K-Poppin' - {REVIEW} SHINee The 5th Mini Album 'EVERYBODY' [Part I]

Alright people! It's time for my first review in this blog, and the honour of my first review shall go to~~~ SHINee with their 5th Mini Album, EVERYBODY!

Now, I have only downloaded the songs so I cannot give a review on the physical album but I will do so once my package arrives! Since that has been clarified, I will just head on to my comments about the songs of the album~

Track 1 - EVERYBODY

I’ll be like the man who plays the pipe, you’ll be like the child who is free... You're more radiantly beautiful than anyone..

Right from the start, I knew I was going to fall for this song. I am very open to new genres of music and dubstep happened to be a genre I found incredibly fascinating and cool. So when the teasers of the MV came out, I was just jumping up and down deep inside for the MV to just hurry up and be released! And once I watched the Music Video, I was yet again impatient for the album to get the actual song! X'D

EVERYBODY is a song said to be in the genre called 'Complextro' though I have no idea what it is about but in my own personal opinion, is an electro-pop song with addictive 90's style synths in the background with creative insertions of dubstep to just break the norm of the song and give it new twists of melody and rhythm. I don't know about you, but I found the little synthesizer sounds created melodies that would sound out of the cheerful playing of a wind instrument like a flute. I find this compatible with the concept of the whole performance as it is themed based off the legend-based story of The Pied Piper of Hamelin where SHINee acts as the Pied Piper who would lead people (teenagers) to waking up and following them to have fun.

The lyrics follows this theme greatly and it is overall a very fun and upbeat song that would excite many youngsters (such as myself~) into listening and moving to the solid beats of the song. I absolutely love the song and would just put it on repeat all day long, which I did with the music video ever since it was released... X'D

My only concern was that Onew was...somewhat lacking his high note parts and those were given more to Taemin and Jonghyun. I understand if Jonghyun had those parts as he is originally the main singer of the group but Onew only had one distinct high note right at the end before the last dance break and in my opinion, it was a perfect interlude to conclude the song~ But I still feel that Onew deserved more high noted parts. Other than that, I'm perfectly content with the song.

I'm happy that the song gave every member a chance to sing -especially Minho since the song did not have any rap parts at all~! Right at the end, the 4 members; Taemin, Key, Jonghyun and finally Onew was able to belt out their high notes which gave a truly powerful ending. The song was solid from start till the end and I love it. It is definitely my favourite song in the album!

Track 2 - 상사병 (Symptoms)

Symptoms took its time to grow on me. At first, I was not really impressed with it but as I listened to the song, it truly made an impact on me and I truly love it. It has a very melancholic feel to its melody and the SHINee members were able to really bring out the meaning of the lyrics perfectly with their singing. And...come on...KIM FREAKING JONGHYUN WROTE THE SONG! How can us Shawols not love it?? X'D 

The point of the song that truly made me cherish it was the parts of the members. I was a little bummed that Minho only had 2 solo lines in the entire song but considering that he was originally the main rapper, I think the placements of his parts are still fairly well thought out. He was brought in with a line in the pre-chorus before the 2nd chorus which I feel is a very powerful intro to the chorus. Lastly, he sung again right at the ending which still gave a sense of appearance in the song. I do admit I am still blown out by how the other 4 members truly brought out such powerful lyrics with their solid, mesmerizing and unique voices. 

Also, I would think that they really made up for Onew's deprived high notes in EVERYBODY in this song since I was able to clearly hear his high notes alongside Jonghyun's. I think this song is very pretty in a melancholic theme. Just like Obsession (I LOVE that song to death), Jonghyun's lyrics are phenomenal and touching and I think I will be hearing this song a lot more than I first expect to~

Track 3 - 빗 속 뉴욕 (Queen Of New York)

In all honesty, I am not really feeling this song. Firstly, itreminds me too much of the late 80s and 90s style of music which, I don't have ANYTHING against but am not truly fond of... Maybe if I gave it a few more listens, I might find a different light on it but as of now, I don't have much to say other than...meh. This is just my personal opinion though... I truly don't prefer too much of the late 80s + 90s kind of music. ^_^;;

