First Impression - Review #5: SNSD Album - I Got A Boy

These opinions are only formed through listening to the songs and not looking into the lyrics or the MVs.

In general, I thought this album was pretty well balanced and I generally enjoyed all of the songs in the album (surprisingly because I’m usually not a strong fan of SNSD). Four more ballad-like songs, five more up-beat type songs, and one song that I didn’t feel really fit into either category.

Ballad Songs: (3) Baby Maybe, (5) Promise, (7) Lost in Love, (10) Romantic St.

Up-beat Songs: (1) I Got A Boy, (2) Dancing Queen, (6) Express 999, (8) Look at Me, (9) XYZ 

Not Either: (4) Talk Talk

1. I Got A Boy

The first part of the song is very hip-hop, and it kind of sets up the song to have a lot of rap in it (partially true).

But the next part of the song after the mix at around :23, does start off with rap and I enjoyed the beats in this section. Especially the emphasizing beats at the end of each girl’s line, when they all sing at the same time. The “Oh’s” here sounds very catchy as well.

The song mixes again into more dubstep electronic beats, which SM has been really into lately around 1:35. The song title finally appears in this part. The bit of harmony with the the chorus sounds good in this part. More rapping, which fits in. But I didn’t feel that the singing parts before the fast rap fit in as well, or afterwards. I almost thought that the song was going to change to a slower pace, but then the chorus snapped back in.

Angry, powerful singing with slower beats! I like hearing their powerful voices here, but I feel that we need more of this somewhere each in the album. Maybe one day SM will release a full powerhouse song for SONES. But I don’t know SNSD’s music that well apart from their singles, so maybe they already did this~ 

And back to 140 bpm with Jessica! So I would say the song has an intro, and 4 other sections, with the last section going back to the general theme of the song.

Even though the song seems detached at first, I liked hearing the girls introduce each section. And I heard about the different sections having different meanings, which makes the song make more sense. Each section separately sounds really good, and catchy in my opinion. So, it seemed like in the process of SM wanting to create more of a storyline for their lyrics, they also wanted to expose more sounds and maybe get more fans in the process.

2. Dancing Queen 

The controversial copy-cat song. I actually knew the song by Duffy (Mercy) before this song came out, so when I first heard it I was really surprised and then heard about all the controversy. That is why, when I hear this, I can’t enjoy it more than I enjoyed the original, which came out in 2009. But I have to say I enjoyed the original, so I suppose I support this song too. SNSD’s voices are good for singing the notes, but Duffy’s voice has more character and texture that it is hard to compare the two songs. I’m glad to hear that a lot of Sones support Duffy now though.

3. Baby Maybe

Probably my favorite ballad song in the album. Though I can’t classify it directly as a ballad because it’s more upbeat and does have a strong beat throughout most of it. But it’s not really a dance song either. Their vocals here made it more of a ballad to me though. 

The beginning of the song is the most catchy out of the ballad songs. I just like the sound of the broken chords/arpeggios with the beat coming in after a measure or so. The vocals in the beginning start off strong and then are offset with more lilting and cute vocals. The best of both worlds?

Then the vocals before the chorus have some runs in it which is nice to hear. But there an electronic pulse or something of that sort in this section that comes in twice that I felt didn’t fit in and was almost startling.

The chorus is catchy and the english in the few lines is grammatically too so ++. 

The format of the first verses appear again, with the higher parts having more harmony with them. Then they transition into a section with a lot of layers. A solo voice (melody) with harmony voices underneath and emphasizing ad libs. The next transition into the chorus is interesting and different as well, making the last repeat of the chorus seem less... repetitive, because the second one was so different.

4. Talk Talk

This whole song seemed to have a very smooth feel in general. Other than the fact that it’s not very upbeat or a ballad song since the vocals, there’s not much else to say about it unfortunately. I heard it was on SNSD’s second Japanese album as “Boomerang.”

5. Promise

Definitely a ballad that starts off with piano and then a beat which comes in after a measure or so. The chorus is catchy and the harmonies throughout blend in well. It’s fighting for first place against Baby Maybe for the favorite ballad of the album.

6. Express 999

Starts off with interesting beats, but the first melody isn’t as catchy as the other songs in the album. The chorus then sounds completely different from the verses.

This song in general reminds me of a Japanese pop song or something from anime. But it is also very disconnected, so I didn’t like it as much.

7. Lost in Love

The beginning starts off like a lullaby, with their voices very calm and quiet to begin with as well. It’s another classic ballad song with nice harmony layers throughout and an interesting very low harmony occasionally too. It sounds so soothing that I could fall asleep to it if I was just listening and not doing anything else. (Which means it’s kinda boring?)

8. Look at me

The chorus of this song is pretty catchy, but I felt that the rest of it didn’t fit together. The dramatic instrumental section and the beginning raps didn’t fit with the fast paced chorus. One of the songs that I liked the least in the album.

9. XYZ

This song really reminds me of Britney Spears because of the electronic beats, but it reminds me more of Christina Aguilera’s “Keeps Getting Better” because of the line 

“너와 내 사이 like ABC처럼 쉽지 않아 like XYZ
우리의 거리 like ABC 멀어져 가네 like XYZ”

and because of the background beats.

It seems catchy, but it’s not my favorite, seems too one-toned all around even with the ad-libs that are generally thrown into these kinds of songs anyways.

10. Romantic St. 

The song that was featured in the teaser version for I Got a Boy, starts off with romantic piano and has light piano chords throughout the rest of the song. It’s more upbeat than Lost in Love and conveys a more “in-love” feeling. It’s just a sweet song that reminds me of Secret’s “Falling in Love” except without the beats.