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Last week IU released a new single in Korea called Spring of a twenty year old (스무 살의 봄), which consists of three songs. The title track Every end of the day (하루 끝), IU’s own composition Peach (복숭아), which had a digital release before the full single release and finally I really don’t like her (그 애 참 싫다).

IU isn’t promoting these songs on the music shows as she’s focusing on her upcoming solo concert, but Every end of the day still topped the online charts when it came out.

As the title of the single suggests, IU turns 20 this spring. In Korean age, that is. She turned 19 in “western age” on the 16th. Spring of a twenty year old is also the title of a short film which was released instead of a normal music video. It starts out in a documentary style where you get to follow IU during various activities, mixed with a personal interview. The second part is more of a short film of her trip to Venice, Italy. It also doubles as a music video for Every end of the day.

You can watch the film in its entirety here (no subtitles):

youtube

I made some clips for the music parts (three of them, keep scrolling :) ).

IU ~ Peach (composition clip)

IU ~ Peach (composition clip)

15MB 2:42 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

[…] there’s more! »

 

These are the best performances of Twinkle this far, in my opinion. I picked two of the ones where they have hand-held microphones. The vocals are more important to me than the dancing and the mics aren’t that much in the way of the choreography anyway.

Despite my aversion to anything with leopard print, I really like Seo-hyun’s outfit here:

Girls' Generation-TTS ~ Twinkle Live@M!Countdown 20120510

Girls’ Generation-TTS ~ Twinkle Live@M!Countdown 20120510

27MB 3:28 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

I love Tae-yeon’s outfit in this one:

Girls' Generation-TTS ~ Twinkle Live@M!Countdown 20120503

Girls’ Generation-TTS ~ Twinkle Live@M!Countdown 20120503

38MB 3:28 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

 

In case you’re missing the rest of SNSD while TaeTiSeo are promoting, here’s the music video for Echo (requested by Alex).

Girls' Generation ~ Echo

Girls’ Generation ~ Echo

25MB 3:30 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

I like this song. It was included in the Run Devil Run repackage of the “Oh” album, but it was never promoted.

The music video was recorded in Thailand at the same time as their All About Girls’ Generation: Paradise in Phuket DVD. It feels so unusual to see Sunny with dark long hair now :lol: . I like Seo-hyun’s look with that hair band (Yoon-a and Soo-young also have the same one, but it looks best on Seo-hyun). I should watch this DVD set again.

 

TaeTiSeo’s first live performance was at M!Countdown the day before yesterday. They performed Twinkle and Baby Steps. I really like Baby Steps and I’m glad they decided to promote it along with Twinkle.

Girls' Generation-TTS ~ Baby Steps Live@M!Countdown 20120503

Girls’ Generation-TTS ~ Baby Steps Live@M!Countdown 20120503

31MB 3:55 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

Baby Steps was originally sung by the American boyband Varsity Fanclub. SM acquired the rights for the song and made a Korean version for TaeTiSeo, which (in my completely unbiased opinion) blows the original out of the water.

According to the message included with the digital album, this is Seo-hyun’s favourite song on the album. I realize that the top picks is probably a marketing thing, but I could see this being her favourite (even though Tae-yeon owns the stage).

 

SNSD’s first sub-unit TaeTiSeo (소녀시대-태티서/Girls’ Generation-TTS) released their mini-album Twinkle digitally last Sunday. The CD is also out now. I’m pleasantly surprised by this album. I was expecting it to have one good song and then just fillers, but it’s pretty solid all the way through. Baby Steps is really nice (contains good vocabulary if you’re beginning to learn Korean :) ). It’s nice to have all these “vocalist heavy” songs where Tae-yeon, Tiffany and Seo-hyun can show off their skill. Especially Tae-yeon.

SM’s new thing is putting ads in the videos they release online, but this one is ad free (not counting the perfume product placement ;) ).

Girls' Generation-TTS ~ Twinkle

Girls’ Generation-TTS ~ Twinkle

40MB 4:21 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

Credit: source vid. hotsport@jpopsuki

The girls look so great in the video! The dance moves are really cute too. Tae-yeon is so gorgeous and I love Seo-hyun’s cute faces on the roof wearing the red dress.

