Girls’ Generation released their third Korean studio album, “The Boys”, on October 19th after almost a year long wait from their last Korean album. Fans were eagerly anticipating what the girls would come out with after the new sound of the first Japan album (reviewed here). Almost instantly the album and lead single became a hit. Many digital charts had their top ten songs all as tracks from “The Boys”, and the title track would go on to win triple crowns on Inkigayo and M Countdown, and six straight Music Bank K-Charts, the most by any artist since Girls’ Generation themselves pulled off nine in a row with “Gee” back in 2009. In just two months, “The Boys” became the highest selling album of 2011 on the Gaon chart in Korea. Clearly SONEs, and the general public, were in love with the album, showing just how popular Girls’ Generation had become. Let’s take a look at “The Boys” and see what all the fuss is about.
“The Boys” CD and tin case
“The Boys” is a pretty unique album. It comes in a tin case showing all nine girls with a design reminiscent of the “Into The New World” single. Perhaps it’s fitting that the album is in a case like this, because when you open it, it feels like a little treasure chest of goodies. There are ten postcards, one for each member and also a group picture, and on each of the post cards are the girls’ fairy tale concept images as well as their unique “thanks to” messages, the translations of which can be seen in Soshified’s Translated Goodies section. There is also a random member’s photocard in the case. When I bought the album it also came with posters, one group poster of the girls looking elegant in flowing white dresses, and the other a poster of a random member’s teaser picture. The posters are on thick non-glossy paper, which looks nice because the theme of the photos has somewhat of a vintage motif. Amazingly I got Sunny for both the photocard and the poster. The CD itself is laid in a black felt holder inside the case, and all around, the album just feels classy. Lastly, a wallet sized photo of the group poster was included. “The Boys” comes with so much stuff that it felt like an early Christmas when I opened the package.
Packaging: 9/9
The members’ individual cards come in a thick sleeve with the album design
Now on to the meat of the album, the music (the translated lyrics for all the songs can be found in the Soshified’s Lyrics Center). “The Boys” isn’t so much an “album” per se as it is a collection of Girls’ Generation songs. Whereas the first Japan album had a distinct sound and production that was consistent throughout the album, “The Boys” feels more like the producers sat down and said, “Hey this song is good, let’s throw that in there, too.” This is not necessarily a bad thing, however. With “The Boys” you get to hear all sides of Girls’ Generation, from cute and bubbly to dark and powerful, and the album itself starts out with some ferocity in the title track, “The Boys”.
Teddy Riley, an American producer who composed the song and has worked with legends like Michael Jackson, gave the girls a strong title track. The beat is vicious and demands your attention as soon as it comes in after the intro that includes Jessica’s fan-chant inducing “G. G.”. The song is different from a typical pop track. It doesn’t have the normal kind of hook that we’ve come to expect from a Girls’ Generation song, and in that sense it was a huge risk for this to be the lead single. From the chanting chorus to the rapping in the dance break, “The Boys” shows a new side to Girls’ Generation. But it works. The second half of the song leading into Taeyeon’s soaring “My heart~” and Jessica’s slowly ascending “Girls bring the boys out” takes the listener to new heights before immediately dropping them back into the beat. “The Boys” is one of my favorite tracks, and it starts the album off with a bang.
The bang kind of fizzles, though, because “Telepathy” is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from “The Boys”, so it’s a bit jarring to go right into it. It’s a nice song, but it’s not a strong one. There are some great moments like Taeyeon’s high note towards the end of the song that creates an interesting harmony, but I was left wanting more after the attention grabbing first song. The third track, “Say Yes”, is a decent song, but it’s so sweet I think I got a few cavities just from listening to it. I love this side of Girls’ Generation, but the overly cute intro from Jessica and Tiffany left me cringing a little bit.
“TRICK” is another one of my favorites. The modification of Tiffany’s “L-L-Ladies gentlemen” at the start draws me in right away, and the chorus is just plain good with a combination of singing and rapping. The production on this song stands out because of the smart usage of auto-tune to fit the electro-dance sound and interesting choices made with the stutter of the girls’ voices. Next, “How Great Is Your Love” is a really nice and uplifting song with lyrics written by Girls’ Generation’s own Sooyoung. The lyrics flow smoothly and create a nice feeling with the movement of the seasons, and in general the song just gives off a happy vibe. The girls get to show off some of their vocal prowess as well, which is always good to hear. Following this is “My J”, another cute track with a happy beat. There’s nothing really outstanding about it, but I can’t help singing along.
