miss A - 'COLORS'

Track List:

1. One Step
2. Only You
3. Love Song
4. Melting
5. I Caught Ya
6. Stuck

It's been over a year since 'Hush' was released and now, the girls of miss A are involved in a serious comeback. They've started a reality TV series, there's now an official fan cafe, and they've dropped their 3rd mini-album, 'Colors.' It's clearly an exciting time to be a fan!

The disc starts with "One Step," a sensual tune with a steady beat. It's also a bit naughty. The girls are saying they want more than just a one-night stand. At first I was puzzled why you would want to open with this, a funky jazz-inspired piece, and not something more exciting and immediate. But after I listened to the whole thing, I realized that it sets the tone for the whole album. It's a sleek, pretty song.



"Only You" is a great song to do promotions with. It has an exuberant, danceable beat, and has sweet repetitive hooks like "no other guy but you." Soulful vocals that blend into beautiful choruses, a unique opening with squelching synths and impertinent horns, what's not to love about this?

"Love Song" appears to be their foray into trap, if the press around this album can be believed. The break is a minimalist synth violin played to the same melody, rather than the traditional bass tones of a dubstep break. It's an interesting experiment, and I think it works well, but...it didn't sound like trap to my ears. At least it's not some tacked-on dubstep, and it fits nicely with the rest of the song. Silky harmonies help round out the song. I don't have to spell out what the song's about, right?



A chanted intro starts the next track, "Melting." The chants pop up again mid-tune. It's smooth, but in a different way than "One Step." This song has all the elements mixed right, the nonsense "nanananas" and the frequent lyrics "like I'm melting, I feel so good" used as a hook. By the numbers or not, it's soothing and invigorating all at once.  

"I Caught Ya" is a rocker. While not a "pure" hard rock song, it still uses a fuzzy synth guitar and a fierce singer to make its point. The girls are angry that they've caught their man cheating. There's some tooting brass in the beginning that gives this a great, bubbly, non-serious feel. Regardless of the tone of the lyrics, I can well imagine them smiling while performing this.



"Stuck" is a mid-tempo song with piano and a hint of horns and snaps. There's a sort of throwback feel to this song, but I can't place it exactly. But it's defiant and swingy, the lyrics fairly detailed but never going further than a kiss. It suggests a Memphis Horns-jazz-blues fusion and is a nice finishing piece to the album. The only place where this song is "Stuck" is in my head.

I like this album, and I think it stands up easily next to their other releases, and even surpasses them at times.  It's never subtle, but I don't think that was the point. This EP really comes to life the moment you give it a spin and never lets you down from the beginning. Even more experimental tracks like "Love Song" didn't annoy me or feel uneven, and that is unusual in itself. It's more of a fall release than a spring one, and there are few surprises on here, but that doesn't detract from the feel or the quality.  This is a strong comeback. miss A fighting!

MV REVIEW

This MV appears to be the idealized fantasy of what a guy imagines it's like when girls are getting made up for a night on the town. Of course, no one imagines that they'd get together and start dancing during the chorus, either.

The scene progresses where, during the daytime, they're walking along the street, dressed exactly the same way you wouldn't be out in the public eye. And again, the girls gather together for the chorus/dancing.



The obligatory club scene is at the end, where all the crazy costuming is right at home and made for dancing. Cue the chorus again, cue the girls singing and dancing together.

What's interesting is all of this is not as overt as it could be, and it looks like a heckuva lot of fun. The come hither looks are absent, and there's more matter-of-fact and I'm-having-fun types of singing. It's reasonably classy and not trashy, despite the barely-there outfits. It's not classy in the same way, say, a dinner party might be, and their outfits are not glamorous in that way, and it's more dialed down than other MVs. There's no butt action, there's no stripping, but there's no real plot, either.



Overall, I feel more comfortable with the MV than the teaser photos. Those felt like someone stuck a nanny cam in their bedroom and started snapping away. Can you get much creepier than that?

Married to a great song, the MV is fun to watch. Like the album, there are no real surprises here. It's not high art, like Xia's "Flower," but it's not entirely a "look at me I'm sexy" video, either. The girls are not self-conscious in this MV, and there's no pointing out naughty body parts or any of that nonsense. It has more in common with T-ara's "Why Are You Being Like This?" and similar MVs. It's not a must-see, but it's not bad either. When I did this review, it had more than 2.7 million views. I enjoyed watching, and apparently I'm not alone. 

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