Seo-hyun

TaeTiSeo (apparently Girls’ Generation-TTS is the official English name, but TaeTiSeo sounds better to me) are also going to be promoting on the weekly music shows this week, so expect some lives later on. If you’re interested in the official fan-chant, you can find it here (Korean).

This is my favourite picture from the digital booklet that comes with the album when you buy it on iTunes. I’m using (a cropped version of) it as my phone lock screen wallpaper :) .

Tae-yeon Tiffany Seo-hyun Twinkle digital booklet

It looks like the physical album comes with a bunch of photo cards. Going to get that too.

Watch the video on SMTown’s YouTube too, to help raise the view count :) .

youtube

 

Missing you like crazy (미치게 보고 싶은) is the theme song for Ha Ji-won’s character in the drama series The King 2 Hearts, which is currently airing in Korea. The musical director specifically asked for Tae-yeon to sing the song after working with her previously on Beethoven Virus. After having the song topping the charts, Tae-yeon was given the opportunity to perform a special stage at yesterday’s Music Core.

Tae-yeon ~ Missing you like crazy Live@Music Core 20120428

Tae-yeon ~ Missing you like crazy Live@Music Core 20120428

24MB 3:21 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

Credit: source vid. from soshified

One thing I love about Tae-yeon is how her voice conveys emotion. Her stage presence is also great. I love her stage outfit here, btw.

I haven’t seen The King 2 Hearts yet, but it’s on my “to watch” list.

 

I saw this clip from SBS K-Pop Star earlier today. It’s a special collaboration stage where one of the three finalists, Baek A-yeon, is joined by Tae-yeon and Tiffany from SNSD in a performance of Lady Marmalade.

Tae-yeon, Tiffany & Baek A-yeon ~ Lady Marmalade Live@K-Pop Star 20120422

Tae-yeon, Tiffany & Baek A-yeon ~ Lady Marmalade Live@K-Pop Star 20120422

32MB 3:33 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

Credit: source vid. from soshified

It must be discouraging to perform together with Tae-yeon like this :lol: . I don’t follow the show, so I don’t know how A-yeon has performed in the past, but it’s hard to shine next to Tae-yeon :) .

And yes, that’s BoA you see glance by as one of the judges :) . She’s representing SM Entertainment in the show.

youtube

 

It feels like 4Minute, or rather their producers, are slipping. The title track from their latest mini-album is not what I had hoped for. Perhaps I’m biased, since I don’t like the sound of saxophones in general :P .

4Minute ~ Volume Up

4Minute ~ Volume Up

31MB 4:18 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

Credit: source vid. k2nblog

As for the video, it actually makes the song sound better. Ji-yoon looks great, especially in the leather jacket with red shoulders. I wish they’d tone down the “sexy dancing” and whatnot. I’d much prefer a proper choreography.

I’ve listened to the mini-album a bit the last couple of days and I think the ballad I’m OK is pretty good (apart from the whistles in the background). Better than Volume Up, even though it has grown on me a little. The verse in Dream Racer is kind of interesting, but the rest is… not.

 

I’ve started listening to Sistar a bit this year. First because they were performing at Music Bank in Paris. Now I’m watching Dream High 2, where main vocalist Hyo-rin plays the (smallish) part of Nana. I started listening to Miss A after the first Dream High, so I wouldn’t rule out the same thing happening with Sistar ;) .

Sistar ~ Alone

Sistar ~ Alone

31MB 3:28 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

나혼자 (Alone) has a bit of a different sound from Sistar’s previous songs. I haven’t decided what to think about it yet. My favourite Sistar song so far is 가식걸 (Shady Girl). So Cool isn’t bad either.

 

This song was requested by Ex0rcist. Shinhwa debuted way back in 1998. Venus is from their 10th album The Return, which is their comeback album after taking a four year break while they all completed their military service.

Shinhwa ~ Venus

Shinhwa ~ Venus

26MB 4:21 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

Parts of the song sound a bit Eurodance-y.

 

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