Apink – ‘Pink Memory’ Album Review

Apink makes a comeback this summer with their second full length album Pink Memory and officially joins the fierce battle for attention with other top girl groups like Girls’ Generation and Sistar, to name a few. As other groups are busy painting themselves as either sexy divas or tough girls, Apink stands out by maintaining their pure and youthful color. Unfortunately, Pink Memory doesn’t live up to the same distinguishing expectations as their image. Besides a couple of interesting tracks early on in Pink Memory, the rest is largely conventional and easily forgotten.

Track 1 – Remember

Remember opens with a music box by the seaside accompanied by soft vocals that radiate a sense of innocence, but immediately transitions into retro 90’s disco dance beats with electric guitar and sugary synth that give it an upbeat sweetness. The chorus is catchy with an interesting yet unexpected key change in the middle. One other observation worth mentioning is that many Apink songs like NoNoNo and Hush have addictive instrumental breaks. Remember is no exception with a super danceable digital beat towards the end.

Track 2 – Perfume

Perfume is a fun and new challenge for Apink musically. Funky low bass line kicks off the tune but is quickly joined by horns, trumpets, clapping beats, and “bum bum bum bum bum” backup vocals to give Perfume a full dose of vintage swing flavor and lots of dimension. The music is injected with positive energy and happiness that makes you want to rock along.

Track 3 – 끌려 (Attracted to U)

This is a hip hop R&B ballad mostly supported by percussion beats. Attracted to U‘s chorus seems a bit repetitive at first but the groove does grow on me after a while with its occasional outbursts of high note vocals. Although besides Eunji who has a deeper and more powerful voice, the other girls sound a bit too sugary and innocent to channel the soulfulness of this song.

Track 4 – Dejavu

Here we have a signature Apink styled youthful and pure sounding mid-tempo ballad number expressing the hearts of young girls in love. As such, Dejavu is rather plain and sounds vaguely like every other one of Apink’s songs. The only memorable thing is Eunji’s high notes that briefly woke me up from boredom.

Track 5 – 꽃잎점 (Petal)

Petal follows suit of Dejavu and has Apink flavor written all over it, only this time, it’s an upbeat dance pop infused ballad track for a bit more excitement. The verse and pre-chorus actually sound a bit more promising, but the chorus is unfortunately flatter than I would have liked. Petal is bouncy and pleasant, but contains little musical creativity.

Track 6 – What a Boy Wants

Another big band influenced dance pop track appears on the Pink Memory album. Except this time, What a Boy Wants is one hot mess of instruments and synths that don’t blend well, in addition to melodies and vocals that seem random and all over the place. I have no clue what this song wants — perhaps a showoff of how much stuff you can throw together in one song?

Track 7 – I Do

I Do is a dance pop number with hip hop rhythm and intense beats and synths to top it off. Again, the melody is not bad but fairly repetitive and not hugely memorable. But when it’s paired with the overwhelming background beats, the track becomes not very pleasant on the ears and certainly feels exhausting after multiple listens. Perhaps it’ll make a better live performance track.

Track 8 – 신기하죠 (A Wonderful Love)

Here is a very sorrowful combination of piano and violin that sets the tone for this melodic ballad. A Wonderful Love is more smooth and silky than some of the other ballads on the album and has a very nice emotional build from beginning to end. It’s a soothing song that plays in Apink’s been-there-done-that comfort zones.

Track 9 – Remember (Inst.)

Not reviewed.

Track 10 – 새끼손가락 (Promise U)

Promise U is a ballad song that relies primarily on low keyboard and bass lines. The simplest way to describe it is that listening to it feels like a deja vu — literally. Promise U has the same issues as Dejavu from earlier in this album — brief moments of brilliant high notes followed by largely non-memorable tune for the rest of it.

What Do You Think?

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