HA:TFELT – '1719'

Track List:

1. Life Sucks

2. Piercing (Feat. THAMA)

3. I Wander (Feat. Gaeko)

4. Pluhmm

5. Read Me (Guitar Ver.) Of her 2017 single

6. Cigar

7. Make Love

8. Satellite (Feat. ASH ISLAND) *Title

9. Sweet Sensation (Feat. SOLE)

10. Solitude

11. 3mins (Feat. Choiza)

12. Bluebird

13. Sky Gray

14. How to love

HA:TFELT has just dropped her newest full album, '1719.' It contains a whopping 14 tracks, including the title track "satellite." In case you didn't know, HA:TFELT is the nom de guerre of Yeeun of Wonder Girls fame.

The album is interesting. Far from being the standard collection of cross-genre songs or even traditional K-pop, this album is full of mostly slow, languorous tunes. There are some that are almost outright ballads, and others that are stripped down songs, with only an acoustic guitar as the instrumentation. I read a book while listening to it, and it didn't disturb me at all. It would probably make for good study music.

One interesting fact about this album is it contains both members of the hip-hop outfit Dynamic Duo. Yet each of them has a song separate from each other.

There are no real bangers on this album. The tracks don't really stand out, probably because they're mostly all done in the same style. None of them vary from the formula established on this LP that much. I can't deny that HA:TFELT has a pretty voice and a good range. But she doesn't stretch herself much on this release. At least, not physically.

One good thing about this LP is that it does not contain the standard selection of love songs. Sure, they have to have a couple of songs like that. But mostly they're reflective of the different aspects of life. And she does that well, starting with "Life Sucks," singing about that very condition, or musing about being alone on "Solitude." One of the things I really like is her ability to switch between English and Korean at the drop of a hat. And that kind of thing is all over this album.

If you're looking for something a little different with a chill vibe, this is your album.

MV REVIEW

Like the album, she has released a dizzying array of music videos. To do them proper justice in reviews would end up in a huge TLDR. To avoid that, I'll do the same as I did with the LP -- you'll get my general impressions of each one I'm aware of.

"Life Sucks" is, simply put, psycho. That's because the character she plays is. She starts the video drenched in blood and cradles a knife throughout the MV. I'm not sure what we're supposed to feel, the video did a good job of making me uncomfortable.

"I Wander" is better than I thought it was going to turn out. The first part chronicles an old, homeless man, grabbing what food and drink he can as he trips from place to place. HA:TFELT follows him when she sees him go by and... It leads to an unexpected ending.

"Solitude" sees HA:TFELT all dressed up with nowhere to go. She's in this lovely green number, which makes me ask the question, "why is she alone?" She makes the most of her alone time as she slinks through this video, and near the end, we find out where she is -- I'll leave that to the viewers to figure out.

The liveliest song of the album is also the liveliest MV. In "Sweet Sensation," she's in a messy apartment and is cleaning up the place. Sometimes she's really cleaning, other times she's pretending her feather duster is a microphone (don't laugh -- we've all been there). And sometimes she's at the club. Is this a reward for a hard day's work, or just a fantasy to make cleaning easier? I'll leave it up to you to decide.

In this music video, HA:TFELT divides her time between pretending to be an astronaut and hanging out among hanging lights. Might those be stars? They don't answer that question, but it is cute to see her playing with a little robot. This is also one of my favorite songs on the album. She has a lovely voice.

Score

MV Relevance...........8

MV Production..........8

MV Concept..............8

MV SCORE: 8.0

Album Production.....8

Album Concept.........8

Tracklisting...............8

ALBUM SCORE: 8.0

OVERALL................8.0