Super Junior's BIJIN reviewed on the Jukebox

[koganbot]

Super Junior's "Bijin" is reviewed today at the Singles Jukebox. I wouldn't say I get Super Junior; I was one of the low scorers. Here's the Korean-language original, which I'd have given an extra point, raising it to 7:

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[descriptivist.livejournal.com]

I agree that "Sorry, Sorry" is the better song. I compared it to Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance", where hook after hook, different idea after different idea, is stacked neatly on top of the last to create a solid Lego brick tower of a song. To pursue the Gaga metaphor, "Bonamana" is "Judas", a song that uses the same formula as the previous but with pieces that aren't exactly as good of a fit as before. It's still good, the formula works, but there are parts that stick out and the song doesn't go down as easily as its predecessor.

To be specific, I don't think the "I'll keep loving you" melodic middle eight needs to be there, but I generally don't like K-pop's use of the middle eight as a place to stick a totally different idea (e.g. a sweet, doe-eyed melody into an otherwise strident song, as in "Bang!" or even "Gee") so that's just me.

Also, since "Sorry, Sorry" I've appreciated that Super Junior are going for a more masculine, mature image than other boy bands who pile on the studs and colourful pants and guyliner. Even if that's only because the average age of the members is much higher than that of their fellow boy bands (I think the youngest member is 22 or 23?) and they already did the Final Fantasy hair thing in like 2005.

[koganbot]

I love the middle eight in "Bang!" though maybe that's 'cause with what's coming it's like Bambi being led to the slaughter. But it's also really beautiful on its own.

The more I listen, the more I do hear something special in "Bonamana" that wasn't in "Sorry Sorry," all the steel slivers in the sound and the boys darting around them. Problem is that the chorus and the middle eight either are the wrong melodies or just have singing that I wish were stronger. Whereas I like "Sorry Sorry" on its own as a song, hence my total love for IU's version. The way I hear what "Bonamana" should be is for it to have exquisitely tingly high harmonies (or voices strong enough to deliver the harmonies they've already got); I'm actually thinking of the Hollies' "Carrie Anne," I mean the effect, not the actual harmonies: high harmonies that hurt. (The fact that I'm even making that comparison means that "Bonamana" is growing on me.) As I told Mat, I think the first minute is fabulous, and come to think of it, I also love the Autotune pileup (in the video it runs from 3:30-3:45), which is right at the end of the maligned middle eight and may have been what Jonathan Bradley was referring to in his writeup.

[descriptivist.livejournal.com]

Oops, forget what I said about not piling on the colourful pants - this is the teaser photo for their next single, which drops next week: