'm so happy with this mixtape. It really was worth the wait! One thing that stood out for me in this whole thing is that none of the songs sound the same. They're all unique in themselves.

I'm going to give this mixtape 5 kimchis out of 5. *waves wand in an overly enthusiastic manner*

Fighting!
M x

VIXX 'Fantasy' MV Review | Dying For Drama

Annyeong!

I can hear a sharp intake of breath from any regular readers from here! *laughs at own shitty joke*

Right, okay so when I heard that VIXX had their comeback, I was apprehensive. I decided to listen to it despite my distaste for Dynamite, because like I'd said in that other review, I really enjoy the other things VIXX had released in the past. So with an open mind and heart, I listened and I'm going to tell you what I thought of it.

So for the entirety of the intro and the first verse I was like “oh shit I’m not going to enjoy this, I can feel it. It’s got that very disjointed and badly put together feel that Dynamite had but then the bridge came and I started to eat my words, slowly but surely. By the chorus I had taken back everything I had said. The chorus sweeps you off your feet and totally takes you by surprise. The vocals are on point on and the beats combine beautifully. The first chorus is short enough for it to give you a taste of what to look forward to later on in the song.

I definitely prefer the chorus to the verses. They’re a lot more dramatic and powerful and even technically I much prefer the choruses.

Also, can we talk about Ravi for a sec?! What happened?! Not only does his white hair make him look hot as fuck and suit him to no end, but that rap verse was just amazing! 

Onto the MV. I’m glad to see that they’ve taken the dark concept, that’s something that really drew me to VIXX in the beginning is that they have such a dark and eery concept as a group, not just for certain comebacks. But is it just me that feels like we don’t see a lot of Hongbin in this comeback?

Cinematographically, this MV is beautiful. You can tell that the shots are really thought out and well planned. I love the choreography. It’s very crisp and follows the music really well.

In all, I was very very pleasantly surprised for this comeback. It's everything you hope for in a VIXX song and MV and it makes me happy inside.

I'm giving 'Fantasy' 4 kimchis out of 5 simply because of the verses.

What did you think of this comeback? If you have any comebacks or songs in general you'd like me to review then let me know in the comments and your wish shall be my command.

Fighting!
M x

B.A.P 'That's My Jam' MV Review | Dying For Drama

Annyeong!

Today I am reviewing a group that I don't tend to listen to, B.A.P. Not that I have anything against them, the music I has previously listened to from them just wasn't my style. Nonetheless, when I saw that they released their comeback I decided to have a little listen and here's what I thought.

As always, I shall start with the song (do I really need to say it again? It's always the same!). What with the crap Korean humans (and non-Korean humans, come to think of it), I'm getting rather unenthused about comebacks nowadays, but, B.A.P managed to happily surprise me, very much so, in fact. The song is different to every other boy band at the moment, I can't place how, it's very upbeat and dancy, but when I listen to this song, I don't feel like I've already heard 20 versions of it. It's very original, let's just say, not to mention fucking catchy *sings* Yeah! That's my jam, nanana nanana party!" 

MV is interesting and pretty funny, though it doesn't seem like it has much of a plot, it's quite simply just the members are on different kinds of TV channels (music channel, discovery channel, action film channel, ect). It's fun and they all seem mad which I like.

Really enjoyed this and I, for once, have nothing to say about it. Their look is great, the MV is interesting and funny and pretty creative and the song is fucking catchy. I'm not sure what the concept is, but to be honest I don't really mind that. This is probably the most boring review I've ever written, and definitely the shortest.

I'm giving 'That's My Jam' 5 kimchis out of 5, which makes it the first ever song that makes it to 5 kimchis! (Meagre congratulations, really but oh well). 

What do you think of their comeback?

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Before I lose you guys completely, I just wanted to warn you that for the next couple of weeks I'm going to be posting twice a week instead of just once. There's be a post on Wednesday and Sunday because there are a heck of a lot of comebacks that I'd like to review.

Fighting!

M x

Anime For Beginners | Dying For Drama

Annyeong!

*Sigh*... You know how I'd said that I couldn't get into anime? Well, I guess I can eat my words. I, for once, remember what got me into anime. A friend of mine shared a clip of "Prison School" and I'd found it really funny. It didn't really register at first but then later on I thought about it again and decided to give it a watch. I spoke to my friend Gaelle and she recommended a few to me, and now I've decided to recommend a few of the best animes for beginners.

