Music / Idols
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Is SISTAR So Cool?

11
Written by On August 9, 2011

SISTAR made their comeback on August 9th, with the release of their first full length album, So Cool, and the MV of its title track.  Hyorin, Bora, Soyu, and Dasom are undoubtedly talented and look great in their comeback, but does So Cool as an album measure up?

So Cool features 12 tracks, 5 new songs and 7 previously released songs:  1. Let’s Get The Party Started (Intro), 2. So Cool, 3. Girls Do It, 4. Follow Me, 5. New World, 6. 약한 남자 싫 s어 (I Don’t Want A Weak Man), 7. 니까짓게 (How Dare You), 8. Over, 9. Oh Baby, 10. 가식걸 (Shady Girl), 11. Push Push, and 12. Ma boy (Special version).  While I can’t fault them for having more re-released songs on the album than new songs because it’s a common thing in Kpop, I can say that I am disappointed that the new songs are weak with none even close in quality to their previous releases.

“Let’s Get The Party Started” is standard intro fare with an introduction by the Brave Brothers.  ”So Cool” is an electro-pop dance number with a strong synth beat, but the lyrics and vocals are disappointing from such a vocally talented group.  I’m not saying that I want to see Hyorin  belting it out on every song, but this song is forgettable.  ”Girls Do it” has a strong funky electronic beat and features Bora’s rapping with the rest of the members coming in for the chorus.  ”Follow Me” changes it up a bit with a slightly syncopated beat, auto-tuned verses and a stronger, better sounding chorus.  It’s more pop and less electronica with “New World” which also features probably the best vocals of all the new songs.  It’s a throw up between “Follow Me” and “New World” as my favorite of their new releases not that I totally liked the songs, but they were better than the others.  The problem with the new songs on SISTAR’s album is one that I have been noticing more and more recently in Kpop- the songs all kind of sound the same and start getting lost into each other after listening to them over and over again.  There’s also something about Bora’s rapping on the new songs that I’m not feeling and some of the English lyrics would’ve been best left unsaid.  None of the new songs measure up in quality to their past songs amongst which my faves are “How Dare You,” “Oh Baby,” “Push Push,” and “Ma Boy.”

 The MV for “So Cool” features SISTAR in full girl power mode showing that the best way to get back at a tool of a boyfriend is to look fabulous and not give a damn about him.  Check it out.

The girls look awesome, in my opinion the best yet for a comeback, and not because Soyu lost weight for it.  Their styling in the MV is great and brings out each of the girls’ charm. Now what I didn’t like about the MV, other than the mediocre song, is the recycling of Teen Top‘s backdrop (their main dancing backdrop totally looks like one used by someone else- I think it was Teen Top), the disjointed storyline, and the choreography.  SISTAR needs to be careful that their dancing isn’t just all hip thrusting and rolling and bending over- its starting to seem really one-note.  I do think that the girls’ energy in the MV helped to make it better, I loved the scenes at the end of them doing hurdles in their dresses and sneakers, and of course a cameo by the ahjusshis of DJ DOC is always a plus.

I like SISTAR and appreciate that they’re aggressive and sexy in concept.  I hope they don’t have to go the route of SECRET and do a 180° change in concept from sexy to cute to get the recognition they deserve.  They will, however, need to put out better quality songs than this new crop to continue to climb up the Kpop ranks.  No disrespect to the Brave Brothers who have produced some great songs, but Starship Entertainment might want to look into some different songwriters for SISTAR, diversity is always a good thing.

(FrontierTimes, SportsSeoul, AsiaToday, DailyNews, MrSarangKpop4)

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  • Mary

    Honestly i don’t care what SISTAR does. Not a fan :(

    I want Hyorin to go solo. Period. Love her, she got the best vocal and very charismatic … And i want her to venture with a rock band. I want her to breakaway from girl group stereotype. “Wishful Thinking”. I Know the chance of that happening is really slim. “Sigh”

    She is too talented to end up doing only ayego’s and some hip thrusting moves.

    • Mary Rosado

      Completely random, but I saw your name and I was going crazy for a second because I thought it was me… XD

  • Mary Rosado

    I actually disagree with the comment above in that Hyorin should go elsewhere outside the kpop group world, because though she has talent, based off her Immortal Song performances, it almost suits her completely. [Am I the only one who isn't completely crazy about her voice? It's great, but she has these airy cutoffs and her voice seems linear.. And I'm not a fan of Bora's rapping for that matter either...]

    But personal opinions aside, if it’s one thing I LOVE LOVE LOVE about this group, it’s how powerful they usually are. No matter weird, mediocre, whatever their songs might be, they kick so much butt with it. This song… just doesn’t do it for me. Brave Brothers need to take some time off for some creative reassessment, I think they might be juiced out.

    That choreo… oi. My brother called it the fish fin dance, I called the eliminated the tush gas dance…

    Eh, like you pointed out, at least they look great. I hope they retain this sort of styling in the future… while leaving everything behind… far far behind.

  • gena

    The whole album is a disappointment and so is the MV that looks totally random. Their choreographer needs to get rid of that butt swipe move.

  • jj

    looks like theyre fanning out their farts….

    • Velo

      Haha, that is exactly what my friends and I thought when we first watched this video. We said “It looks they all just farted and are trying to fan the smell away from the public noses.”

      Glad to know we weren’t the only ones who thought so ;D

  • Velo

    I don’t understand why Brave Brothers are so coveted… They have produced some decent songs but nothing in my opinion that should have owned them the notoriety they are currently getting. Especially since the songs they have been producing lately are terrible and with the release of “so cool” it doesn’t look like that is going to change.

  • TmL

    This is really underwhelming. I’m actually really sad, just because I love hyorin so much and I want better for her then this basic ass song.

    Honestly, the only sistar song i liked was their debut one, and that was kind of weak too. I’m with everyone else, Hyorin should go solo as a kickass rock singer.

  • coffee

    Hmm… I downloaded their album recently because I’ve been digging them. And, as people have already stated: it was underwhelming. I can’t say exactly a disappointment, since I was never that into them in the first place. But I was hoping to add to my list of favorite girl groups, which is kind of shamefully small.

    I think that they had the platform to wow people, and gain a lot of fans. Unfortunately, none of the tracks really resonated. And So Cool was lackluster… I think it’s a hit or miss with the Brave Brothers; you’d think they’d invest more into this group (and maybe they did), but it just doesn’t show.
    I mean, with Hyorin’s current boom of popularity and Sistar19′s Ma Boy… That put them into the position to really gain solid fans with this release. For me, it just didn’t stick and now I’m not as interested in their future developments.

    I can’t explain it properly, but I just feel like (at least to me) the stage was set for success. Or at least a pathway was going to success, and they made a misstep. Not a huge one, but the right choices would’ve resulted in really great gains. :/

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