I promised my dearest friend that I would post my personal opinions on the mini-album Beautiful Journey that was released on August 26 but I haven’t found the right time to sit down and listen to all songs carefully (although I found the time to sit down and right a proper rant about my life lately). It will be better if I less spam and continue with the reviews. However, this might haven been done with bias so please don’t bash me.
사랑사랑사랑 (Love, Love, Love)
The title track of the mini-album, the all-kill song that each member of FT Island wishes for and finally come true. This song brings back the rock ballad music from FT Island that we all loved and missed and this surely is the trademark of FT Island. It has an awesome rhythm and amazingly good lyrics about a leaving love. But this is very different from their past rock ballads. This is more powerful, and this is more addictive with the same melancholic feeling. The repetitive parts won’t bore you, and the rap parts making it even better. Hongki and Seunghyun show their chemistry in voices through this song better than any songs they performed before. Seunghyun proves that he has dramatically improves in rapping and he sounds even better than before. My rating, five stars out of five stars.
굳은살이 박혀버려 (Like My Hardened Skin)
There is no proper English translation for this song because the title is supposedly a Korean idiom or something but this is a good ballad. It starts off slow and mellow but it grows to be a powerful ballad (of which I won’t categorize as a rock ballad yet). The chorus is amazing and what is more amazing about this song is Hongki’s voice as usual. You can feel the pain and the emotion through the song it self without knowing the definition of the song. My rating, four stars out of five stars.
Baby Love
It is not that I don’t like this song—I love it—but this kind of song from FT Island has always been something I don’t listen much amidst of their rock ballads. I love the melody so much because I think it is very sweet. The piano composition makes this song as sweet as the beautiful summer day. The chorus on the other hand, makes one wants to smile all day and this is the perfect gateway from the rock ballads present earlier in the mini-album. The guitar riff part is the best for sure. Love the transition of the vocal from something heavy to something lighter and bubblier like this song. My rating, four stars out of five stars.
미친듯이 너 하나만 (Madly, Only You)
This is my favorite rock ballad from FT Island because I love the beginning and I love the whole song with all my heart. The chorus is just so good in terms of music and vocal and gets stuck easily by only one listen. The emotion flows in this song smoothly and the bridge part is just mesmerizing because one could feel the emotions send by the great vocal. This ballad is in simpler term, flawless. I love the ad-lib by Jaejin during the end chorus—it feels like a fresh breath amidst of the heavy emotion flows. My rating, five stars out of five stars.
돈키호테의 노래 (Song of Don Quixote)
This marks the first anticipation in composing the Korean song by the leader, Jonghoon. And to make it obvious, it is a great job. The song is the pop upbeat rock song that instead of making you smile and remember your first love, makes you want to jump and dance along with its upbeat rhythm. Hongki never fails with his vocal even with this upbeat song and his vocal gets along with Jaejin ad-lib and Seunghyun fast and fun rap very well. This is the best song they could perform to end the beautiful journey throughout the five tracks of this mini-album. The best part would be during the end chorus, because the drum beat rocks and a good job done by Minhwan with its drumming. My rating, five stars out of five stars.
Overall opinion, I think this is the best mini-album out of the two mini-albums FT Island has released. The songs will never bore you and you will never feel like you want to skip a song. The only thing is that Jaejin and Seunghyun should have more vocal parts, instead of just Hongki, despite his variety of emotions in each song. Jonghoon and Minhwan should shine like their previous albums too. But, the whole mini-album was just too perfect and well produced. Listening to this mini-album does feel like a great and beautiful journey through the music transitions that FT Island wishes to show. This would be one of the recommended mini-albums for 2010. The music, the vocal, the composition and the arrangement—everything is just great.
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