Prison School

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This is set in an all girl's school that has just started accepting boys. Thousands of applicants tried their luck... and only 5 boys are accepted. Being teenage boys surrounded by a thousand girls, well, they got rather interested in the female anatomy. They get caught trying to look into the girl's bathroom, and get thrown into the school's prison (yes, they have a prison in the school, as you do) by the Underground Student Council (USC). They get forced to do manual work around the school, with these rules: if you try and escape once, you will get an extra month in prison; if you try a second time to escape, you'll get 3 extra months of prison; and if you try a third time, you'll be expelled. This is very much a comedy anime and even though some of the subplots are quite dark, most of it is generally very funny, though you really have to get into the mindset to get the humour. (Also, lots of tits and sex-related things - faint hearts are not encouraged).

Death Note

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This is basically just the holy grail of all anime, in my opinion. It's something that you just quite simply have to watch at one point or another in your anime watching career. It's about a guy called Light (blondie on the right) who finds a special notebook called a Death Note, that originally belonged to Ryuk (creepy creeps von red-eyes in the middle), a god of death. The basic concept of a death note is that you can kill people with it - I know, hear me out - only the person who owns the death note (so, now, since Light has picked it up it belongs to him) can write a name in the death note and the person will die of a heart attack. Then he can decide when, how and in what circumstances. It explains it better in the actual anime or the scans but that's the basic concept of how a Death Note works. Oh and he's also followed around by Ryuk - there are loads of other rules but I won't spoil everything. When Light finds it, he decides to rid the world of evil by killing all the criminals and goes on a massive killing spree, but then Interpol gets involved and decide to try and find him and stop him, but, Light is really fucking clever so it's really hard to find him, so they decide to enlist the help of L (hottie on the left), a brilliant detective who has never revealed his identity until now. You really have to concentrate to follow what's going on but it's really funny and interesting and great and yeah, you're welcome.
If you're less inclined to watch it because Ryuk looks creepy as fuck, let me reassure you that he's the comic relief of the whole thing - I'm not even joking.

Mew Mew Power/Tokyo Mew Mew

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Complete change of type here! Well, I mean, it's still very alternative, other dimension kind of thing, but it's a lot more kawaii than the two others. This was my first ever anime that I watched when I was a kid (not even realising it was anime - I just thought it was a weird cartoon) and started watching it again recently.
It's about when weird aliens try to invade earth and fuck shit up, but the Mew Mew Girls (who represent different animals, I think it's wolf (purple), fish (bright green), cat (pink), monkey (yellow) and a bird (turquoise)) battle them to save the earth. There are different other sub-plots to it but that's basically what it's about and it's really cute and nice and not as intense as the other two.

What are your favourite animes? I'm currently looking for recommendations so if ever you have anything that you like let me know!

Fighting!
M x

HyunA "How's This" MV Review | Dying For Drama

Annyeong! 

Today I have another review for you from the sexual beacon that is HyunA. I had been looking forward to seeing what she was going to be presenting to us after the disbandment of 4Minute, and also after Roll Deep, so as soon as heard it was out, I immediately has a listen and I wanted to let you know what I think. As usual, I’ll start with the song.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect for this comeback, so all I could really do is hold my breath and see. 

It’s a very upbeat, summer time song that’s pretty easy to listen to. It’s not the best song in the world. There’s nothing particularly original or different to it. Let’s just say that everything about it is, from the song to the MV, is white washed. It sounds like any other shitty pop song that’s on the radio at the moment, just in Korean, which I’m disappointed about because I really was hoping for something a bit more original and creative from HyunA, but alas, no. 

Half expect the rest of 4Minute to come out sooner or later (I don't know if that's because there's a very 4Min vibe or because I'm still in mourning)

The MV is nothing you haven’t already seen before, either. People dancing around, looking sexy, loads of strange outfits, you know, the usual box MV kind of thing.

All in all, I think HyunA could’ve done better. It’s pretty poor and I don’t feel like there’s much effort gone into it. It feels like they’ve just slapped it all together. 

I’m going to give ‘How’s This’ a 2,5 kimchis out of 5.

What do you think of ‘How’s This’? Let me know in the comments. 

Fighting!

M x