Sunny’s poster
After those bright and happy songs we plunge into the dark with “OSCAR”, the best track on the album. This beat just comes out of nowhere and punches you in the gut like a heavyweight fighter. The vocals are dark and mysterious with crazy intervals and harmonies, and by the time Jessica says “Come on boy”, I’m at their mercy. The song doesn’t give you a chance to recover until after the funky bass-slapping second verse and Tiffany and Hyoyeon’s unique sounding rap. The song fades out before slamming you back into the bridge and last chorus. “OSCAR” is an all-out assault on your aural senses.
“Top Secret” follows up right after, and the “Hoot” style song is addictive, especially the chanting of “check” halfway through. The song is quite interesting lyrically, showcasing some of the difficulties with being a celebrity and the need to be “Top Secret”. Lyrical fun continues in “Lazy Girl”. I can only assume the choice of having Jessica start the song by singing “I’m a lazy girl” is done on purpose, but it is endearing to hear her sing it. “Sunflower” feels lifted right out of the 80s but with a modern spin. It’s a soothing ballad-style song, and the way the girls sing the chorus gives the song an ethereal feel.
Out of all the cute sounding songs, the energy pill “VITAMIN” stands out. The beat and melody instantly put me in a good mood, and it’s incredibly catchy. It was originally used for the Vita500 ad campaign, and the girls showed off a fun dance to go along with the song, so I was really happy to hear that the full song would be included on “The Boys”. The album wraps up with the Korean version of “MR. TAXI”. At first, the lyrics just sounded strange since I’ve been listening to the original Japanese version for so long, but it does sound pretty good in Korean. The breakdown in the middle sounded worse to me compared to the Japanese version, but the strangeness eventually faded to where I think I prefer the Korean version, mostly because I can actually understand some of it. We’ve all heard “MR. TAXI” a million times, but even after all this time it remains a killer pop song.
Girls’ Generation members in the group poster
Girls’ Generation had a lot of pressure leading up to the release of “The Boys”. A less than stellar effort could be seen as a disappointment after their incredible first Japan album. The verdict? It’s not stellar, but it’s also not a disappointment. The songs are quite good for the most part, but there is no pace to the album. Going from fierce to cute to fierce interrupts the feeling and flow to a point where I don’t feel like I’m having a listening experience so much as I have iTunes on shuffle. “The Boys” is a must buy though, not only for having some absolutely amazing songs like “OSCAR” and “The Boys”, but also for the sheer amount of goodies you get.
Songs: 6/9
Overall: 7/9
Written by: MoonSoshi9@soshified
Edited by: michaelroni@soshified
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I just purchased the album on amazon! I’m from Canada, so just wondering will my album also include these amazing pictures? I would be so happy if it did!
The Boys albums are not bad, not the worst, but still. a lot of releases are better than this album. In my opinion the ballad in this album is not as strong as their previous album.
I really like The Boys, Top Secret, How Great Is Your Love, Trick, Mr. Taxi, and Vitamin. Just like this review, I find Top Secret very addictive and it is my favorite song in the album. But I feel like the rating for the songs is not enough, I mean I feel like you should’ve made it 7 or something.
‘the energy pill “VITAMIN”‘…ah, I see what you did there ;)
I agree with you about it not being a disappoint like some people, Sones and non-Sones alike, have claimed. Listening to the album in one sitting, I agree that it’s not very cohesive, but all the songs are impressive in their own right, and some are brilliant. I personally like ‘The Boys’ as a whole more than I liked the ‘Oh!’ album, which had some very strong tracks and some filler, in my opinion.
Oops, a ‘disappointment’.
English is ostensibly my first language :p
Wow, I thought of waiting till the album is released in our country but I guess I’ll be buying online because of this review. I can’t wait to get my hands on this album. And the posters are so …. great.
Does anyone know if I’ll still get posters even if I buy 4 months after release?
You might do, check out some of the eBay listings and check if they include the posters first. I think Yes Asia is selling them separately to the album, but then they tend to always do that.
I actually bought three albums, but only one came with the posters (I got Seohyun) and then I bought the other posters individually…they were up on eBay for about $5 apiece, which is much easier and cheaper than buying lots of the CDs and hoping you eventually get them all. Not sure if they’re still there, you might have to do some specific searches like ‘SNSD The Boys poster Taeyeon’ for example. Good luck!
Which country are you from, if you don’t mind me asking?
TRICK should be used for their promotions. I really feel the song will do great.
