Mama

What seems like years ago now, SM Entertainment, home to my favourite bands Super Junior and SHINee, revealed they were debuting a new band, consisting of two units who would release the same song in Korean and Chinese. They labelled it as something never done before, even though pretty much every major kpop band has re-released songs in either Japanese, Chinese, both, or some other language. For example, I have Perfection in three languages, and countless others in two. However, I don't think a song has been equally promoted in two languages at the same time, so I guess that's what they are getting at.

I eagerly anticipated their debut, especially after the first teaser was released, featuring the extraordinary dancing talent of Kai. More teasers followed, 20 in total, some featuring new members of the 12 strong group, although most of them focused on Kai. After what must have been nearly three months, two 'prolouge' singles were released, and yesterday, finally, their official debut Music Video, Mama, was released.

Korean Ver. from SMTown's Youtube

Chinese Ver. from SMTown's Youtube

The intro is interesting enough once, and I swear narrated by a man who could make a fortune as Michael Gambon's voice double if it isn't actually him, but you can skip to around the 1.23 mark for the start of the actual song.

First impressions? DOT DOT DOT. I didn't know what to think. It was so ... gothic churchy, different from everything I had come to expect from the teasers and singles. What is Love was chilled, and History was catchy, both fun to listen to but stereotypical kpop. To be honest, this scared me a little, especially the chanting at the start and face paint in the shout-y rap-y part, even if it did remind me of Super Junior's Knock Out (Twins) debut song over 6 years earlier.

But kpop has this habit of seeping into your subconscious, and songs you weren't overly impressed with on the first listen start playing in your head just as much as you watch and re-watch the music videos. So yeah, now I'm pretty addicted, and will happily admit to melting a little* at 3.18 of the Korean version, and coming over strangely maternal between 5.02 and 5.12.

The actual music videos were pretty awesome, and I really liked the whole back story explained (somewhat nonsensically) in the intro and how the members manifested their powers. The effects were impressive in both the introduction and the main part, but I have to admit to finding the sound effects somewhat distracting to the song. I kind of get why they did it,to add to the atmosphere and all that, like the swooshing for the tutting part of Lucifer, but I just found it unnecessarily loud and obvious.

The use of English isn't quite right. SM, who brought us the genius of 'Oh my gosh [...] do it do it, an original, hey baby love crash' in Super Junior's A-CHA strikes again, this time delighting us with 'Careless, careless, shoot anonymous, anonymous, heartless, mindless, no one who care about me.' which while it sounds very impressive, doesn't actually make much sense. Its just a shame because it is the English parts that stick out most to English speakers, and while I fully appreciate that we aren't their target audience, Korean music is international now. Also, I can't very easily go around singing it or people might think I'm a poorly educated suicide bomber, and we all know how upsetting seeming uneducated would be.

Anyway, I have to go watch both the videos again, and then eatyourkimchi will do a Music Monday on them tomorrow.

 I just need their full album. Now.

<3 x



*18 year olds should not have that effect on people, Kai.