Asian Addicts Anonymous

Shinhwa is back and better than ever! Well, actually, I am not too familiar with their music. I won’t lie about that. What I am familiar with is Shinhwa during their variety days a few years back. I loved watching them on X-man and Love Letter. And I am familiar with Eric and Dongwan as actors [though I don’t think I’ve ever actually watched a drama or movie with them in it come to think of it…]. I have seen Junjin’s acting, though, in Ninetailed Fox [I haven’t finished watching that drama completely yet though, but he did a good job in the episodes I’ve seen to date].

After quite a long hiatus due to mandatory military service and all of the members concentrating on individual actives [acting, singing, etc], one of the original idol groups of kpop have made their comeback. These men can give the current idol babies a run for their money. They are in their 30s now, but can still hold their own.

I find their comeback track from their 10th album quite addicting. They have strong vocal and rapping skills. They are also pretty strong dancers [Minwoo and Junjin in particular]. The song has a nice dance beat and the English actually makes sense for the most part. My pickiness in this song comes with Eric spelling out his name before he starts rapping. How come his name gets to be in the song? There are 5 other members as well… Also, love the maknae of the group Andy [who recently completed his military duty – he’s also the mastermind behind Teen Top], but while his singing and beginning rap were good, I felt the rap part of his at the end [which I think was mostly English if not all English] while well pronounced, seemed a little awkward and outside the flow of the rest of the song which had married the rap and vocals quite well up to that point.

The dance for “Venus” is a typical kpop dance. It’s rather good and depends a lot on hand movements. The video…oh the video. It’s not a bad video. It showcases the members quite well dancing, singing, and rapping. I think the problem comes with the story part of the MV which seems a little confusing and a little cheesy. That said, pretty cool special effects, although, Minwoo’s spear dodging didn’t seem realistic at all. I guess since they are singing about a love Venus, then they went for a more mythological-themed music video. Love mythology, but, not sure how I really felt about that storyline in the actual video.

That being said, I am happy one of the original idol groups have made a unified comeback! Shinhwa really has done an excellent job and I look forward to seeing more of them as a unit in the future.

Oh, and before I go… You know what other song I highly recommend from this album? “Hurts”. It’s awesome. I like it, like always, more than the title song “Venus”. Unfortunately…the live version I dug up doesn’t do it complete justice.

The Return
Release: 23 March 2012
Buy on CDJapan | YesAsia | iTunes

01. On the Road
02. Hurts
03. Venus
04. Red Carpet
05. Move with Me
06. Let It Go
07. Stay
08. Welcome
09. Be my Love
10. Re-love
11. Breathin’