Overall, the album is great but maybe, just like others, I prefer the consistency brought by the Japanese album that I subconsciously trying to find in the ‘The Boys’ album.
hahaha dont know about u guys…but i cant resist anything soshi ^^ totally fell in love with the album the moment i got it… fantastic stuffzz :)))) trick also really was totally awesome for me…like said….the “ladiesgentlemen”part was so smexy <3 then sica's magician/charisma part also just makes me love it all the more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11 anyway…stay well and keep strong girls, totally looking forward to their other activities…gna b supporting alwayssssssssss :) it is a SO NYUH SHI DAE, now and always…soshi fighting!~
I agree about there being so many goodies. I remember opening the album & thinking “How much is in here?!” BUT I think it’s very nice they took that much time to put so much into that album.
My favorite songs on the album are “Vitamin” & “Lazy Girl”. I really like “Vitamin” because it’s really catchy, has a great dance, has adorable lyrics, & because it’s really upbeat. But even though I love that song, “Lazy Girl” will ALWAYS be my favorite! I LOVE the lyrics & the song is really relaxing, especially with the harmonies.
I do also like “Trick”. I really like the auto-tune & the chanting. I’m not a huge fan of “Oscar”, but I guess it is pretty good. If Girls’ Generation wants to make it big in America & make it even bigger in Korea, “Trick” should be the next song they promote. It’s the song EVERYONE likes.
Your SOOO lucky that you got Sunny! I got Jessica. XD
This is a nice review of the album. Trick and Oscar have gotten a lot of love since the album was released and I have to agree that they really are great songs. I also agree that the CD is more of a collection of the girls’ styles BUT seeing as this list of songs is the same appearing on the Worldwide released album and will possibly serve as an intro to the US and other markets for the girls, I think it is good that in one album, a listener can hear all the aspects of the girls from their cute and bubbly sound (My J, Lazy Girl, Say Yes, Telepathy, VITAMIN) to the strong and powerful vocals (Sunflower, Spring Day) and their drool worthy sexy songs (Boys, Trick, Oscar).
I personally didn’t like VITAMIN and Mr. Taxi being added but I do have to agree that they are fun to listen to and the VITA500 dance is too catchy to let go of.
All in all I pretty much agree (although I think the songs should have gotten 7/9 and Overall being an 8/9 since so much came with the album and so well packaged.
Well, looks like there are lots of differing opinions on this. I personally could sit and listen to Telepathy and Say Yes all day long.
I like Telepathy because it really emphasizes how powerful it is when the girls all harmonize together. It’s like a bazooka shot of goodness to my eardrums, LOL…. Love that song.
I agree that Jessica’s and Tiffany’s lines in Say Yes are corny, but after seeing them sing it live on Suju’s radio show I chuckle every time I listen to it. Especially at Jessi’s mistake at the beginning; “Girl..uh… boy!” and her overdone giggle..LOL. I also like in the radio version Sooyoung’s uh-uh-yeah at :28 and Yoona’s “stop” sign at :42. (pretty sure it’s Sooyoung, hard to tell in the vid but she does have the mic to her mouth). Bunch of dorks…
For those that haven’t seen the vids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ueu-0SzPTgY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a6SU5A8wfQ
-grabby hands- I want it! >._< CDS why are you so expensive? T.T
i love this album. i love all the songs. i love everything about it
The cutesy songs kinda put me off (Oh! still needs to grow on me after so long), although I do like Say Yes (the adlibs just toned down the sweetness). I was hoping that they’d promote Trick since it’s like one of THE best songs on the album. The first time I heard Oscar I was expecting ‘It’s Britney B**’ to come out since the intro sounded so similar but hey I still love the song. I only listened to the full Mr. Taxi when they did it for their comeback stage. I’ll admit I had expectations after the Japanese album, which I LOVED completely. It sorta made me feel like they’d grown and matured and the songs were reflecting that. But then in The Boys album, the cutesy songs returned so I was slightly let down. Nonetheless, out of the 13 I listen to 9 of the songs. And the fact that I can hear Jessica’s (heehee) high note/adlibs here and there made me fangirl like whaaat. And maknae’s voice has matured so much as well.
Great review though! :)
Nice review. Not too objective, which is great. The honesty is also greatly appreciated, and does take guts, haha!
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.
It’s good to see a review. But people should remember shouldn’t listen to what the review says too much because its mostly up to personal preferences. :)
I can’t agree with you on the telepathy part, i love that song and i love their cute image a lot and that song really reflect that.
