Brown Eyed Girls - 어쩌다 (Eojjeoda) [How Come] Kpop Song Review

Artist: Brown Eyed Girls

Title: 어쩌다 (Eojjeoda) [How Come]

Album: 2집 - My Style

Track: 2

The girl group Brown Eyed Girls enjoyed 2009 as one of their more successful years in show business thanks to the song Abracadabra and to a lesser extent Sign. Lost among these two songs however, is an earlier track that they released around a year before called How Come?

The song How Come? came from their My Style Mini album, and while not really a main force in their increased level of popularity is still a pretty neat song to listen to.

About the Song:

The song How Come? is one of the songs that probably started the transition to the trance-electro-dance-pop sound that Brown Eyed Girls is now known for. It is a song that has a very upbeat sound that basically talks about a girl asking "How Come I fell in love with you?". She asks this because she gives her undying affection even though the one that she loves does not really treat her well.

Song Review:

What I like about the track How Come? is that it is very danceable. The beat is quite catchy and the vocals are top notch. This note about the great vocals is made more outstanding when you consider that in most electronic or dance songs, the quality of the voice is usually lost because of the autotune and other effects used to make the song sound more electronic. Overall, this song is really just flowing with energy, and wonderful vocals all over.

Recommendation:

I actually like this song more than their more famous Abracadabra. I think it sounds better both beat wise and vocally than the more famous counterpart. It really gives a great feel that makes one want to move and groove to the music.

A note though is that I first heard of How Come through a performance in the show Chocolate. I think the live versions are actually better since the members of the Brown Eyed Girls are able to give more energy and more feel to the song, and the electronic effects are a bit lessened making the girls' amazing voices more noticeable.

g.o.d. - 길 (Gil) [Road] Kpop Song Review

Artist: g.o.d.
Title: 길 (Gil) [Road]
Album: Chapter 4: Road
Track: 2

Around 10 years ago, one of the most famous male groups in the Kpop music scene was g.o.d. They were known for their versatile singing style which can handle ballads, r&b songs, or even rap tracks and some dance beats.

When they released their fourth album, Chapter 4: Road, one of the songs that helped in making it into a multi-million selling one is 길.

About the Song:
While Gil is not a fast paced song, it's not really a ballad either, it's more of a groovy r&b feel to it. The song talks about the road that we take in life. It's about trying to find that certainty or assurance that one is actually passing through the right path or road.

Song Review:
I personally believe that this song is up there with the best songs of g.o.d. The pace of the song was great as it was able to deliver that feeling of uncertainty that the lyrics are trying to say. Despite the fact that the words of the song's verses are sung/spoken a tad quickly, the members were able to still sing clearly enough for the listener to clearly understand the words.

Recommendation:
This is one of the better slow songs that g.o.d. has sung. As mentioned earlier, this was one of the main driving forces for the success of their 4th album. I would also think that a listener would enjoy this song more if they understood the lyrics, or are actually going through a similar phase in their lives. So I would suggest non- Korean speakers to look for translations and read it, while listening to the song.

With that said though, even if you barely understand Korean, the song is still quite enjoyable as it is truly able to showcase how great the g.o.d. members are at singing.

2PM - Again and Again Kpop Song Review

Artist: 2PM
Title: Again and Again
Album: 1:59 PM
Track: 11

I think that reviewing 2pm - Again and Again is a fitting start for this blog. This is because this the song that brought me back to listening to Kpop. I was watching Channel V when this song played, and its catchy beeping opening hooked me and made me want to know more about it.

About the Song:
Again and Again is a medium paced dance and groove song that talks about a guy's apparent obsession with his lover. It could probably be best summarized by the lines "She's a bad girl I know, but here we go again Oh no." The lyrics would talk about going back "again and again" to the girl even if she doesn’t necessarily treat him right.

Song Review:
What I like about this song is that… well I think I like everything about this song. I like how the songs is filled with powerful and dance inducing beats even if it’s not as fast paced as other dance songs. “Again and Again” is also quite catchy even if it doesn’t have the usual prerequisites of catchy songs such as cuteness or that fun factor. I think even the way they digitized some of the vocals were still able to make the song that much better.

People would also probably enjoy how the boys of 2PM sang it with so much emotion. This is particularly evident in the latter part of the song, especially when they were singing the lines from the chorus.


Recommendation:

If i were to give this a rating, I would score it a 5 out of 5! I personally think that Again and Again is one of the best songs of 2pm so far (I would argue that it's better than Heartbeat). Apparently, at least one major Korean network agrees with me, since KBS feted it with the song of the year award in 2009's KBS Music festival.