"Black Widow" actress Scarlett Johansson is no stranger to the music scene. I still jam to her and Pete Yorn's indie diamond-in-the-rough "The Realtor" though I was never compelled to listen to the album in full. Now ScarJo is fronting an all-girl 'super pop' band called The Singles and delivering, serving and catering alt/dance with the first single "Candy".
I guess it was only time before they expanded their talents beyond dancing. Background: St.319 is a dance collective of pre-teens and teenagers from Vietnam who are best known for their near flawless dance covers of popular K-Pop songs. They have won many numerous awards and make it seem easy to pick up on a K-Pop dance and master it like that (insert finger snap here). Min is one of their dancers, who did a killer performance of BoA's "Only One". I'm not too sure if Min plans on becoming a singer or this is just a fun side project, but either way, I'm here for this! My ears know no language and this is amazingly heart-wrenching mid-tempo. I wonder when the music video comes! Please listen and share and follow St.319 on Facebook.
T-ARA hasn't had a lot of success since the whole bullying incident went down . Their promotions really suffered, tearing neitzens apart and "Sexy Love" was essentially a flop. Now after doing some exile time in Japan, T-ARA is back, well four of them are. T-ARA N4 is comprised of members Jiyeon, Eunjung, Hyomin, and Areum and I guess this is a way of testing the Korean market before the rest of the group makes a comeback. The girls have premiered their debut single "Countryside Life", produced by Double SideKick (NS Yoon G's "If You Love Me, SISTAR's "Loving U"). Are the girls and LOEN Entertainment going in the right direction with this one?
Overall, I was satisfied with the song.The intro is pretty weak, but as it goes along, it gets stronger and more enjoyable. Enjung really gives the song the kick with her pre-chorus and I'm wondering about the random rapper and why he wasn't credited. However, the other members get overshadowed by Double SideKick's awesome production, which sounds like a blend of Edward Maya's "Stereo Love" and G-Dragon's "Crayon". The kicker in this song is the "why you hatin'" part, which should have pro-T-ARA neitzens singing along and antis gritting their teeth in frustration. Final Grade:B-
(There are two videos for this song: a dance version (the dance looks like taebo) and a drama version, which was directed by the same guy who did "Gangnam Style")