I love the OSCAR part, “This beat just comes out of nowhere and punches you in the gut like a heavyweight fighter” and ” ‘OSCAR’ is an all-out assault on your aural senses”. I got a nice laugh, thanks :D
But i agree on the most part in this article, good read good read :)
I haven’t got the physical album but so i have no of the goodies you get from it :( but i ordered the Mr. Taxi version instead :) but this album overall is much better then the Japanese. I love the variety in the songs.
My favorite songs on this album is: “Vitamin”, “Sunflower”, “OSCAR” and “Trick”.
It’s a very nice and detailed review =) Totally agree on “The Boys” being a collection of Girls’ Generation’s songs instead of an album itself, but it’s not that bad after you realize the highlight of it.
Makes me want to get the album =C But I already have the MR. TAXI album……. “MR. TAXI TAXI TAXI gimme money money money” /quotes orig writer
Thanks for the awesome read whoooot!
I personally think you praise the Japanese album a bit too much, but reviews are opinions, and thats your opinion. I don’t think a consistent flow within all the songs is important at all really, and thats why I love the Boys so much, because it gives us a taste of everything. Otherwise, you would get more complaining fans as people would complain that their favorite style and side to SNSD wasn’t included, but with a mix, we are all happy, at least somewhat.
lol, I was going to post this on Steam but…too many words.
TOO MANY WORDS TO READ -,-
For me, their 1st album is still the best. But “The Boys” is better than their 2nd album in my opinion.
The way I would rate it: Vol.1 > Japanese album > Vol.3 > Vol.2
The Boys – The 1st time I heard it full length I thought it sounded… weird. Probably because it was different from the teaser. But it didn’t took long before I got completely addicted to it. It’s different from other SNSD songs, but I can still feel SNSD in it. The beat is addictive, the rap is quite amazing, the bridge is the highlight and the Sica-Seo-Taeng ending is breathtaking!
Telepathy – Quite a transition! But I love it! It’s cute, but not too cute like Oh! and the beat is very addictive. I love the retro sound and it reminds me of a mix of Girlfriend + Echo. I wish there was more adlibs at the end though.
Say Yes – The narration is a bit too much for me lol! But once the “eh eh eh eh” begins, I totally love it. This is another cute song, but once again not overly cute. This song is definitely one of my favorite. The chorus is so sweet. Every time I listen to this song, it reminds me of the dorky, silly sides of SNSD!
TRICK – BEST SONG FROM THE ALBUM. PERIOD.
How Great Is Your Love – Lovely happy ballad. Quite different from their usually “sadder” ballads. The melody is beautiful. The vocals are perfection. I wouldn’t consider this song in my top SNSD ballads (they have too many amazing ones like Complete, Dear. Mom, Forever, BORN TO BE A LADY).
My J – I could do without this track. It’s a bit too festive and Christmasy to me… It’s cute, but rather forgettable. The chorus is nice though. I like singing the “together 365 mae il” part lol.
OSCAR – SECOND BEST SONG FROM THE ALBUM. PERIOD.
Top Secret – Asides from My J, this is another forgettable song. It reminded me of Hoot at first, but it’s definitely not as catchy. The “check check check” part is definitely unnecessary.
Lazy Girl (Dolce Far Niente) – Oh I love this track! Another retro-ish song but definitely fun and catchy!
Sunflower – Another ballad that doesn’t make it in my favorite SNSD ballads list, but it’s lovely nonetheless. This ballad feels rather retro to me but it’s actually kinda nice. I like the verses more than the chorus, which is a first. I would choose How Great Is Your Love over Sunflower.
VITAMIN – Ohhh what a wonderful beginning. With the violins (I think?) and all, I almost thought I was listening to an IU song! I wish the song had more of that in the song. But I still like Vitamin a lot. It definitely defines SNSD. Energetic, fun, catchy, cute, sweet, amazing!
MR.TAXI (Korean Ver.) + The Boys (English Ver.) – Honestly, I skip those most of the time. I’m just more used to the original versions. It doesn’t feel too awkward listening to those songs though. Not like Hoot (Japanese Ver.).
Overall, very lovely album. The upbeat tracks are the highlight (The Boys, TRICK, OSCAR). Vitamin is a wonderful outro song. I’m loving the cuter tracks (Telepathy, Say Yes, Lazy Girl). I quite like how they are less overly cute compared to the cute songs from the 2nd album. The ballads are good, but not their best. And there’s 2 rather forgettable songs. So I give it a 8/10!
