☜THΣ Ҝ-TIMΣS☞

Bonnie's Next Level

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My Page : Yuqi
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Yuqi released this mini album, “My Page” on the 13th of May 2021. It includes two tracks, one title track by the name of “Giant” and another song by the name of “Bonnie and Clyde.” This is just my opinion on the album as a whole, and who knows, you may think differently than I do, so don’t be afraid to give it a listen!

To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised. I expected this to be an album of cookie cutter Kpop bops, like many songs have been recently. However, Yuqi did the exact opposite. Her song, “Giant” is a soft but upbeat R&B track. It has the perfect pace in both the chorus and the verses, and the lyrics are simply beautiful. I wasn’t sure about the chorus at first, but as the song progressed, I found that it really fit the song. Plus, it was almost as though this was made for her voice. Deep and sultry, the pace and the instrumental fit that dark vibe and it’d be hard to find someone else who could perform it as well as she did. It’s in all English, so I thought that was pretty distinct, as many people would be able to understand it right off the bat. I already have so many theories for the hidden meaning behind her lyrics in this song, but let me just say I will be playing this on repeat for the next few days. It’s one of those songs where you are immediately addicted and find yourself singing along to the tune when you’re not familiar with it yet. I find that to be extremely impressive and I’m happy she was able to produce a solo mini album that had that much of a gem. I don’t know if she’s been able to promote it yet, but I definitely will be searching up performances to hear her live. However, I didn’t like her b-side track as much. Hearing “Bonnie and Clyde” after hearing a song like “Giant”, I was quite underwhelmed. It fit her voice and was a decent track, but to me it seemed too run of the mill. I personally thought it could have been produced better, and the lyrics needed more work. It tells the story of a typical love, but I couldn’t seem to find any deeper meaning...it seemed rather bland in my opinion. If I had to give the album a rating as a whole, it would be a 4 out of 5 stars, merely because of “Bonnie and Clyde”. However if I were to rate the songs individually, “Giant” would hold a steady 5 out of 5, while “Bonnie and Clyde” would be a 3 out of 5.

What do you think? Did you like it? Did you hate it? Please voice your opinions, and if you haven’t heard the album yet, I will definitely encourage you to listen to it at least once.

-Reporter Maple

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Next Level : Aespa
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Aespa, the girl group which debuted in 2020, has had another single released known as Next Level. It has gained most attention and fans believe it was really good. The following is just my opinion which has no relation to yours or you have choice to accept my opinion or not.

The song wasn't that good that expected it to be. Yeah it might grow on me in future; but I just hate this song. I expected next level to be literally next level and not worse. The starting was attractive not gonna lie. The tune of same genre of black mamba is kept in tact, I think for signature purpose. But when the tune goes to the 2nd pre-chorus it just changes into another song completely. SM did merge different songs in one before; example- resonance by nct. But that merging was different than this one. No proper merging at all. It seemed like they kept two versions of Next Level but couldn't decide so just mixed them both up. I really expected different from Next Level. And the starting tune was too same. They just used same music until a time period and changed into a completely different tune. As a good music lover, I am diverse to any genre. No genre is bad just different in their own way. But this genre didn't impress me much. I wanted Aespa to go literal next level. Let's hope for a better comeback in future I guess. The only good thing about this song is that "ooooohhh yeahhh" background harmonies. It is oddly satisfying. Music video needs a lot of praising. It looks really good. Not going to lie, but the sets, the visuals everything ruled.

What is your opinion? ->

-reporter Dani