Today is Valentine's Day! =) So I wish you all a happy Valentine's Day!
For everyone with a boy- or girlfriend: ^^ I hope you have/had a great time together today! May it be ROMANTIC! =D
For everyone single: I hope you have/had a great day too, because there's always family and friends! ;) By the way, I'm single now too and I've had a great time today! =D I've done nothing special, but I still felt loved today ^^
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Some announcements:
~ I finally found a Dutch DBSK Fanclub! =D ^^ Now I'm part of Dutch Cassiopeia!! *jumps excitedly*
~ I watched "You're Beautiful", a K-Drama with Jang Geun Suk, Park Shin Hye, Jung Yong Hwa (from CN Blue!) & Lee Hong Ki (from FT Island!).. ^^ A great Drama!! If you haven't seen it, let me just say this: WATCH THAT DRAMA! Keke.. =P Personally I think it's on the same level as "Boys Over Flowers", which is VERY GOOD! ^^
~ I've just put the whole first album of FT Island on my mp3 (XD I'm still using my mp3 more often than my IPod..) I know they have made a lot more.. but since I'm just starting to listen to their songs, I thought I should start with their first album and then the others.. ^^ That way they can only get better! XD
^^ So that were my announcements.. and they were REALLY OFF TOPIC! XD
^^ Yep.. this is the album cover of FT Island's first album: "Cheerful Sensibility"..
And with this said, I'm going to start my review! ^^ Always wanted to do one! XD
Tracklisting:
~ 1. Love Pains
~ 2. I Am Happy
~ 3. Thunder
~ 4. Only One Person
~ 5. Cling
~ 6. A Man's First Love Follows Him To The Grave
~ 7. They Said To Stop
~ 8. F.T Island
~ 9. Reo Reo
~ 10. Primadonna
~ 11. Meeting
~ 12. Because I Don't Know How To Love
~ 13. First Kiss
#1 - Love Pains - 사랑앓이
This song has a great feel.. It starts off with soft sounds and has a certain curious sound in it. When the chorus started I thought: "YES!", very powerful and at the same time full of feeling. ^^ Very powerful vocals of HongKi! =) The muffled shouting was less, but it brought a good change in the music.. and still it fitted! ^^ Overall a very good song! ;)
#2 - I Am Happy - 행복합니다
This song didn't directly catch my attention when I first listened the album.. It's a very average song in my opinion, but it a surprisingly relaxing song! ^^ Again very powerful vocals of HongKi completed with the others vocals in the background halfway the song! ^^ The rap part was sweet and a nice flow from HongKi's singing to WonBin's rapping and back to HongKi's singing! Not very outstanding musical composition, but it's nice to listen to! =) Overall a nice song!
#3 - Thunder - 천둥
The first thing that catches my attention is the unusual combination of the drum sound and the electric guitar sound. I know these instruments are not unusual together, but the sounds they make in this song are refreshing together.. =) The vocal part is beautiful, it starts off softly and then builds up to a strong vocal in the chorus and then goes back to being beautifully soft! ^^ I like it very much! Although this is not so catchy that it stays in your mind after hearing it once or twice, and you don't sing along after a few times.. but this song is a little jewel!! ^^ =D A wonderful song!
