Yes, this is the defining Bonamana screencapture.

I’m going to say straight off the bat that,

1. This song is uninspired.

2. This video is amazingly lazy, even by SM standards.

3. The lyrics are elementary.

4. Yoo Young-jin needs to take a HUGE vacation and step away from SM studios for a while. Come back with a few new beats, and then we’ll talk. In fact, he and Teddy should vacation together.

BUT. The song’s choreography makes up for everything.

I was really, really, realllllly unimpressed by the video — I downright disliked it — but I also know that Super Junior tends to spend a lot of time on crafting choreography for their songs. They have the advantage and disadvantage of having 13 10 members. On the one hand, it still looks like a circus when they perform on stage. On the other hand, they get to incorporate cool stuff into their dances because they can break the 10 membered group into mini-groups during the dances.

This is one of the most high-energy dances I’ve seen in Kpop. I get such a rush of adrenaline after watching them dance to this song. A lot of the moves are “??????” and look wild and flail-y but I DIG. I dig everything. I dig the Egyptian walks, the backward-bent kicks, the LAME harem pants. It’s really 70s feeling for some reason, total disco stuff. There are even moves in there that look like moves you would make if you were completely socially inept and completely body/tone deaf and you wanted to fake like you could dance. But it’s all cool.

You know what else I dig?

I DIG KYUHYUN.

He’s sliding across floors, crotch thrusting, participating in dance breaks. WHAT IS GOING ON.

I finally realized what this song reminds me of:

THE FANTA COMMERCIAL WITH THE DANCING FANTA GIRLS.

(Not too impressed with the song on the whole, but I predict sick choreography.)

Time for an end-of-year post. In addition to the music post, which I also did last year, I’ll also be doing a drama post because…I watched a lot of dramas :Db

Favorite albums of the year:

Eternal Morning’s “Soundtrack to a Lost Film” – This album was released in 2007, but I’ve only gotten around to loving it this year. The pieces make me feel like I’m wandering around, submerged under water. Everything looks illuminated, but hazy too, so I don’t know what I’m looking at, yet I want to keep looking. This album makes me feel a jumble of things, but most importantly, it makes me wish I could set every single song to moving image so as to truly make it a soundtrack.

Kanye West’s “808 and Heartbreak” – I like this album better than anything he’s ever done. Yeah, it’s a mystery to me too. But the short of it is that I’ve always been wary of Kanye West because he samples SO much and this album is 80% refreshing and new. “Love Lockdown” is one of my favorite songs ever.

Super Junior’s “Sorry, Sorry” – I basically talk about this album ad nauseum in the rest of my favorite song review, so read the ramble after the jump!

The Bird and the Bee’s “Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future” - Delightful new find of the year. Their sounds are really whimsical and I love the lead singer’s voice because it sounds so clear. If The Bird and the Bee’s music were a person, it’d be a person who’s good at pushing away pangs of disappointment and loneliness when he/she has to deal with the rest of society. But hey, being sad is still being sad, and I feel the album does dip into more melancholy territory in the second half.

Epik High’s “Map the Soul” – Tablo’s writing never strikes me as pretentious even though I can see how it can come across like that to other people. He’s very sharp with his words and his music (as well as Epik High’s music) reflects that aspect of him, along with the qualities he admires in other musicians.

This is “Cipher” from the album.

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I will NEVER forget the atmosphere in Irving Plaza when Tablo jumped on stage to sing this first line. I can see is so clearly in my head: Beatbox DG does about 5 minutes of beat boxing and then he signals the start of the “Cipher” performance and the crowd goes crazy. Tablo speaks into the mic from backstage and the cheers get even louder. We were all anticipating, but even that is not enough to describe the mood of the audience. Even watching fancams now, my heart still pounds in anticipation of Tablo jumping on stage and whipping the audience with water as he raps his first line.

Favorite songs of the year:

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not much of a Christmas lover (or celebrator), but I’m dwelling it more this year because it means that winter break is here. Here’s my present to you:

Look at that profile. D’aw, so cute, Donghae.

Anyway, my winter break so far has been:

- drinking a lot of tea and Calpico
- cleaning up my room like whoa
- realizing my collection of magazines piles sky high :\
- …scanning said pile of sky-high mags. Omg I hate it.
- watching dramas like CRAZY
- writing up end-of-year posts for dramas, music, movies
- attempting to catch up on a lot of reading

How’s everyone else’s break going?

I love this version way more than the original. The only thing I didn’t like about the R&B version with just Yoo Young Jin singing was that it…was just Yoo Young Jin.

I’ve been having a really difficult time with life this past week, and Super Junior has surprisingly been a huge mood-lifter.