Let’s Rank Things!

Is this hot??? I don't even know anymore.

Donghae thinks he’s the best looking kid in SM. Perfect! This gives me an excuse to rank the SM boys and girls on looks alone. Totally pointless, but I like pointless^^

 

What’s Going on with SHINee Lately?

Is it just me, or is anyone creeped out by some of the stuff SHINee has been doing lately? pole dancing, that ↑ . *Shudders*

I know the pedo jokes are old, but I’m not joking this time. Some of this stuff is truly borderline inappropriate.

SHINee has always been marketed as young and innocent, and that’s fine. I thought the boys were charming and cute in their “Replay” days; like schoolboys with harmless crushes on their teachers or something. However nowadays, the innocence image is still there, yet it’s laced with like a forbidden sexual fantasy or something now. IDK, I’m uncomfortable even thinking about it.

It’s true that the boys aren’t that young, and as a boyband, they’re gonna be sexualized at some point. Tbh, I wouldn’t even be as bothered if it was just a straightforward take-off-your-shirt-thrust-your-hips thing (I’d squick me out, but I’d get over it). What really icks me is that SHINee is continually portrayed as young and innocent in a virginal way, yet objects of sexual fantasy.

So much crap is considered “not okay” in Korea, yet stuff like this is? Okay, you can argue that Korea has a different culture, and I can’t judge with my western bias. However, I really don’t know how many ways half dressed boys lying in an unmade bed can be interpreted.

I have no moral high horse to stand on, but I find all this a bit ethically questionable. Am I taking this too seriously? Maybe, but that doesn’t change how I feel. For once, fandom is truly srs bizness, and not in a good way.

Bottom line: I’m really disappointed in how SM is handling SHINee.

To see the rest of the photoshoot, go here.

 

SHINee’s Suprise Visit to Sukira

only13suju @ youtube

Oh my god my ovaries.

 

SHINee Comeback

CodeMonmonSeason2 @ youtube

!!!!!!!!!!!!! Huge congrats to SHINee for owning K-chart on their comeback performance~~ Looks like Onew’s hilarious tragic accident worked out fortuitously for them after all XDDDD.

I can’t really decide which of the three comeback performances I like the best. I embedded Inki just because, but they were all really great! I’m still not totally feeling “Juliette” but live performances have definitely made me like the song more. I have about a billion snarky things to say about their outfits (back of Minho’s shirt wtf?) and their hair (Key channeling G-Dragon with the headband wtf?), but talking about the performance is more important o__O /trying to be a good fan.

SHINee is always very diciplined when it comes to performances. They very rarely look sloppy, and this is no exception. Even though the dance is pretty strenous, they all hit their marks perfectly and look totally in sync. I didn’t notice any major problems with their singing either. The only thing that sounded sort of weird to me was the rap, but I think that has to do witht the mics they’re using.

Tbh, I kinda hope they promote another song off their album soonish (“Romeo and Juliette” plez!!!), but in the meantime I’ll try my best to enjoy “Juliette.” I mean, the performances are great so it’s not like it’s gonna be hard or anything  

A/N I’m pretty sure this is an empty promise, but I’m going to try to cut back on the Kpop posts and do a bit more with Cpop in the near future. The Kpop blogosphere is so crowded anyway, it’s not like I add anything new to it~~ Maybe instead of 95% Kpop 5% everything else, I’ll aim for 10% or something. *Shrugs* we’ll see how things go….

 

SHINee; Romeo

 

Edit: Okay, I’ve been listening to this a lot today, and I have a few more things I wanna say XD

Kay, after “Juliette” I wasn’t expected the music to be amazing but I was wrong. Believe it or not, Romeo is not only pretty hip and mature, but you can actually tell these guys are growing up through their music. Good job boys! ♥♥♥♥♥

Talk to You This is real sound sex for sho^^^ Great way to kick off a kickass album! Key’s into S-H-I-ah-ah-ah-N-double EE was awesome!

Hit Me I love this song! A pretty standard r&b piece, but it’s pretty! Completely westernized, but I’m digging that lately;;; Think Ne-Yo or Usher, but with teenage Korean boys^^

Senorita I really like the title; Spanish is smexy. This song is all over the place, but that’s not necessarily bad. The rap is pretty hot, like seriously, SHINee has pretty good rappers. I thought the song would have more Spanish or Latin influence, but aside from the maracas and the occasional Spanish guitar strum, not much of that going on. Still, pretty good, but not alskdkf wonderful~~

Please Don’t Go Ah,the always there, always reliable sweeping! epic! SM love ballad ^___^ As far as these things go, this one is pretty great though. Onew and Jonghyun sound amazing! Something I wouldn’t mind listening to over and over!

Romeo + Juliette Whoa, the beginning esp with Taemin’s autotuned voice is sorta freaky, but this is hella catchy! I think this is totally my favorite song off the album!!!! There’s a lot going on, but the singing and rapping are really well put together. This is another r&b track but more original than “Hit Me.” ALskfjsdlfj the more I listen the more I love it!!!!!! Okay, this is the big bold statement, but this might just be my favorite SMTown song of the year. Considering how much great music SM’s been putting out lately, and how biased I am for some of their other groups, that pretty much tells you how much I love this song^^. I think the minor chords in this are just amazing, and it doesn’t sound like anything else I’ve been hearing in Kpop.

Overall, such a great mini-album! Way more contemporary and less Michael Jackson than I expected. Aside from the obligatory ballad and that hot mess “Juliette,” the rest of the songs are all very modern, r&b inspired pieces. It’s very rare for me to love an album upon first listen, but I truly did with this one. For the most part, there’s cohesiveness about these songs, and that’s quite an accomplishment for an SM group. Like many, I’m questioning what exactly SM was smoking when they choose “Juliette” as the single??? WTF? I mean, I’ve taught myself to like it after the mv, but every song on the album is better than that one

Like I’ve said before, SHINee’s music has never been my fave. I know it’s blasphatamous, but I never even really liked “Replay” that much. I guess I was okay with “Juliette” cuz I wasn’t expecting all that much from them, but this mini album has really blown me away. It’s so  funky and experimental, which is exactly what SHINee’s supposed to be about. I could have done without the ballad, and the songs aren’t perfect or anything, but kudos to them for trying new stuff. I feel like SHINee’s finally carving out their niche music wise. Hopefully this mini album turns into a full album come repackage time! (Plez just promote “Juliette” for like a week then move on to any of the other songs /wishful thinking)