MONSTA X - TRESPASS
Track List:
1. Trespass
2. No Exit
3. One Love
4. Honestly (Ft. Dasom of SISTAR)
5. Steal Your Heart
6. Blue Moon
7. Interstellar (Feat. Yella Diamond) (Performed by Juheon, Hyeongwon, I.M)
Starship's second male idol group, Monsta X, has just debuted, and dropped their first ever mini-album. Jooheon produced and composed several songs, including "One Love," "Steal Your Heart," and "Blue Moon." He and I.M also wrote lyrics on many of the songs on this disc.
The album starts off with the powerful Mad Clown-penned "Trespass." While the lyrics are basically "We bad," the song itself is a delightful combination of soundscapes and strong rap sequences. On Dolby 5.1, this track pops and had me alternately looking around and turning down the song to find out what the extra sounds were. There's insistent sounds in there that provide extra support to the song, sounding fully external and 3-D. It's deliberate, and gives this track extra oomph. Not like it needs it.
One of their own songs, "No Exit." A lot more positive than the Camus-provided title might suggest, the boys are telling us to party all night and never leave -- no exit. :)
"One Love" shows how musically agile the boys are by switching gears into ballad mode. The raps are slowed down, and the flow changed to a more reflective tone with occasional angry bursts. I didn't think it would work, but they manage to hold their own. Shownu, Minhyuk, and Kihyun are the main singers, providing tender croons to counterbalance the rapping. And some of those singers hit the high notes rather well, some even crossing over into a falsetto that never annoys (and it is difficult to not annoy me with it).
"Honestly" was a strange track, not sure how I feel about it. It's got a standard acoustic piano accompanying the raps. It sounded just odd, besides being a bit bland once the actual singing begins. It's sort of a ballad, and it just felt out of place. Dasom has an amusing part on here where she provides the voice of his girlfriend at the end, but is largely absent from the rest of the song.
The boys turn it back up on "Steal Your Heart." It follows the basic pattern of the bulk of the album, which is a good thing after the oddness of "Honestly."
Far from being the doo-wop hit, the mid-tempo "Blue Moon" manages to distinguish itself by liberally sprinkled English among the raps. One of the hooks, unfortunately, buries itself in mediocrity with a simple "lalalalala," and the transition is somewhat jarring. Fortunately, the other one, "Don't wanna say goodbye," helps smooth the track out considerably.
Rather than returning to earth, the boys go "Interstellar" for their final track. Characterized by sassy horns, the song is a unique blend of smooth and brash. It's perfect for ending the album, and it's hard not to sing the hook: "Let's Ride!"
The singers deliver here, and the raps come fast and furious. The harmonies are rather unique, though, a bit higher-pitched than what I usually hear. It's never subtle, being largely a high-energy production, but subtlety is not the point. It's a slick, smooth collection with sick raps and honeyed vocals. If Starship promotes these guys right, they could go far.
MV REVIEW
The MV tries to take grim and colorful and stack them next to each other with mixed results. The prison concept isn't a popular one, maybe N.O.M.'s "Nature of Man" or "Monster" by Big Bang, but those aren't quite it, either. Teen Top's "Miss Right?" Rather than dropping the hints that these boys are trouble (like BTS), they cut right to the chase and have the cops take them down and stick 'em in the pokey.
And that's just the start. Variously in their cells and out, they dance, jump, posture, and b-boy. They try hard to emulate the thug culture that has pervaded western rap and hip hop, conveniently ignoring the fact that Seoul doesn't really have a hood.
They do a good job of appearing bad-@$$. That would be a good image to promote, IMHO, as there are still many, many flower boy bands. Adopting a more beast-dol image, a la 2PM, would be a good road to go down, especially if you can make it more original.
I liked it. They danced well, the costumes weren't too wretched and sometimes actually looked cool (anyone who knows me knows I'm highly critical of flower-print and polka dot threads on guys. It just looks weird). Here's a hint though: stick with black and lose the shiny pants. :)
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