K-pop’s five treasures, F.T. Island, have come back with their fourth full-length album Five Treasure Box, a follow-up for Grown Up, their fourth mini-album that was 
released in March of this year. I’ll admit, that I’ve always been more partial to C.N. Blue, even though I have much love for both of FNC Music‘s bands, in terms of music, but I’ve always thought that F.T. Island, especially Lee Hongki, were underrated for their songs and their vocal and musical talent, in comparision to other groups. It’s always a pleasure to listen to F.T. Island, Hongki just has this distinct and rich voice that gives me shivers. The way he conveys emotion with his voice is nothing short but amazing, and to this day “Bad Woman” is one of my favourite K-pop songs because of it. Although, other than “Lovesick” and “Love Love Love,” I haven’t been that impressed with F.T. Island’s title tracks, similarly to how I’ve been disappointed with C.N. Blue’s title tracks post-“I Am A Loner.”
It seems that their title tracks always pales in comparision to the rest of their album. I wasn’t impressed with “Severely,” it wasn’t an awful song, but I just prefer their songs that are less pop, and more acoustic-based and infused with other genres into their pop music like rock and classical, and I just love it when Hongki sings sad love songs à la “Lovesick” and “Love Love Love.” “Severely” has similiarities to those songs, but it feels it was conflicted in between the two styles of F.T. Island uses, the dark and the light, and the latter is a lot more predominant in “Severely” than the former. Understandably, F.T. Island and C.N. Blue are K-pop bands, so they have to resort to using lighter, pop songs to appeal to the masses. I’ve always preferred my F.T. Island slightly dark and angsty, because that kind of music highlights Hongki’s voice the best. I enjoyed the other songs on Grown Up, as I did with Ear Fun, so hopefully there are more treasures, as the title of the album suggests, within the album just in case “I Wish” isn’t that great of a song.
The MV has a very simple premise, a very common MV premise for boy groups, where the members are fighting for the love of a single girl (or at least that’s what the MV seems to be portraying). The girl, played by AOA‘s Hyejeong, doesn’t seem to be forming a web of deceit with the five members, nor do they seem to know of the other’s existence. So it’s either that Hyejeong’s character and the other members are just props to represent the longing Hongki’s character has for a guy’s girlfriend or they are all caught in a convoluted love square with Hongki being the odd man out.
The MV felt confusing as to how many guys Hyejeong is dating, seeing as the MV progressed, she was seen with more of the other members. Nonetheless, this plotline is extremely tired within K-pop; I mean I might understand two of the members fighting over one girl, but all of them? It’s way too much, and I’m sure they can get more girls to play girlfriends, why not put in more members of AOA?
It might have fit better with the lyrics of the song, and the MV would have been a lot less convoluted, if they had narrowed the number of guys who were simulatenously dating Hyejeong. It also would have been nice if they had more interaction between the members and maybe a plausible story backing why they are all after the same girl? Some conflict would have been much appreciated, maybe a fight in an empty pool? But even though the MV’s plot was trite, the set was stunning. With the warm lights and the Victorian-esque stylings of the set, FNC Music knows how to make good sets for the MVs, even if the content of the MV might be a little lacking.
The song is upbeat, but it has an interesting backtrack with the Spanish guitar and some horns that sound interesting as Hongki sings the buildup to the chorus. It’s my favourite part of the song and I wonder if they could have included it into the rest of the song, like within the chorus. I have no major qualms with the song, it’s light and fun, and Hongki seems to be having a great time singing it. However, the snippets where Jae-jin sings are really good, and I wish he, and Seung-hyun, could sing a lot more, as much as I enjoy Hongki’s voice. I still prefer F.T. Island’s older, angst-ridden songs better in terms of title tracks, but “I Wish” isn’t a disappointing single, it just isn’t surprising or a major change-up, other than the experimentations with the Spanish guitar. I definitely enjoyed the song a lot more than the MV though.
Overall, “I Wish” is a decent follow-up, with a boring, but somewhat entertaining, looks-wise, MV, so I give it a rating of 3.1/5. What are your ratings for the MV, Seoulmates? Put your ratings in the comments section below!
(ftisland)