#4 - Only One Person - 한사람만
"Oh beautiful" is what I thought after hearing the first tunes of this song, then HongKi starts singing and it greatly flows from flute solo into guitar based ballad into powerful song. I like the variety of instruments used in this song.. I hear flute, clarinet, acoustic guitar, piano, violins, drums.. ^^ I like it! This song might not be a song you listen everyday, but it's a beautiful song, definitely! ^^
#5 - Cling - 집착
It starts off being a peaceful song, then it builds up a tension with rap (I think it's WonBin who raps), which is beautifully interrupted with a feelful vocal of HongKi, then the rap builds up the rest of the song into the chorus which is again sung by HongKi.. The switching between rap and vocal continues during the whole song and beautifully ends with a rap full of soul.. Very nice to listen to, also a catchy melody and a lot of feel! =) Personally I think this song is one of the best on this album! I like it a lot! ^^
#6 - A Man's First Love Follows Him To The Grave - 남자의 첫사랑은 무덤까지 간다
Long title.. especially when you include both the English and the Korean title.. ^^ The song has a groove to it.. ^^ First I thought it was a Reaggae-type of song was X'D Listening to it now, it sounds very good. It's different and that's great! ^^ The feel of this song is very relaxing, the vocals are at some part seducingly low and attractively sung.. ^^ If I didn't know the title in English I might have thought it was a seducing love song.. but.. it's not.. XP (I'll post the lyrics later! ^^ I'm curious too! XD)
#7 - They Said To Stop - 하지말래요
This song builds nicely and the feel is very good. I like to hear the chorus is sung by more voices than just HongKi's, it adds nicely to the song! With this song HongKi has proven to me that he really is a very good vocalist, besides singing powerful, he is also very talented in singing softly.. The guitar sound is very good too! As I said, the feel of this song is very good, without knowing the the meaning of the title and lyrics, it will still be clear as ice this is a sad song! And a beautiful one at that! ;)
#8 - F.T Island
^^ A promotional song for their band! =) Lots of bands have them.. Think 1TYM - 1TYM, BIGBANG - BIGBANG, etc.
#9 - Reo Reo
Nice start! ^^ Directly powerful and a very catchy tune! The drum really caught my attention, the rhythm is really refreshing and nice to listen to! ^^ The sound of the lyrics is very easy to catch on (at least, at the chorus), even non-korean speaking people will be able to sing a piece of the song! ^^ This song get's me happy since the first time hearing it! =D Great song!
#10 - Primadonna
^^ My favorite song from this album! =D Slow and lazy intro (in the good sense), but then it stops and get's tense before the really hyper drums begin to play.. Then the song just drags you in! Great to hear JaeJin sing a part of the vocals! ^^ Catchy as crazy and very tempting to shout out "Pe-ri-ma-do-nna~!" along with the song! Their Konglish way of pronouncing "Primadonna" in the song is actually very charming! ^^ An addicting song! Written in dedication to their fanclub "Primadonna"..
#11 - Meeting - 마중
A ballad alike start with interesting melody when HongKi's vocals start.. It really pulled me into the song! The instrumental basis is very beautiful, together with the vocals it makes the song sound really sweet and thoughtful, almost like a lullaby to a loved one.. Very sweet to listen to! ^^ One of my faves from this album. =)
#12 - Because I Don't Know How To Love - 사랑하는 법을 몰라서
Again a long title, but it doesn't matter, because the song makes up for it XP. The song is a ballad, the intro and first couplet did not really impress me, but the chorus DID! O_O very powerful! =) after that, the second couplet suddenly impressed me a lot more! ^^ A suprising ballad, but a beautiful one! ^^
#13 - First Kiss - 첫키스
The last song of the album.. The song didn't catch my attention at first, but when listening it very carefully now, I realized how sweet it sounds. The song is sung with a certain tenderness, like precious memories are being told.. The title does not deny it either! ^^ When listening to this song, images of summer and spring come to my mind! ^^ A very dreamy feeling.. I like it a lot! Picking this song as the last song of the album also is a very good choice! ^^ It stays in my mind, until (and that is soon!) I will listen to the album again! =D
My conclusion:
A very good album, nice songs and a lot of variety between up-tempo rock songs, pop songs, ballads and everything in between! Every song of the album has a lot of feel to it.. especially because of HongKi's powerful and soulful vocals! A must have for every k-pop listener! ^^
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I have to go now, it's getting late, but I'll post the lyrics of the songs and a biography of every member of F.T Island soon~! I can't promise tomorrow, because I might be really busy (in fact I know I'm going to have only a little time..) but I won't forget! ;)
ANNYONG~! =D *waves*
~~~~~X~~~x~~~X~~~~~
*~Maria
