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CNBLUE – ‘2gether’ Album Review

By Angela on January 6, 2016 in Music
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It’s been 18 months since CNBLUE‘s last mini-album and four years since their first full length album. But lucky for us, the wait is over. The four member pop rock band and so-called Maroon 5 of Korean is finally back with 2gether, their second full length album. 2gether features 11 tracks that showcase their growth and maturity as a six-year-old band. Their music is still as energetic and memorable as ever, only this time around, CNBLUE played with a variety of music genres like electro dance, jazz, and even reggae to extend beyond their pop rock roots.

Track 1 – 신데렐라 (Cinderella)feel5

Cinderella contains more electro pop flavor compared their previous pop rock songs — with a hint of disco. It’s got an interesting warping synth sound mixed in with strong drum beats to create a new upbeat background. It certainly feels like one step closer to Maroon 5’s current music style. The verses and chorus are immediately catchy and easy to hum along, yet not repetitive thanks to its complex background beats.

Track 2 – 숨바꼭질 (Hide and Seek)feel4

The most pleasant surprise of Hide and Seek is its use of groovy saxophone coupled with heavy beats and light percussion during the intro and verse transitions of the song. It breathes new life into this otherwise standard soft rock number and makes it sound almost like a funky jazz song at times.

Track 3 – 롤러코스터 (Roller Coaster)feel5

This time, the boys experimented with reggae in Roller Coaster and gave this soft rock song an unusually laid back feel. During the second verse, Yong Hwa sings it in such a husky way that nearly made me mistake him for Skull & HaHa for a second. Listening to it just makes you feel happy and wave along to the song’s relaxing groove despite the lyrics describing how a relationship feels like a roller coaster.

Track 4 – Dominofeel3

Domino is an electro dance based song where the boys’ rock roots are practically nonexistent. The melody is a bit monotonous and perhaps too repetitive for long-term enjoyment but the back beat of the track is quite catchy. The crisp clear female vocal feature (WheeIn from Mamamoo) towards the end is easily the highlight of the song. Though sadly, it’s also too short and almost feels like tacked on on a whim.

Track 5 – Herofeel3

Hero is a fairly straightforward alternative rock song primarily backed by acoustic guitar during the verse and electronic guitar during the chorus. Within 2gether, Hero is one of the few songs that represents CNBLUE’s usual music taste but the song’s melody is a bit flat to me. However, I really like how the song is a touching tribute to a dad, comparing him to childhood heroes like Superman and Batman.

Track 6 – Drunken Nightfeel5

It’s dance time with Drunken Night! From the upbeat melody, to the electronic synth-filled back beat, to the inviting lyrics, Drunken Night is one big catchy party tune. Perhaps it’s not the most musically creative track of 2gether, but it’s easy on the ears and bumpin’ — both are great reasons to like a song.

Track 7 – Catch Mefeel3

This fierce pop rock song has a bit of 90’s Michael Jackson pop elements added to the backbeat. Honestly Catch Me is pretty nice and Yong Hwa’s powerful vocals pleasantly vents about those that hate on him, taunting that they’ll never be able to catch him. Yet it’s rather forgettable to me as there are no apparent highlights or twists.

Track 8 – Hold My Handfeel1

Jingle bells…trumpets…piano…and saxophone? Am I listening to a jazzy Broadway musical performance right now? In my humble opinion, Hold My Hand is one of those experiments that just didn’t work out so well because it’s not particularly memorable and deviates too far away from CNBLUE’s original color. That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate musical songs, but this is certainly no Seasons of Love.

Track 9 – Controlfeel4

Control is in essence a classic J-pop rock band number where the electric guitar rifts lend itself to an energetic opening and an emotion-filled chorus. The wistful melody and pleading lyrics both exude a sense of determination — a resolve to live life the way you want to regardless of the difficulties on the way.

Track 10 – Radiofeel5

This is yet another J-pop styled rock song but with heavy EDM influences. The dynamic synth beats, dramatic electric guitar solo, explosive vocals, and stadium crowd chant combine their powers to give Radio immense intensity and fervor. Radio can easily pass for a theme song of an Shonen Anime.

Track 11 – 발자국 (Footsteps)feel3

2gether wraps up with Footsteps, another one of those more traditional CNBLUE type of pop rock songs. It starts out with soft and mellow verses, then builds to a passionate shout out during the chorus. While the melody is not particularly unique and resembles other similar rock songs, the singing is a perfect marriage to the lyrics in expressing a sense of uncertainty towards the future.


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2getheralternative rockcnbluedance popEDMelectro popFNCj-rockjazzkpopmale grouppop rockreggaeSep 2015soft rock씨엔블루

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Art166
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Art166

This is a strong album, with Domino being one of my favorite tracks.

True — it’s repetitive, but it’s obvious the song was deliberately structured that way. The repetition lends real drama and emotion to the simple lyrics and gives the song a poignant, dream-like quality. I usually set Domino on ‘Repeat’, and let it fully permeate my space before moving on to the next song. In fact, the entire album is Repeat-worthy, as is almost all of their work.

CNBLUE’s music is just naturally compatible with my brain chemistry, or personality, or something. If they only knew how often they keep me company in the studio . . . ;-)

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6 years ago
Cup Cake
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Cup Cake

Thanks for the review. I’m really happy that you liked this self-composed album, it just shows that the CNBLUE boys are talented enough to compose good music. However, I don’t share the same opinion on Hold My Hand because, for me, this is the song that underlines Yonghwa’s talent as a composer. It’s true that it’s different from the CNBLUE sound but the melody is really nice and it’s rare to find this genre in the Kpop industry. I hope you give it another chance and listen to it again. Thank you for the daebak review and I love the smiley faces, it’s really a fun way to describe your feelings about the songs. Haha

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7 years ago
Angela
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Angela

Thanks for checking out this review and I’m glad you liked it! Actually someone else on Twitter also gave me similar feedback about Hold My Hand and shared with me the acoustic version, which I liked a lot more. The acoustic version removed some of the big band instruments that I wasn’t a particular fan of. But perhaps I was a bit too harsh about the song in my review. Different music will be appreciated by different people so I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. I appreciate you sharing the feedback with me though and will continue to keep an open mind to be as objective as possible when I write more reviews in the future! :)

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7 years ago
Cup Cake
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Cup Cake

Yeah of course! It’s normal to have different opinions. I respect yours. What I loved the most about your review is that you don’t sugarcoat, objectivity is what I look for in music reviews that’s why I’m happy with your review. Please keep it up. I’ll be looking forward for CNBLUE reviews from you.

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7 years ago
Angela
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Angela

Thank you for your support! I really appreciate it and of course there will be more CNBLUE reviews coming in the future!

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7 years ago
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