C-lowicious

Mostly SNSD Based

(Just a reminder, this is all my opinion, comment yours if you agree/disagree, no judging ^^)

Released on June 2012, this documentary followed the artists under SM Entertainment including our babies, Girls' Generation, as they become the first Korean artists to perform at Madison Square Garden in New York. It wasn't only to give us a taste of their concert performances but some behind the scenes of all the artists lives, even pre debut footage as well.

For all of the SM Town lovers this was big news. Watching all your favorite SM artists perform and talk about personal things in their life, it's like a stalkers K-pop fans dream. Now I expected it to be glorious with unseen backstage and pre-debut footage but that wasn't really the case. I was actually very disappointed because most of the stuff I have already seen and if there was a clip I didn't see they would cut it very short. The interviews, I thought, were really short and fans weren't able to see/hear ALL their favorite idols and what they had to say.

I'm not saying there weren't ANY good footage at all: For us Sones we got to see our girls meet BoA as a group and Tiffany be a little fangirl, Taeyeon and her cute mess-up when she was singing, their practice video for the David Letterman show performance (sadly ended after 5 seconds ), Yuri's adorable audition dance and Hyoyeons crazy audition (my favorites), lots and lots of shuffling, etc. I thought it was kind of cool to show these clips to the them now and get their reaction (anyone else thought it was hilarious how Hyoyeon was like "I was the -ish then!") lol

Aside from those footages, I did like Taeyeon saying how all she wanted to do was sing and didn't seem to want to do anything else (my summary, not exactly what she said lol). I wish I could've heard more about this, I wish could've heard more about Tiffany and coming to Korea as a foreigner, I wish I could've heard more about all the training our girls went through. Even the other artists, there was so little to really come by - Super Juniors own struggle with the members leaving, TVXQ members and that huge fiasco with the company, etc.

It's no surprise though, it's an SMe Documentary. Of course they're not going to have them talk about their struggles and hardships, of course they're not going to talk about the crazy fans and such. It seems the filmaker(s) weren't even focused on the artists themselves. They pretty much just gave us eye candy, performances we've seen 50 million times, the good times, and their success. I mean we already knew this, right?! Even the ending with everyone hugging LSM himself, was it just me or was that suppose to say something to us specially o_o ...

Maybe I expected too much, I thought in this documentary we were going to learn more about the SM artists but we pretty much just learned a tad bit more of what they already talk about and what we already know, rather than the stuff we (deep down inside) really wanted to know.

But hey, if you already expected that much and don't mind some eye candy (the girls in their interviews were GORGEOUS btw) then it's a great movie for you. I'm not gonna lie, as disappointed as I was, as an international kpop fan it was quite satisfying when it came to eye candy and some fangirling.

Do I recommend you to buy this? No.
Do I recommend you watch it? Of course, it's on Netflix!
What do I rate it? 4/10

"Girls' Generation" First Japanese Studio Album

Music/Song Review

Before I start I hope that I am doing all of this right. I also want to point out that I (sadly) do not own the album so I will only be reviewing the music/songs and then some. For all you grammar/punctuation geeks - don't judge me! LOL

Girls' Generation had debuted in Japan with their Japanese versions of Genie and Gee and later released Mr. Taxi and Run Devil Run. On June 1, 2011, the girls released, IMO, their best album yet.

The overall album is just amazing. Unlike their Korean albums, this album had a variety of different sounds from pop to techno and more, but stayed consistent with this boss club like concept, which I loved. All the songs were catchy, had great beats, and showed off a lot of their vocals and a lot more:
 

The first song on there was released before the full album came out and was already a huge hit: MR. TAXI is not one of my personal favorites because it's more just pop than the rest of the songs but it is catchy as hell and not to mention Taeyeons intro with "Tokyo, Seoul, London, New York," that just sounds so awesome it reels you in to listen to the rest of the song.

THE GREAT ESCAPE is definitely my favorite in the album cuz it gives me that 80's, sexy, Janet Jackson feel (I'm not sure what that means exactly but that's how I feel when I listen to it). When the song starts with that beeping sound (?) and then the girls come in with hypnotizing tones, Jessica and Tiffany with their forever random English parts, pretty much all of their vocal deliveries (Jessica's solo part near the end is orgas ... killer), it all just adds up to one wonderfully messy song! I'M IN LOVE WITH THE HERO is another favorite because of how it shows the girls vocal abilities (Taeyeons ad-libbing at the end is my favorite) and the way they incorporated those drum sounds made it, shall I say, thrilling ... like in a movie??

Along with Mr. Taxi, BAD GIRL and YOU-A-HOLIC are catchy, great to dance to, and also very VERY sexy. These songs suit SNSD's overall concept of being the best in having great catchy dance pop songs. Also in being very VERY sexy.

There were some songs that, even though they still went with the whole album, didn't leave much of an impression on me. BEAUTIFUL STRANGER is a strong number but it just sounded too weird to me and I couldn't listen past the "Are you a good one? Are you a bad one?" The girls singing BORN TO BE A LADY really gave you the feels but it was boring and pretty much sounded like all of their ballads before.

LET IT RAIN, however, is not only catchy but was nicely sung. I'm not sure if maybe it's the darkish R&B sound or if SNSD accomplished that melancholy feeling you'd feel when listening to it. Not to mention there's some harmonizing in it which the girls rarely do.

Their renditions of the Korean songs were okay, I think I'm too used to the Korean ones so I can't really say much without comparing it to the original (GEE- too damn high, GENIE- isn't as cool without the repetitive "Sowoneul Mahrebwa"). RUN DEVIL RUN was probably the only song that sounded like it was made for Japanese words.

The somewhat unfair arrangement of the girls singing parts, the focus on the random English (no surprise there), the overall repetitiveness, the pricey album and the fact that it's not on freaking Itunes: the album has it's flaws but the great producing, composing, and everything else behind it (including the girls) made me believe this is the image/genre the girls should have started with, killed it, and forever be the most awesome group it is now, if not more.

​Check it out if you haven't already! May I also suggest watching their performances for the album, it's hot! And enjoy!

10/10, Duh!