I wish they went with a more upbeat (like the Japanese album and TRICK) route rather than an overall cute/retro style. I would like to see more upbeat/rockish songs like Himnae! in the future too.
i love this album, but i will agree with the majority of sone that it had a lot to live up to with the amazing feel the first japanese album gave off. hopefully, as snsd progresses, future snsd composers will take a page out of what the composers of the japanese album did, because, whatever it was, it was really good. the packaging was cool, but that is inconsequential to my opinion of the album, so i’ll move on. i agree that “the boys” is an awesome song. it received criticism from some for being so different than what we’ve come to expect from snsd, but that might be why i liked it so much. rather than the catchy, repetitive chorus, it brought down the hammer when that split second of silence comes before the bass booms. if you are wondering what i mean, make it your mission to see them live, and you’ll understand what i mean. a few songs i liked for their upbeat rhythm were “telepathy” and “vitamin”. a few songs i thought were okay were “say yes”, “my j”, “sunflower”, and “mr. taxi”. these songs are more cute and poppy, which i like, but aren’t my preference and i speak english, so the korean version of “mr. taxi” just sounded strange after listening to the original so many times. two songs i really liked were “top secret” and “lazy girl”. the stars of these songs for me were hyoyeon and jessica, respectively. hyoyeon’s opening to the bridge in “top secret” was downright sexy and sassy, and jessica made my knees weak with the opening to “lazy girl”. it was so cute even i liked it. i also liked both songs because they reminded me of the light and dark sides to 1950’s pop music in america. they had a very retro feel and i liked that. lastly, the songs that were awesome were “trick”, gets you pumped up and ready to go face anything, “how great is your love”, so sweet and angelic that i felt like i was in heaven, and “oscar”, one of my favorite snsd songs in general. i love mature, powerful, and sexy snsd, and this oozed that vibe. overall, i really liked the album. the japanese album is still #1 in my book, but this isn’t far off. i eagerly await more snsd musical magic!!! :-)
I do find myself more leaning towards the Japanese releases. Perhaps it’s because of preference, I like consistency and even though I’m open to others I think as a whole the songs do not fit each other well. Individually they would be amazing to ‘I really have no idea’, especially on the candy-pop songs such as ‘Say Yes’ and ‘Vitamin’. I shall endure it for Soshi.
But my fovourite would be The Boys then TRICK, then The Boys–depending on the day and mood (keke). I think I’m going solo when I say I like Sunflower a lot? yes? and it perhaps the third in my ranking, I don’t know why but the SONEs I know seemed to fear it (with good reason), it is a bit of a ghastly kind of chilling song but it has both beauty and horror (their ethereal voices) that I am so strangely compelled to. It’s a gooood chill. I like good chills.
Probably everything about me liking My J is that my name actually starts with a J… because I allow myself to be delusional like that (Soshi’s J, Sunny’s J! Hell yeah!) I find myself quite abundantly joyful at every listen :>
You’re right. MR. TAXI is strange. It takes skillz to be able to turn a song and fit into another language (not saying this was downright successful) but it isn’t as bad as most people would have thought, and I guess it takes a few more listens to get use to because it worked for me.
The rest doesn’t strike that particular chord on me, which is great considering I labelled my worst.
I don’t know about you guys but the more the contents, the more it scares me. LOL.
(/brakes into your home and steal everrrrryyyyyyythinggggggg Sunny)
Well, for me I absolutely love OSCAR.. Saw the clip on the girls singing to this song with Suju after hosting a radio show.. very lively song..How Great Is Your Love is also thumbs up!!
“This beat just comes out of nowhere and punches you in the gut like a heavyweight fighter. ” LMAO XD
I think this review is pretty good :)
Since I love all the songs in the album, I know it would be really hard for me to be impartial when reviewing something that comes from my idols, so… Great job!! :D
I think I’m one of the tiny few that doesn’t really like Oscar. I think it sounds so much like Britney Spears’ songs (her new ones at least). I love Trick and Vitamin, but I don’t really get the hype about Oscar; it’s an okay song, the girls went for something really different and that’s cool, but as for it being the best song in the album? I guess, but it’s just not for me.
Don’t worry, I’m right there with you 100%. I think the hype about “OSCAR” being amazing and the best song ever on this album is just ridiculous. It’s not -that- great (not to the point where people praise it to be anyway). “Trick” and “Vitamin” are my favorites off this album as well actually. :)