[MV & Album Review] BTOB � 'Brother Act / Missing You'

AKP STAFF

BTOB � BROTHER ACT

Track List:

1. Prelude: A Day
2. Missing You
3. My Lady
4. Red Lie
5. Blowin' Up
6. Interlude: Brother Act.
7. NANANA
8. Dreaming
9. Guitar (Stroke of Love)
10. Running Into Breakup
11. Fly Away
12. Finale: Our Concert

BTOB is back with their new album 'Brother Act!' You probably need no reminder, as their title track is hot hot hot right now. But the boys are Born to Beat with 12 all-new tracks on their 2nd full album. Not an instrumental in the bunch, either.

The album starts off with "Prelude:�A Day," a quiet, calming piano piece. It's pretty, but -- like most intros -- very short. The title track "Missing You" is a ballad written by Hyunsik. It's a gentle piece, but it has sort of this military march beat to it that lends it some suspense during the main verses. A genius move. There are several nice flourishes in the chorus, from a sharp belt to falsetto that lend it some emotional weight.

�"My Lady" is a soft pop tune with some uplifting vocals in the chorus. "Red Lie" is kind of a quieter pop tune, and really the most upbeat song so far. I like this one a lot, and wonder why they didn't promote this song as it's quite spectacular. The party tune "Blowin' Up" is way more my style and speed, with badass raps, repetitive hooks ("welcome to my party"), and noisy synths. "Interlude: Brother Act" is a recording of the boys chattering about their album.

"NANANA" is a primarily acoustic guitar-driven song. In some ways, it reminds me of a DAY6 tune. It's alright, but didn't really grab me as much I was hoping. The next tune, "Dreaming," is a ballad (as you might expect from the title). There's some sick rapping in here to keep your interest, as well as some emotional vocal work. "Guitar (Stroke of Love)" starts out as a simple, upbeat guitar ditty. But it doesn't take too long before they break out the raps and the bold vocals and it turns into a full-blown club-banger. This song really pops.�

"Running Into Breakup" is yet another ballad, this one billowy and emotional. I'm not really a ballad fan, so it's another meh tune to me. "Fly Away" is an epic-sounding tune, and the great thing is it has plenty of rapping. Nothing wrong with this tune. The last song, "Finale: Our Concert," is a super-strong finisher, anthemic and epic in places, and just bold and brassy. Just the way I need a song to be.

Regardless of my opinion of what they should have promoted with, "Missing You" is slaying the charts right now, having topped at least five at the time of this writing. So, there you go. For BTOB fans, this is welcome news. Also welcome is the fact that you have 12 new tracks from these guys, so you can listen to the lit harmonies. There's really nothing wrong with this one, so you lose nothing picking it up, either. When they do well, they slay.

MV REVIEW

The boys of BTOB are longing for their girl in their newest MV.

And that's exactly what they do as they try and go about their day. Ilhoon seems to have it bad as he abandons his car on a bridge and collapses against the guardrail in a fetal position, crying. A teary Changsub smashes a bottle against the wall. And so on. They all do a great job of looking miserable.

I'm not sure they spent that much money filming this. True, they got off the sound-stage and actually put some cash into location scouting, I'll have to give them points for that. But for all that the locations actually seemed familiar, and not too far off the beaten path.

But the point was not to have sweeping, majestic shots of interesting places, the point was to showcase the boys of BTOB looking heartbroken, and they capitalize on that emotion quite well. Things like breaking a bottle and sitting on a bridge become all the more meaningful with slo-mo and the members contorting their faces into masks of pain.

At several points in the narrative, the boys are walking across a field together. And it seems to give a final link to the narrative, something that says "together, we are strong." And so there was a glimmer of hope in the MV. And I have to say they did a good job with the storyline.� Not bad at all.