I was meaning to blog about my favorite Korean singer Lee Hyori since I returned from my Seoul trip, but somehow I haven't found the time. Today I can finally introduce to you her newest album, which I bought during that trip few days after it was released.
First of all, let me tell you: I love H.Logic! I think it's Hyori's best album so far, even better than It's Hyorish from 2008.
The songs are of amazing quality and the album is full of awesome collaborations, like with Kang Daesung from Big Bang and E-Tribe, the duo from the 2008 hit "You Go Girl". There's a lot of rap and heavy beats throughout the album, but you'll also find soothing ballads. Hyo-ri's voice is better than ever before. The only downturn are accusations of plagiarism (they're all over You-Tube). It's true, some songs sound like some other English songs from some unknown artists, but Hyori's company MNET says that's because the composer and rightful owner of the songs (Bahnus) supposedly sold them to other artists few years ago. He offered them to Hyori's company this year and made Korean versions. On the other hand, some artists claim they composed the songs. I won't speculate about legal matters, but judging by how things run in South Korea, I'm completely sure that Hyori doesn't have anything to do with this. It's sad, that her haters use this situation to attack her, who, if things turn bad, will sustain the most damage, while leechers (again), will fill up their pockets. I'm not naming any names, but we all know who those are. Hyori did her best this time, the album was really long time in the making and that's really obvious, because it's really an iconic piece of art.
The album was released on 12th May, 2010 in Korea. It features 14 songs, here is the song list:
02. Love Sign (feat. Sang Chu)
03. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (feat. Ceejay)
04. Feel The Same*
05. Bring It Back* (feat. Bekah and Ji Hyun)
06. Highlight (feat. Bizzy)
07. 그네 (Geune; Swing) (feat. Gary)
08. Scandal
09. 100 Percent
10. Want Me Back
11. How Did We Get* (with Daesung)
12. So Cold
13. Get 2 Know (feat. Double K)
14. Memory* (feat. Bizzy)
*Supposedly plagiarized songs: I'm Back, Feel The Same, Bring It Back, How Did We Get and Memory. Sometimes Swing is mentioned, too, but I checked it and don't see any resemblance.
My favorite songs on H-Logic are Highlight, Scandal and Get 2 Know (*who btw are not even accused of being plagiarized). Those songs always make me feel good and I really really hope Hyo-ri would release them as singles, because they are amazingly good. I also love I'm Back, which as a great opening song and gives you an idea how the whole album will be. The first single Swing and the follow-up single Chitty Chitty Bang Bang were a bit disappointing for me at first. I didn't like Swing's melancholic touch and the video seemed weird to me in the beginning. But now I love the song. It needs some time to get you. I had the similar experience with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a very fast-paced dance song. I thought Hyori went too far into the dance genre, but after a while I started to love that song, too. I'm Back is a powerful opening song and always made me feel good, same goes to Want Me Back and the easygoing Love Sign. The beats are awesome. But there are also ballads like Feel The Same, How Did We Get (using a sample of Annie Lennox's No More I Love Yous) and Memory, three highly melodic and soothing songs, where you can feel the whole range of Hyori's amazing songs.
Hyori has done many photo shoots recently, here for Marie Claire Korea.
What's best about Hyori's new album are the collaborations. Almost every song is featuring some other Korean artist, which adds to the overall quality of the songs. Nevertheless, my favorites are Scandal and Highlight, who don't feature any other artist. They're Hyori at her best and I hope you have the chance to hear them.
You can find some of her songs on 4 Shared.
My pages: [Exceptional women][My HYORI page][Photos: Source]
No comments:
Post a Comment