AOA - 'Like a Cat'

Track Listing:
1. "AOA"             
2. "Like A Cat"
3. "Girl's Heart"        
4. "Just the Two of Us"         
5. "Time"             
6. "Tears Falling"



The angels of AOA are back, only this time, they're cats. Well, okay, in cat suits. They've dropped their new mini-album, 'Like A Cat,' and it's penned by the Brave Brothers team. I've been looking forward to this album for a while.

The intro, "AOA," runs for under a minute and features a mid-tempo, pretty song with acoustic guitar.



"Like A Cat," the second tune, is a punchy, upbeat dance track. Two seconds in I heard the sampled strains of 2NE1's "Fire" before it launched into the main melody. Highly enjoyable -- can't wait to see this performed live.

"Girl's Heart" starts out a bit ballad-like, and then goes full-on K-pop with uptempo beats and whispered interludes. Breathy vocals in the beginning lead to a pleasant soft rock tune. Jimin's attitude shows in her raps here. The girls are complaining that their lover does not know her, does not know a "Girl's Heart."



"Just The Two Of Us" continues in the same vein as "Girl's Heart," only the lyrics are more upbeat. It's a pleasant listen and in some ways, I like these two songs better than the title track. The girls of AOA can really sing, and this song shows it. Honeyed vocals combine with spare instrumentation, mixing in raps that slink in like, well, a cat, to make a really good tune.

Then comes "Time," and the girls slow it down here. It starts with piano and vocals and gradually builds to something a little more complex. It's a silky ballad and I love the way the vocals are layered, and this is what I mean when I talk about a ballad being done right. There are (forgive the pun) time changes, whispered vocals, and a pounding beat behind it. The lyrics are about love and loss.



"Tears Falling" is a great end to a good album :) It has almost an epic feeling to it from the belted lyrics to the sick raps. It just pops, and I can well imagine it ending up on a soundtrack somewhere. It's a powerful track with rock sensibilities.

A solid album all the way around. At times head-bobbing, at other times soothing, this album is surprisingly devoid of filler. Let's see: No throwaway songs? Check. No instrumentals? Check. No Remixes? Check. A good use of the mini-album format.  AOA has shown that they have a good range from pretty ballads to fantastic dance grooves and light, fluffy pop. Like their last album, 'Short Hair,' they did a top-notch job here and deserve lots of love. AOA fighting!

MV REVIEW

While I feared this was just another video to show off their obvious charms, AOA continues to buck this trend. Slightly. While they are all scantily clad, this time they hew closer to their angel concept -- as Charlie's Angels, that is.

They're apparently super thieves with sort of a she-spy thing going on. In between are the rather simplistic dance moves and the show-everything costumes that we've become accustomed to in a K-pop MV.



It works fairly well, though I could have used more to prove their prowess.  For example, when one of them dodges the laser beams (Seolhyun), they use camera tricks to show this rather than any actual agility on the part of the gal.

They're tracking their progress on a smartphone, I think. This was the confusing part as it looks like nothing but a mobile game, and I got the sense that they were checking their phones for Facebook updates more than actually coordinating plans and positions.



That said, the video is never boring. I like the tats on the bad guy in the beginning (played by Daniel Snoeks from 'Abnormal Summit'), though I thought similar tats on his henchmen would have been cool -- like a secret society, a vampire enclave or something similar. Then again, it's easy to judge from a chair, and they didn't ask me ;)

All in all, not a bad MV. I thought the thief/spy angle was a unique one and while I would have preferred a more developed version of that scenario over the byuntae material, I'll take what I can get. 

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