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 .

4Minute ~ Volume Up

31MB 4:18 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

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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.

Last week I went to France to see a horde of K-Pop artists perform at Music Bank in Paris. A total of eight groups performed: Girls’ Generation, T-ara, 4Minute, Sistar, SHINee, U-Kiss, Beast and 2PM. I went there mostly for SNSD, T-ara and 4Minute.

I flew to Paris the same day as the concert. I had already been there for SMTown back in June, so I felt like I wouldn’t have any trouble finding my way around the city. Besides, I had booked a numbered seat for the concert. I had a seat for the first day and a standing ticket for the second day. Unfortunately the second day of the concert was cancelled. It would’ve been great to do both.

The venue was much bigger than SMTown. The good seats at SMTown were much better than the good seats at Music Bank. While SMTown was more intimate, everything at Music Bank went very smoothly. They didn’t have much concert goods though.

It was nice to see so many groups, but since there were so many of them they didn’t perform that many songs each. SNSD didn’t perform until the very end, so it felt like they didn’t get enough time on stage. […] there’s more! »

Teen Top’s latest music video Crazy (미치겠어), which features an appearance of 4Minute’s So-hyun in the story part.

Teen Top ~ Crazy

31MB 4:49 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

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Requested by haminsekshi15/yoNIELOVER.

Here are some messages from the artists that are performing at Music Bank Paris in February, just to hype it up a little .

SNSD

T-ara

[…] there’s more! »

Trouble Maker is a duo consisting of Hyun-seung (JS) from Beast and Hyun-a from 4Minute. It’s become quite a hit and even managed to beat IU (once) on M!Countdown.

Trouble Maker ~ Trouble Maker

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I like hyun-a, but this song just doesn’t appeal to me that much. (OK, I didn’t like Bubble pop much either.)

Requested by Stella.

4Minute are back… in Japan. Ready Go is their latest Japanese song, which is used as a theme song for the drama Welcome to the El-Palacio. The single will be out on December 7th.

4Minute ~ READY GO

27MB 3:32 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

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They’re really playing the sexy card in this video. 4Minute have been doing hot videos for a while, but this time it’s noticeably more cleavage-y than before .

I can’t wait to see them perform in Paris in February .

At Music Bank a couple of weeks ago, f(x) and 4Minute mixed it up and performed the other group’s song. f(x) performed Mirror Mirror and 4Minute sang Pinocchio (Danger).

f(x) ~ Mirror Mirror Live@Music Bank 20110701

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4Minute ~ Pinocchio (Danger) Live@Music Bank 20110701

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Which group do you think did the best job (disregarding Hyun-a’s microphone problem)?

My vote goes to f(x).

Hyun-a’s solo comeback song Bubble Pop! spread like wildfire when it was released on the 4th, getting millions of views on youtube. I don’t know exactly what made the video so popular — I mean, I could guess, but… but…

Hyun-a ~ Bubble Pop!

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The song sounds nothing like her previous solo stuff. The tone is more cutesy sexy rather than fierce sexy.

For those of you who saw anyone else except Hyun-a, the guy in the short story part of the video is Lee Joon (이준) from MBLAQ. That’s the same guy who played IU’s love interest in K.Will’s My Heart is Beating (lousy two-timing son-of-a. Poor IU….’s character in that completely unrelated video).

This song was one of 78 songs on the playlist I listened to during my road trip a while ago. I like it. It’s kind of similar to Zutto in my opinion, but with some 4Minute added to the mix.

Thelma Aoyama ~ Without U feat. 4Minute

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When it says “featuring 4Minute”, what they really mean is featuring Ji-yoon and Ga-yoon. Ji-hyun and Hyun-a have like one line each. I thought I heard So-hyun’s voice when listening to the song, but in the video she’s out of frame (or obscured by the camera man) most of the time. Ga-yoon’s voice sounds so cute next to Thelma’s. I like Ji-yoon’s hair like that btw.

I think I saw a full English version of this song too, but it sounds better with a Japanese chorus.

WHY is 4Minute’s latest Japanese single, which was released back in March right before the earthquake. Due to the disaster they cancelled/postponed all their activities in Japan, so the song wasn’t promoted much.

4Minute ~ WHY

30MB 3:25 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

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In the music video the members of 4Minute are planning some kind of heist, where they’ll break into a vault to dance and sing .

At first this song kind of passed me by, but I like it more after listening to it a bit.