Gossip Girls
It’s Flamenco Time! The album starts off with a decidedly Spanish flair, but once that pounding drum line kicks in, it’s pure GG! Actually quite a lot like the previous Japanese Album’s opener Flower Power, both intstantly getting you in the mood for a rocking good time!
Motorcycle
One thing I’ve always said I loved most about Girls Generation’s songs is how much I love their vocals, and the super-catchy choruses of “Come On Baby Oh NO!” and “Right On Baby Oh YEAH!” is just what I’m talking about! The blend of the girls voices (especially Jessica and Taeyeon) harmonizing together is what really MAKES these tracks for me!
Flyers
This next song has a very KARA-esque flavor to it for me, with it’s peppy “Yeah Yeah Yeah” refrains and “Shake It Up baby” choruses, and who would have ever thought you’d hear the Ramones catchcall of Hey Ho, Let’s Go!” in a K-pop song, much less an SNSD one? LOL!
Galaxy Supernova
I have to admit that the first time I heard this song (watching the PV that came out weeks before the album release), it didn’t really grba me, but just like “Paparazzi” before it, once I heard it in the context of the album as a whole, It fit in so perfectly that it was THEN that I started really liking and appreciating it!
Beep Beep
This song always seems weird getting included on this album as it was the B-side (or Double A Side depending on where you read it) for Flower Power and so in my mind always seemed a part of the "Girls Generation II: Girls and Peace" album, luckily I really love this song and have no problem hearing it again, and placed right in the middle of this new album, has actually had a refreshing effect on the song and I'm enjoying it all over again!
Love and Girls
Love and Girls, Girls and Peace, Love and Peace…these titles are getting WAY too monotonous and confusing, but luckily the songs themselves are one-of-a-kind! Another song I really really like from the girls, this one reminding me of watching the highschool cheerleaders dancing their routines in the school gym- very VERY catchy! I love the way they take the traditional rapping phrasing from “Land of a Thousand Dances” and infuse it into the chorus-“La LaLa La La LaLaLa La-ve’n’girls!” And once you listen, you just can’t get that whistle out of your head…Hey Lemme Break it Down!
My Oh My
This is my absolute favorite track off of this album, so swinging and groovy, My Oh My sounds like it could have come right off the latest TaeTiSeo album (if they’d actually released one, as was rumored a few months ago) with heavy echo-saturated choruses that give the song a retro-50s feel to it, this song always gets me swaying to the swampy beat!!!
And if that wasn't ENOUGH, the dance moves that accompany the chorus in the MV totally KILLS, too!! ARGH, SO GOOOOODDDD
LIPS
Just like f(x)’s song “Signal” off of their awesome album Pink Tape sounded like it should have been an SNSD song, LIPS sounds totally like it was intended for Amber and the gals to sing, with its avant-garde bass zwoopings set against a choppy dance beat, the “club” feel of this tune cannot be denied!
Do The Catwalk
I don’t know if it was because of the song’s “wolf whistle” opening, but I immediately got a SMAP feel to this tune (they had a similar opening for Original Smile) but once it got going, this ode to the Modeling Runway evoked all the classic songs of the genre including Madonna’s “Vogue” and even Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy"(!) And like Love and Girls, they take a traditional rapping phrase and infuse it into the chorus- “DooDah, DooDah Doodah Doodah, Do Da Do Da Catwalk, Do Da Do Da Catwalk!” This song is another really fun one!
Karma Butterfly
I can’t quite put my finger on why this song makes me feel so sad and LONELY-maybe it’s the theremin-flavored synths or the airey electric-phased vocals, but Karma Butterfly has a very melancholy and distant feel to it, kind of like Utada Hikaru’s equally lonely sounding Wings”…
Lingua Franca
Oh MAN, do I love this song. When the Love and Girls/Lingua Franca single came out, I was already singing the virtues of SNSD’s “perfect pop song sensibilities” with the tracks, and now these songs are so special to me that when Lingua Franca comes on, I got goosebumps and a bit misty-eyed hearing its sweet, gentle refrains! Love, love, love the girls vocals in this one, especially Tiffany’s husky voice which always sounds so wonderful to me when she sings in low-register. Funny, when I first heard this song, the ending part where they electronically stuttered Jessica's Line "I Will Fall In Love" seemed jarring and out-of-place, but it soon became the hook of the song, that one extra oomph that pushed the song from great song into BEST! Really, Lingua Franca is one of my very favorite tunes from them!
Everyday Love
Wrapping things up nicely is Everyday Love, an admittedly by-the-numbers ending song ballad, but so, so GOOD! With its choruses of “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, It’s Everyday Love!” you get the feel of the classic pop tunes of the 50’s and 60’s, and I just love the girls voices as they harmonize the verses! A perfect album closer!
Man, listening to this album, it's NO WONDER they've become my favorite K-pop Artists of all time- freaking EVERYTHING they release is done with such care and quality, playing one of their albums, you feel like none of the tracks are "filler" and that they take every song with equal importance! I've noticed that SM tends to release the Girls' Japanese and Korean albums about a month apart, and I gotta say I love this because it seems (to my ancient ears anyway) like while the Korean albums are the avante-garde envelope-pushing songs, the Japanese ones are simply filled with sweet, lush, pop-perfect tunes!
A perfect "best of Both Worlds" for the SNSD fan!!!!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com