The latest release by Rainbow, 'Rainbow Syndrome Pt. 2', is the continuation of their album of the same name released in February 2013. While I found two of the tracks memorable�"Golden Touch" and "Tell Me Tell Me"�Overall, I was highly disappointed at the album as a whole. As my expectations were not set particularly high, I was quickly shut up upon giving this album a listen. While this album doesn't progress K-Pop or Rainbow's image in any way whatsoever�in fact, it's probably one of the most stereotypical albums in K-Pop�the production effort is so strong here that it's impossible for one not to like this album. The producers remedied their previous faults in Pt. 1 and hit this album out of the park, which subsequently reminded us again why Rainbow should not be a group to be forgotten so easily.

When I saw the title "Kiss Me", I fully expected the worst: a cheesy moderate tempo pop tune with the most stereotypical lyrics one could imagine. I was more than correct on the lyrics, but the musicality of the piece was definitely not what I expected. Combining an interesting fusion of rock guitars, funk bass, dance synths and beats, and straight ahead pop, this songs actually proves to be interesting to listen to. The textural shifts in the song keep the song interesting�especially the moments of broken rhythm in the last refrain�but are interwoven enough to give the song a sense of coherency. I definitely wasn't expecting something of this caliber from Rainbow, but it started off the album well and have me high hopes for the remainder. But unfortunately the next song happened...

The most salient problem I have with Rainbow is that I know their music is the textbook definition of things that are wrong with K-Pop, be it redundancy, extreme simplicity, extreme aegyo, or a general lack of talent. Yet despite this, I can't stop listening to their songs: their formulaic earworm continues to catch me. What's even worse about their new headlining single "Sunshine" is that it's almost an exact carbon-copy of their previous single "Tell Me Tell Me" in most musical and visual respects. I know I shouldn't like this song, but I do: I find myself constantly bobbing my head to this peppy, poppy, overly innocent love tune. I guess with a title like "Sunshine", I shouldn't really expect anything different. The lyrics pretty much are what you expect: the females describe the boy in such deep terms as "twinkle", "sunlight", and "melted at your eyes". This song is so saccharine it hurts.

What especially gets me on a musical level is the random falsetto "oh oh woah oh ohs" (or whatever the exact syllables are) the members take turn popping out throughout the song, which is likely the most extensive vocal technique the group will ever need to use. In sum, I really would like to critique this song, as there is a laundry lists of things wrong with it, but I'm going to throw out logic for the first time in a while and just say I like it. This is probably what made Rainbow so successful in the first place, and as much as I enjoy change, we'll probably hear more of this style in the future.

"Don't Touch" is another strong electro-funk tune. While the production is impeccable and the group singing efforts are potently confident, this album is probably my least favorite on the album. However, that's not to downplay it at all�I can definitely see why one would like it. But it's not particularly memorable in anyway when it's stack up against some of the other tracks here.

"Let's Dance" is a decent attempt at a dance track. While the song possesses all of the necessary textural shifts that one would expect from such a tune, the shifts between these sections remains a little awkward. Rather than the prior section building into another, it seemingly randomly shifts prematurely. This is especially evident in the vocal cut samples leading up to what I would consider the chorus: the producers repeat the clip far too little for an effective or meaningful transition to occur. The listener is instead caught off guard. While the sections themselves are surprisingly well produced, the transitions may make the song a bit awkward to play in the club situation for which this song was intended.

"I'll Wait For You" seems to remedy the problems that I had with "Let's Dance". While the sectional transitions are much smoother and complimentary than the previous track, I'm not as big of a fan of the sections themselves in this song. It's not that they aren't of bad quality�again, surprisingly well produced�it's just a personal preference. The sections of "I'll Wait For You" fall too much in line with the typical style lyrics and vocal styles associated with Rainbow. So while I don't mind this, I just enjoyed the slight switch "Let's Dance" brought to the table. Ultimately, if one would combine the strengths of these two dance-based tracks, you'd wind up with a really good dance track�again, not revolutionary, but really quite good.

There is something really off with "Eenie Meenie Minie Moe" on a musical level. While the overall track can be classified as an uptempo, bass-heavy, clap-based pop song, there are some random synthesizers in the background throughout the song that seem oddly out of place. They create an odd ethereal feeling which I didn't quite expects with the intro. This isn't enough to distract the casual listener, but it turns what would have otherwise been a vocally rhythmic interesting song to listen to something that I sit and wonder about. And while I do enjoy wondering about this or that, nothing else in the song is deep enough to trigger a deep emotional pondering. The lyrics are a cross between idyllic love and nonsensical terms, and there's no real vocal virtuosity to write home about. It seems that this was just an experimental piece for the producers to mess with random synth settings.

If we were for a moment to fuse 'Rainbow Syndrome Pt. 1 & Pt. 2' into a cohesive album, the album would start and end on essentially the same note. The first song, "Golden Touch" and the last song, "Chewing Time" are essentially the same song in overall feel. Surprisingly this isn't the worst thing in the world as "Golden Touch" was far and away the most interesting song on Pt. 1. A confident and swinging uptempo funk/disco tune, "Chewing Time" takes the title of the strongest and most impressive track on the album. In addition to the crisp vocal rhythmics, this song features the most virtuosic vocal performance I've heard in any Rainbow song: Jae Kyung's high pitch belting during the refrains. While I could have lived without the break section, this song is definitely quite a way to end the album. And despite my problems with Rainbow overall, I'm actually quite looking forward to their next release.