Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
FLOWER have made a comeback with “Monochrome“, which is an interesting title since this marks a departure from their usual fare.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x54zfh4
Suffice to say, I’m surprised that this is FLOWER. I’ve wanted them or DREAM to change to something that fits more with what Happiness and E-Girls do because that plays to their strengths, and they’ve finally done it. FLOWER has gone from Reina singing quasi-ballads alongside beautiful but borderline out of place dance numbers to going fierce and uptempo in one comeback. Couldn’t have come soon enough.
The dancing strengths of the other members now fit because the music has the tempo to match, and the musical quality goes from listenable to something I can actually look forward to. The verses of “Monochrome” have bite and attitude to them, with the highlights being the sections where they went double-time with the lyrics. The pre-chorus and chorus sort of meld together, but regardless, the drawn out vocals of the pre-chorus and the almost complete removal of the bass serves the purpose of building tension and letting the song breathe a bit (which a lot of J-idol songs struggle with). The pre-chorus does its job exceptionally, and they bring the beat back in for the chorus and fill it with vocals while the post-chorus consists of a breakdown with “oohs” and riffs, which is probably the most memorable section of the song.
I like what I’ve heard thus far from “Monochrome”, but of course this isn’t the entire song yet, which is my main criticism. I hate you, Japan.
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No surprises here, but the music video was visually impressive. The main set starts out … well, monochrome, and when the color becomes incorporated the concept begins to make sense.
Individually, they had some great looks as well, which we likely would’ve seen more of if we actually got the whole thing.
Of course, as I mentioned before, the choreography now matches the tempo of the song now, and it’s a gigantic improvement to have the two finally sync with each other.
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FLOWER acquit themselves well in this type of genre, even if it is a bit unsurprising given the E-Girls connection. But not only is “Monochrome” a quality effort, it could also potentially send FLOWER down a fresh new road that frees them from basic mid-tempo purgatory.
And most importantly, somebody send me the full music video when it’s released. Thanks.