Track 4 - 1분만 (One Minute Back)

First, am I the only who was reminded of 'Get It' at the intro? I really just flashed back to that song when I heard the intro...XD Get it, get it~ get it, get it...on~

Ehem...anyways, I do love the chorus of this song and the whole composition of the song is quite different from the other songs. The verse is very mellow with simple deep bass and it slowly flashes out into the very upbeat chorus. However, the song loses its rhythm due to the mixed up composition a little too much to match my tastes. I really felt as if I was listening to 3 different songs just like how I did with Girls' Generation's I Got A Boy. I still love the parts separately but altogether it's quite hard to piece the parts as one song for me. Maybe it needs more listening and I'd probably warm up to it...?

Track 5 - Destination

I was actually waiting for this song when I first heard the Highlight Medley and once I heard the intro, I knew I was going to love this song. Solid beats are my drug and I love the very deep bass beats of the verse as well as the chorus with simple synthesizers accompanying it. It is a simple song that gave me the comfort to listen more to SHINee's voices. It reminds me a lot of Symptoms with the deep bass. 

The highlight of this song for me, personally, would definitely be Jonghyun's 3-level high note interluding Minho's rap part which is equally amazing. It reminded me a bit of Dream Girl where Taemin sang out a high note that somehow 'welcomes' Minho's AWESOME rap. I love it when there would be a member belting out a high note before Minho's rap sequence...I have no idea why though~ I just love it! X'D 

Oh...and let's be honest. The 'nanana nananana~' parts are just adorable and catchy~!

Track 6 - 닫아줘 (Close The Door)

Okay, off the pill. I totally imagined a sort of opening to a cheesy romantic movie when I heard this song. The violin parts just gave me this little...lightweight feeling I have whenever I watch those classic romantic movies. Oh oh! It is also present in classic Disney movies. It is both...pretty yet tacky for me. Don't get me wrong! I love classic Disney...but I would...keep the soundtrack there you know. Like...there, in the movies and that's it. 

Therefore, I actually would listen the song simply for the lyrics rather than listening to the music... X'D I'm sorry! I just...I don't really fond over the violin parts. However, Minho's rap actually saved the song for me~ Love his raps...just...lovely!

Track 7 - Colourful

So we have finally reached the last song and since I listened to the album according to the tracklist, I would say that this song provided the very upbeat and warm conclusion to the album. It is like, a very beautiful follow up of EVERYBODY and the fun beats with SHINee's sweet voices, I can totally picture this song being used as a fun stage performance at their concert where they would just run around the stage and throw balls and spray water at each other. Hmm...maybe they'd throw those coloured powders at each other or they'd shoot colourful confetti towards the fans? 

I don't know but I do think that this is a very VERY fun song and I always loved SHINee's upbeat songs. SHINee is the reason for my happiness and songs such as this just cut it out perfectly for me~ I still need to check on the lyrics of the song once it is available. But overall, this is my 2nd favourite song of the album~! Hopefully their future albums would always have upbeat and fun songs that could cheer Shawols up just like this one!

So that wraps up my review for each song of the album and to conclude them all, I think this album rates on the 7/10 mark for me. Some songs really just didn't cut out for me and I couldn't truly enjoy the whole album without skipping any songs. I do miss their other mini-albums such as Sherlock, Lucifer and 2009, Year Of Us in which I was able to listen to ALL the songs of the entire album on repeat. In this mini-album however, I would just put in my favourites into my playlist.

To end this review, this is my ranking for the songs of this album;

1. Everybody

2. Colourful

3. Destination

4. Symptoms

5. One Minute Back

6. Close The Door

7. Queen of New York

Once again, this is just a personal review with my own thoughts and opinion. I would love to hear your own opinion on the songs or overall album so do comment down below to tell me! ^_^

I shall do another review on the physical album once it arrives. Until then, stay healthy, keep smiling and listen to SHINee!

Ciao~!