New albums and singles preview - August week 4

FT Island Vol. 2 – Colorful Sensibility (August 25)

01 Lying Love
02 Girls Don’t Know
03 You Are Love
04 Love Is
05 Ft VS Pri
06 Memorizing
07 Hate and Resent You
08 Not Even 1 Minute 1 Second
09 Don’t Love Me
10 The Name You Call Love
11 Troublemaker
12 Train

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FT Island, who debuted last year with “Love Sick”, have quickly gained much fame with about 100,000 members in fan clubs. This August, they have come back with their sophomore album, “Colorful Sensibility”. Popular composer Han Sung Ho took charge in producing the album, which consists of various rock ballads and rock numbers. The title track is “Lying Love”, which is a rock ballad that showcases Lee Hong Ki’s appealing vocals. The song “Girls Don’t Know”, on the other hand, is very strong in color and has an easy melody that catches listeners’ ears, while “Troublemaker” is a very animated song. Bassist, Lee Jaejin, who has always enjoyed singing, has also contributed his vocals in this album. There are a total of 12 tracks in the album.

Shin Hye Sung Vol. 3 – Side 1: Live and Let Live (August 26)

01 Live and Let Live
02 Awaken
03 Because It Is You
04 A Good Day to Love (Duet Lee Honey)
05 Urban Fever (Feat. $Howgun)
06 Waltz
07 Love Actually (Feat. Vink)
08 Peter Pan’s Serenade
09 Promise (Duet Yurisangja’s Park Seung Hwa)
10 Sequela
11 Awaken Inst.
12 Because It Is You Inst.

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Shin Hyesung, who released his second album last August, has come back a year later with his third, titled “Side 1: Live and Let Live”. The third album is divided into two parts: the first side consists of a variety of genres, such as alternative, British Rock, and swing, that Shin had always wanted to try out, while the second side is composed of the sad ballads that he is known for. The first side will be released on Aug 26 while the second part will be out in December. The title track is “Because It Is You” and it is a beautiful track composed by musician Vink, with lyrics penned by Yoon Sara. The song, “Promise”, on the other hand, is a duet with Yurisangja’s Park Seung Hwa that shows another side of Hyesung. Miss Korea Jin, Lee Honey, is also featured in the album in “A Good Day to Love”.

Younha Vol. 2 – Someday (August 29)

01 Hero
02 Someday
03 Telepathy
04 Strawberry Days
05 Memory (Feat. Tablo) –Rap Remix
06 Rain & The Bar
07 The Sound of Rain
08 Rainbow
09 Best Friend
10 For Catharina
11 To Hate
12 Gossip Boy
13 Don’t Cry
14 Memory – Original Mix
15 My Song And…
16 Telepathy (Inst.)
17 To Hate (Inst.)

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Younha, who released great quality music last year with her debut Korean album, has returned with her sophomore album, “Someday”. With greater sounds and a mature sensibility, this album showcases Younha’s always bright vocals. Younha is able to show different styles of music such as pop ballad, modern rock, progressive rock, rock ballad, electronica, and jazz. In addition, special guests such as jazz pianist, Song Young Joo, Epik High’s Tablo, and Jo Gyu Chan have also contributed to the album. The songs, “Hero” and “Someday” are of the modern rock genre with upbeat tempos while “To Hate” is a ballad track. “The Sound of the Rain” is a number where Younha sings along to pianist Song Young Joo’s accompaniment. “Memory” is an electronica track whereas “For Catherina” is a track Younha herself composed and wrote. There are a total of 17 tracks in this album.

Dynamic Duo Vol.4 – Last Days (released)

01 Intro ‘Last Dayz’
02 Don’t Block the Road
03 Solo (Feat. Alex)
04 Mother’s Bean Paste Porridge (Feat. Ra.D)
05 Trust Me (Feat. Supreme Team)
06 Beach Girl (Feat. JYP)
07 Make Up Sex
08 Want You Back (feat. 0C.D)
09 Good Love
10 Don’t Say Goodbye (feat. J)
11 Give Me the Light
12 Field Mice
13 Father (feat. Ra.D)
14 Breath (Feat. Sean2slow)

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Dynamic Duo, who are now in their 30s, have returned with their fourth album “Last Days”. With their music, the duo have been able to develop their own amoeba culture. In their past albums, Dynamic Duo had songs with the ’70s feel but for this album, it is more of the ’80s style. Because of this, instead of using actual instruments, the group decided to use more futuristic sounds. Also in order to have fresh music, house, drum & base, and modern rock genres have been incorporated with hip-hop.

Turtles Special Album – Unfinished Story (released)

01 Broad Shoulders
02 Sing-Lal-la
03 Airplane
04 Bingo
05 Lull for a Long Time
06 My Name
07 Be a Person
08 Swayed
09 Hope It Will Turn Out This Way
10 Fragrant Memories
11Pink Lights Christmas
12 Sing-Lal-la (Miami Remix)
13 Don’t Forget Me

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The music that Turtles bring is always full of joy with meaningful lyrics. Turtles debuted in 2001 with the album “Go! Boogie! Turtle” with a fun hip-hop dance number, “Four Seasons”. From then on, they continued to produce many hits including “Why”, “Bingo”, “How Long”, “Airplane” and “Sing La La”. This special album in commemoration of Turtleman’s death consists of 13 hits tracks in Turtles’ history. The title track of the album is “Broad Shoulders”, which is a simple but filled with life number. The song is about trying to live each day with strength.

Smash 1st mini album – Open Fire! (released)

01 Never Ending Story
02 Emergency
03 I See Through You

TN Entertainment has released a 6-member group, Smash. Their first mini album, “Open Fire”, consists of three tracks which were composed and written by famous composers including Richard Abderson, Thomas Ahlstrand, and Bryan Todd. The title track is “Emergency”, a pop dance song full of passion and energy. “I See Through You”, on the other hand, is an R&B ballad. The music video is produced by Hwang Jun Young, who gained fame for making Big Bang and Evan’s music videos.

Jang Nara (single) – If You Ask Me To (released)

01 If You Ask Me To
02 If You Ask Me To (Inst)

This song is the English version of the title track “Mirage” from her last album, which was released Asia-wide last March. This pop gospel number already had Chinese and Japanese versions in the previous album. Swederik Mitchell, a famous jazz pianist and composer in New York, took part in the piano accompaniment.

Son Dam Bi (single) – Invisible Person (released)

01 Invisible Person
02 Invisible Person (Inst)

Son Dam Bi, who debuted in 2006 with the nickname of “Female Rain”, has stormed into the Korean music industry and earlier this year returned with “Bad Boy”, a powerful dance track. Son has returned once again with “Invisible Person”, which was composed by hit-maker Lee Joo Ho, who is responsible for Eru’s “White Snow”. With beautiful melodies, Won Tae Yeon helped perfect this song by creating great lyrics. One can also feel the classical mood of the song through the piano, soprano saxophone, and the clarinet. Through the ballad, listeners can see Son Dam Bi as a singer capable of various genres.

Other releases:

Vicious Glare – Commencement (released)

Wind’a Spring – 잡을 수 없었던 이별 (released)

Zudy (single) (released)

B-Shop Vol. 1 – Souvenir (August 25)

Gourmet (SBS Drama) OST Vol. 2 (August 26)

MC Hansai Vol. 6 – My Birthday (August 27)

Ebonyhill Vol. 1 – We Are Ebonyhill (August 28)

Sources: Hanteo, Kyobobook, YesAsia, Melon, Dosirak, Naver