100% Ver.
MBLAQ
J. Tune Camp, January 2012
Track List:
| 1. | "Run" | 3:12 |
| 2. | "This Is War" (????; Jeonjaeng-iya) | 3:51 |
| 3. | "Scribble" (??; Nakseo) | 3:35 |
| 4. | "She's Breathtaking" (??? ??; Anjjilhan Geunyeo) | 3:15 |
| 5. | "Hello My EX" | 3:46 |
On MBLAQ's 4th mini-album, they bring some really fresh sounds and seem to live up to their full performing potential, so this record is a great way for K-poop fans to kick off the new year.
I'll start by praising the intro track. "Run" has a distinct horror-y beginning, which is an immediate attention-getter. The lyrics are the usual sort of "we're-so-cool" bragging about how this band is the best and you'd better get out of their way, but what's great about the lyrics is that they're simple and they're about 50% English, so it wouldn't be hard for an English speaker to learn the song for themselves. Their pronunciation is very good, and it's actually kind of ghetto in places, which works since this is a fast song with swagger to it. The rapping works nicely (Mir is always reliable for good lines), and overall they seem more like an actual rap crew on this song, which is a compliment--it means they don't sound like just another boy band.
And my goodness, who handled their awesome production on this song? "Run" has all kinds of sound effects, like an actual movie is playing in the background. We've got screams, barking, and what sounds like branches shaking, windows breaking, and metal scraping. There's an entire action film going on in the background! The evil laughter also reminds me a little of Michael Jackson's "Thriller". To give you an idea of how much I like this song; for reviews, I normally write down a few of my initial thoughts about a song as I am listening to it for the first time. After the first 30 seconds of "Run", I gave up on writing and just listened because the song was too engrossing for me to listen and type at the same time.
"It's War" is another intense song, that has a pretty intricate story to the lyrics. It's one guy swearing to make another guy's life miserable because Guy #2 stole his girl, but the English translation sounds pretty complicated, like a movie script shrunk down to fit a three-minute song. It starts with a swelling orchestra, the singing is solid, and the tune is memorable. I truly like songs with "big" sounds like intense strings or a serious brass section, and "It's War" really delivers on that massive sound. I kept waiting for a key change and even more intensity, and when they got to it, it just made the song even better.
"Scribble" is a good R&B ballad with some of those Spanish influences seen on MBLAQ's last album. "She's Breathtaking" is translated as "Jittery Girl" in many places, but whatever you want to call it, it's the fourth track. It has several lines of dialogue between a guy and a girl, which are basically bickering. This almost sounds like a Christmas song to me--listen to it without looking up the lyrics, and you'll know what I mean. There's something about the beat and bright sound that makes me think they're singing about Santa and snowflakes and presents under a tree. They aren't--they're singing about obsessive love verging on stalking, but anyhow it sounds Christmasy. "Hello My Ex" is nicely produced and is about hoping for reunification. I like the first part of the album best, but the later tracks still don't feel like filler.
I hadn't listened to MBLAQ before their Mona Lisa EP, which was intriguing but not perfect. At the time, I mentally filed them as a band of interest, though they still didn't make my list of favorites. But in my opinion, with this new release MBLAQ has changed from "A band that will probably do cool things in the future" to "A band that is doing super-cool things right now". With the great vocals and rapping, plus the amazing production on this record, MBLAQ's clearly at the top of the K-pop food chain.
My grade: 4 of 5 stars, just for the first two tracks.
Must-listens: "Run", "It's War"
Watchable bonus: Here's the music video for "It's War". It features a love triangle, boomerang bullets, and the guys dancing in what appears to be Klingon armor. I think Joon's an assassin and Thunder is a regular guy who's his friend, and some poor sweet girl is caught between them. But other than that, I have no idea what's going on in this MV. Why did Joon save the girl instead of killing her? Why is Thunder digging through a junkyard, and where did he learn how to treat bullet wounds? What is going on with Joon's ricocheting gunfire?
EP Review: 100% Ver. by MBLAQ Link Free Download
