SHINee - Lucifer

I've never reviewed a CD before... But I thought it was worth a go! If it doesn't go well I'll just never do it again! If you actually read it all please tell me if I should do it again!

My friend, Tamzin, got a SHINee CD for her birthday. For those who don't know, SHINee is an all-boy, five member idol group under the SM ent. label. Which basically means they sing dance and look good. So I insisted she lend it to me.
As with most Kpop CD's it came with a decent size book with lots of good pictures in it. They all had similar effects (light leaks, doodles and ink splodges) but they where all done differently! Some of the photos have been made to look quite grainy, I think this was to go with the almost rustic look of the whole album, but I didn't like it! Most the photos were fine though. My favourites were the group photos as their outfits worked better as a group and the placing was well thought out!
So, now we actually get to talking about the music!

The first track is called Up & Down and I think it has a really cute and bubbly intro! It's really catchy and, unfortunately, completely different to the rest of the song. The chorus sounded like it was mixed by a 6 year old and the rap just sounded like a monologue. So basically, I like the intro and the intro only. The title song is my favourite! It's a really amazing song! The awesome instrumentals. The powerful vocals. The speedy raps. I could carry on listing the good things of this song but instead I'm just going to tell you to go listen to it yourself!
Electric Heart is quite unique sounding and focuses a lot more on their singing. The music is mostly an aucostic guitar, thus making the vocals even more important! There is a lot of Ah's and Oh's making it almost sound like an a cappella style song. It's got lots of different sounds and is very interesting! Not catchy though! A-yo is an adorable overly cute song. I don't know what their singing about but I can feel the encouragement in their voices! This song sounds auto-tuned, maybe for effect. But never the less, it's a catchy beat makes you want to get up and do something!
Track 5, Obsession, is very intense. The electric strings and the almost whispered verses contrast with the powerful chorus. It has a guitar solo... Quite why an Idol group need guitar solos I don't know. Dramatic and powerful! I enjoyed it. Quasimodo is a bit of a ballad with a slow start. However, it does build up with more instruments and overlapping voices. The powerful long notes really show off they're singing range then it all dies away. It's quite nice because of the more acoustic instruments and the real vocals. The whole song just sounds very genuine.
Shout out has some strange sound FX and a more manly approach. It's a rap song with very little for the singers. Very different from the cuter sounds of SHINee in fact it hardly sounds like them. But I'm glad they give their rappers some fun! It was a good sounding rap too and apparently their rapper writes his own raps! Number 8 is called Wowowow and sounds quite retro. But the voices are so synthesised they sounded like vocaloids! So I didn't really like it all that much!
Your Name is quite pleasant, very laid-back. They constantly switch whose sing but manage it smoothly, it's very much your typical chill-out track. But it was very repetitive and on-going! Life continues the laid-back theme with pianos and strings and is quite ballad-y. The vocals are very nice on this track too! Very calming, like a lullaby. The harmonies don't sound auto-tuned at all, it's really well done! It's starts really quiet but builds up to really strong vocals and overlapping melodies. I think it's a very good song!
Track 11 is Ready or Not. Is amazing! The beat is so rave-like and the chanting in the chorus make it easy to sing with, it's a song that completely envelopes you. Even if your busy when listening to it you have to enjoy it! It's a great song, it has a lot of rapping in it but it doesn't neglect the singing! Love Pain is another repetitive song. The chorus and verse are so similar there's nothing to stop me falling asleep! It probably does have some talented singing in it... But it's so boring!! Probably the weakest song of the album.
Last song! Love Still Goes On. This one is quite interesting, it's a nice time for all the members to shine as the parts are quite evenly distributed. Although the chorus does kind clash with the verse I kind of like it! And I like how the music dies down for the rap, very dramatic!
So we've got amazing tracks like Lucifer and Ready or Not, ballad tracks like Quasimodo and Life, and some rap focussed tracks like Shout Out and Love Still goes on. But we also have some repeetitve tracks (Love Pain and Your name) and really auto-tuned tracks (Wowowow and A-Yo). A very large variety of styles brillance and abilities! But seriously, an amazing album! I wonder what Tamzin would think if I 'forget' to return it...

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