Hello everyone and welcome back to another Comments of the Week, where we look at some of the best comments from Seoulbeats articles. Before we get to that, here’s a rundown of everything that was published during this timeframe:
In music, there were album reviews of VIXX’s “Chained Up,” B.A.P.’s “Matrix,” and Brown Eyed Girl’s “Basic.” There was also a review of Beenzino’s latest music video, “Break.”
In idol-related topics, we covered the concerts of Block B and Ailee in America, even scoring an interview with Ailee herself.
In drama, all six episodes of Fall in Challenge, episodes 1-6 of Bubblegum was reviewed; as was episode 14-16 of She Was Pretty, and episode 9-12 of Sassy Go Go.
In the usual segments, there was a look at the different uses of color in For Your Viewing Pleasure, fight songs in Mixtape, boycotts was the topic for the Roundtable and the Best of Weekly Music Shows.
Finally, here are some of our favorite comments from this week:
NineDaysQueen on Sassy, Go Go, episode 9-12: Ends and Beginnings
I absolutely adored this drama. I thought it was very realistic and all the characters were well fleshed out and all feel necessary to the show. It’s an amazing feat to have all the secondary characters be dynamic and useful to the plot. All of them felt real to me.
The girl who plays Kwon Soo-Ah is absolutely amazing. I hope she gets more roles in more dramas soon. She played that character with so much honestly.
autumnisque on Vixx Attempts to Push the Envelope with “Chained Up”
I don’t recall VIXX ever saying that the album’s concept would be BDSM. All mentions of the concept, if I recall correctly, is described as a “slave of love” concept, not a BDSM concept. In which case, your description of the dynamic where one has complete control over the other, basically making them a slave, would be correct, as that is exactly the concept that they were striving towards. The BDSM concept was just a thing floating among mostly international fans who took chokers and a “slave” concept and decided that it was close enough to BDSM to warrant calling it a BDSM concept. But all official references to the concept refer to it as a “slave of love”.
I do, however, agree with how the album doesn’t deliver on what was expected. Personally, I was expecting more of a gritty sound, closer to the types of songs on their first full album, Voodoo Doll, but ended up with more laid-back tracks. For instance, the intro “Mistress” was very reminiscent of Voodoo Doll’s intro track, so I expected more to follow in that vein, but it inevitably did not.
I quite like the tracks with a sweeter melody, such as “Stop It Girl,” and I’ve always liked “Can’t Say” since it was a Japanese track, so I end up listening to these two more than the title track, which says something. “Chained Up” is a good song upon several listens, and you can see where they were going with it. They tried to strike a balance between the dark and gritty that they’re known for and a more sensual interpretation of their dark concepts, which is fitting with the concept that they are going for at the moment.
The inclusion of “Eternity” and “Error” gave nice continuity, as they put previous title tracks in their first full album, as well.
Lyrically, “Heaven,” “Can’t Say,” “Us, Right Now,” and “부시시” are very heartwarming, which I love. As a ST☆RLIGHT, you can’t help but be touched by lyrics like “I’ll take care of all your happiness,” “This huge feeling of gratitude I feel / I cannot explain through words / So I’ll simply hold your hand and walk,” and “This star never loses it’s light / The darker it is, the brighter it shines.” You can tell Ravi treated “Heaven” like his child, which is evident in how members described his no-nonsense attitude when it came to recording it during their comeback showcase.
=＾● ⋏ ●＾= on Sassy, Go Go, episode 9-12: Ends and Beginnings
I too really enjoyed this drama. As someone who is currently studying under a similar school environment to Sevit, I identified a lot with the characters – I have faced some of the backstabbing antics employed by those trying to bring others down in order to look better in comparison, and several of my friends have similarly overbearing (and powerful) parents that put immense pressure on them to do well. I feel like Sassy Go Go’s strength lies in the good job it did of taking the stereotypes and tropes in a typical competitive high school, and spinning it into an entertaining storyline.
That’s all for this week! Thank you for reading and commenting!
