Whenever an act makes their name with an aegyo concept, you have to
wonder how they’re going to go about shedding that image as they get too
old to pull it off. I thought IU‘s “Peach”
earlier this year was a great step towards the singer-songwriter stuff
she’s been interested in since she started out, but which fell by the
wayside when songs like “Boo” and “Marshmallow” took off. Recently, Boyfriend has taken a successful turn towards adulthood with “Janus“, which is their best release to date.
Out of everyone, though, I’ve had my eye on B1A4‘s transformation. They seemed to be on the right track with the brilliant “Baby I’m Sorry“,
which tested the waters of maturity by shedding the silly gimmicks and
sound effects of the past for a slick dance track, a more grown-up look,
and a less childish performance (compare the way they interact with
their female co-star to their interactions in older videos like “Beautiful Target” and “Only Learned the Bad Things“), while still retaining the kind of off-beat charm we’ve come to expect from B1A4. Unfortunately, their follow-up single, “Baby Goodnight“,
was a corny mess. ”Baby Goodnight” brought back a lot of the
goofiness, but the charm was lost amidst a happy-go-lucky story about
cheating and lying to their girlfriends. To make matters worse, for a
group that earned the nickname “live-dols” for their great live vocals,
many of them struggled with the falsetto in live performances of “Baby
Goodnight”, which was certainly a disappointment.
In the time since then, B1A4 debuted in Japan with “Beautiful Target” and “Baby Goodnight”, and then released the saccharine “Hey Girl” as an OST track- was B1A4 stuck in the past for good, or could their third mini album, ‘In the Wind‘, pick up where “Baby, I’m Sorry” left off?
The title song “Try to Walk“, written by B1A4′s leader Jinyoung, sets
the theme for the album, as every song mentions walking toward, away
from, or with someone. The intro, the verses, the rap breaks, and the
outro are great- they have the kind of open, bright sound you’d expect
from an album called ‘In the Wind’, the instrumental is really cool and
different for the group, but still sounds like something they’d do.
Their vocals sound better than ever- even Baro got to sing a little, and
was pretty impressive. Actually, Baro
totally blew me away on this album. While low-voice rappers are
nothing new to K-Pop, he brings a unique sensitivity and expression to
his verses that gets better and better with each release. He took part
in writing all of his raps on this album, and I think that really helped
him connect to the songs and bring his rapping to the next level.
Going back to “Try to Walk”, however, there is one massive problem-
the chorus. The melody is fine, the vocals are fine, but there is so
much sound packed into such a small space that it’s overwhelming,
staticky and kind of hard to listen to. This song could’ve gotten four
or five stars from me with a better chorus, but as it stands, it’s my
least favorite song on the album. At least the video is gorgeous,
right? Thankfully, the rest of the album is really, really good.
Jinyoung’s take on a solo track, the R&B tinged ballad “BE MY GIRL” featuring JeA of Brown Eyed Girls.
While the lyrics are probably the most suggestive that B1A4 has ever
attempted, with Jinyoung repeatedly inviting his girlfriend to stay the
night with him, it steers clear of anything too intense or scandalous.
He breaks out the falsetto once again and shows a lot of improvement in
that department. JeA is perfect on this song, but what else would you
expect from a Brown Eyed Girl?
‘In The Wind’ has a total of three guest stars- aside from the aforementioned JeA, we have Suzy of miss A showing off her acting in the narration on “I Won’t Do Bad Things” and Shina-E‘s expert vocals on “What Do You Want to Do?”
I’m not normally a big fan of people talking in the middle of songs,
but I think they did a pretty good job of incorporating the talking in
both songs, so it didn’t bother me. What does bother me is the random
knocking sound throughout the background of “I Won’t Do Bad Things”,
which takes away from an otherwise nice song with great harmonies.
“What Do You Want to Do?” takes on a chill, disco sound that really
suits the band well- I’d like to see them explore this genre further in
the future.
“If…” puts B1A4′s vocals front-and-center with an
understated instrumental. While some groups would take this opportunity
to fill the song from beginning to end with runs vocal tricks, B1A4
makes a smart choice to scale back and let their clear tones and great
vocal blend speak for themselves. We end with a bright dance track, “IN THE AIR“.
I actually wish this song was the single, as it’s a lot more fun and
is solid from start to end, unlike “Try to Walk”. However, there are a
lot of vocal effects in this song, and I imagine that could hurt B1A4′s
“live-dol” image in performances.
All in all, this album gives us a very clear look at the ways in
which B1A4 has grown as a group. While their music is less aggressively
commercial than before, it’s better crafted (save for the chorus of of
“Try to Walk”). They’re moving away from gimmicks and toward real
musicianship, which is exactly what you want to see as a group matures
if they plan on having any staying power. While I would caution that
they need to figure out how to bring back some of the charm and
commercial appeal of their previous singles, ‘In the Wind’ is, overall, a
step in the right direction.
Reviewer's Rating:
(3.8 / 5)
(3.8 / 5)
(275 votes, average: 4.61 out of 5)
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