Happy New Year! If You follow ECE on Twitter (@earcandyexpress) you would see that I came back from my super long hiatus of 6 months. I’m sorry for abandoning you guys, but since I’m still on break I thought I’d give you something to read.
I’m sure everyone now has heard (and seen the video) the “interesting” new song SNSD has out for their 3rd album ‘I Got A Boy’. When I’m preparing for a review, I listen to the song once to get a first impression and twice to listen for any hidden good/bad/magical parts in the song that I didn’t get the first time. With I Got A Boy, I was overwhelmed after listening both times. This song is trying hard to be too many different things; it’s a pop R&B  mash-up gone wrong. Now this song is just like Gee and The Boys, pretty soon you’ll find yourself humming along and mimicking dance moves. I think if this song stuck to just one sound and not seven, then IGAB could have been great.
Dancing Queen is a remake that should not have happened. I don’t know why they decided to release this song; it’s not bad because obviously it’s a remake but I feel like a remake should have it’s own style and be able to stand on it’s own (ie Wonder Girls ‘Me-In’).
I swear Promise is a remake of a song; it’s either that or the song is so cliche for a  pop ballad. This song is okay but not amazing and could have been edited a bit better.  The climax is in an odd spot and  the ending just sounds awkward, not exactly the girls fault. Lost in Love, yet another song that just never quite got there. Taeyeon sounds great as always, but this lacked that “oomph” that makes a great ballad.
They really tried with Look At Me, while this was a good effort, it ultimately was just a filler track. Though I did like the Indian-Western Asian inspired melody, but that’s about it.  Romantic St. yet another song that could have stayed  off the album.
Express 999,upbeat mix of modern electronic and old school sound. All the girls sound amazing. Just listening to this song takes me back to the days of their first album. I much prefer this song to that of IGAB. XYZ also follows that ’90’s pop sound; I like this one as well. Baby Maybe is pretty; it’s a light pop song that works. It’s not overbearing and simple with electronic mixed with harp.
This album could have survived as just a mini with the exclusion of the songs that I did not like; that would have been a good listen. Even if IGAB was polished and edited properly, this would definitely be a top release of 2013, but this was mediocre at best. SNSD writers and producers need to seriously pull from the Japanese writers/producers because their first Japanese album was pop gold, this however is not and adds on to the list of half-assed releases in the downward slope ever since the Genie era.
2/5
