13 songs later and I’m on the floor from the massive explosion I just experience through my headphones. It’s been quite a while since SM Entertainment‘s very own contemporary boy band hit the scene, but this week marks their official return and what do they do? SHINee delivers what will arguably be the number one idol boy band album of 2010.

SHINee have come a long way from their first full length album and honestly, they lost some of us along their journey as they began to experiment with various genres and musical styles.  And by us, I’m not actually including myself because I’ve enjoyed most of what they’ve put out. This time around, though, they’ll definitely win back long lost SHINee fans.  They’ve brought back their soulful vocals in ways that only SHINee can manage to pull off.

The thing with SHINee is that they have a very firm foundation.  They poses strong vocals, an avant-garde image and a relatively broad pop/R&B sound.  With those as their main ingredients, SHINee can basically whip up whatever the hell they want.  And that they have.

Listening back to ‘The SHINee World‘ and the just released ‘Lucifer‘, SHINee went from being tamed to unleashing their inner exotica with a much more complex production.  Lucifer is high-end in quality while profoundly erratic enough to really mess with your senses.

Take ‘Up & Down‘ for example. It’s the opening track and features a droopy hook amidst snappy effects and pandemonium. The song rolls from point A to point B nicely, but my favorite aspect of ‘Up & Down’ is the distorted finish. These kinds of elements were absent in SHINee’s past lives. Yeah, they’re definitely born-again diva, demon hybrids. My cup of tea, if you ask me.

Then you have the title track, ‘Lucifer‘. Oh, Lucifer. Listening to it I can hear the perfect amount of explosion it requires to be the very first single off this album.  I feel like these 5 space cadets really needed to out-do last year’s ‘Ring Ding Dong‘. That already was a wide stride from their previous Juliette single, and boy have they pushed it this time. Lucifer has just enough pop to score a slot on radios, but so much more detail that you really have to hear it on your headphones to pick up every speck of galactic-electro-pop-thrash-ery it possesses. The chorus is as sharp as the lively instrumentation and I can’t help but say that this song alone  pwns the competition.  However, it’s not without it’s downs. You, as was I, were probably distracted by all the noise to pay attention to how one-note this entire song is. I managed to catch it my second time listening to it and Lucifer is literally one-note (three, tops) replayed about a thousand times. Much of this album, unfortunately, falls victim to this pattern.  SM Entertainment was smart, though, by layering a fantastic production on top of the lame composition.  The final experience is what ultimately matters and I know I’m not alone when I say that there is a mouth full of awesome in this album.  I forgive you for the one note you’ve made the boys sing through this chorus, SM. Water under the bridge.

So much dust eating already, and it only gets better from here.

‘Electric Heart‘ reminds me of something Justin Timberlake would have spawned off of ‘FutureSex/LoveSounds‘. It plays with lovely melodies and loopy Western effects that work well with the manner in which the boys are whispering the song.  I like the idea of blending a guitar riff with electronic nuances. It’s like adding texture to a piece of work. We get to savor Jonghyun‘s beautiful falsetto, as well, which for me I could never get enough of.

One of my favorite songs, ‘A-Yo‘, features one of the nicest hooks I’ve heard in a while. I probably adore it because it sounds like one of those cemented Christmas melodies (Joy To The World, possibly?)  no one dares to touch because, well, they’ll start sounding like Christmas singers.  But the production really pulled this song together – I enjoy how bass-heavy this sounds. It’s full and so not ‘minimalistic’ how I had feared SHINee would go this year. And Speaking of production, the one for ‘Obsession‘ is just as beautiful.

‘Obsession‘ has a haunting instrumentation I find rather pretty, if that makes sense. One very small detail that amuses me is how they place Taemin‘s lines right before Jonghyun. The way in which they transition from one another is interesting because Taemin’s chest voice is like right where Jonghyun (who contributed so much vocal awesomeness this time) takes off into his head voice. Odd, yet amusing.  Anyway, the middle 8 is killer. One thing I noticed is the fact that they’ve added so many freaking layers not only to this song, but the album as a whole.

SHINee have harnessed a more sophisticated approach to their music. A nice example is ‘Quasimodo‘. Please ignore the obscure song title, for I’m not quite certain of it myself.

I’m very particular about my slow rollers (as I like to call them) and ‘Quasimodo’ luckily gathered everything I enjoy to hear and guides the audience through a lovely experience. I keep an ear out for a distinct direction. All songs should ultimately end up somewhere, so what sucks more than a song without a sense of direction is a ballad with such a vice.

The harmonies sound absolutely beautiful. SHINee have grown and learned to really work off of each other’s voices. Key sounds extra gorgeous in this song, by the way. His particular tone suits both the atmosphere and the sense of a broad space that’s been crafted in ‘Quasimodo‘.  Oh dear lord, I could go on forever about this song. I’ll just finish this segment by mentioning how much I adored the way the song trails off at the end.

On the contrary, ‘Shout Out‘ is a complete awakening from ‘Quasimodo‘. It’s the obligatory rap song for Minho and Key. I was expecting it, and here it is. To my surprise, it features all of the members. And when they appear in full bloom near the middle 8 is where I really start feeling this song. After a few listens, ‘Shout Out‘ has grown on me. I appreciate (yeah, this is about to sound completely masochistic) their ruthless behavior in ‘Shout Out‘. I honestly enjoy being told off in a song. I mean, bring it! Key has a certified Diva attitude in his voice and you can actually hear it through this song. As for Minho, he’s more like a bad-boy in the making. He’s not as believably cruel as Key. If I were to fist fight either of them, Key would probably throw the first and final blow. By the way, I don’t know how they went from monkeys to dogs and thunderstorms.

The following song reminds me entirely of SHINee’s beginnings. Except with a 2010 treatment, i.e. auto-tune. ‘WOWOWOW‘ expresses yet another side of SHINee’s musical range. It’s cute, pop and overflowing with charm. Nothing more, nothing less. ‘Your Name‘ continues the nostalgia with old school beats and the kind of delicate melodies I would’ve heard on SHINee’s first full album.  Except the production is much more diverse and the instrumentation a lot more layered. It almost possesses a life of its own. You could probably use the elegant instrumental for a Maple Story-esque MMORPG or something.

Also, I think we all love the lingering ‘la la lahh lahh lahhh’-s, right? (I say that like you’re listening to the song right now, which I insist you do for review purposes.)  The harmonizing is soulful and it just reminds me of this overly beautiful moment I recently experience with Code V (link).  Aside from my Jonghyun & Key bias, Onew proves that while he may not belt the hell out of his voice, he sure has enough weight in his singing to carry the whole group if he had to.

‘Life‘ specifically shifts the spot light to SHINee’s true talent, which of course is their vocal competency.  The pace and the structure of this song is very reminiscent of an early 2000s pop ballad format. S Club 7 could have totally used this, being a mixed gender group, and pulled it off. I would love to hear a group of females sing this song, to be honest.  Not to say that SHINee didn’t work it. They did. There’s something rather special about Onew‘s singing that really moves me and you hear it in ‘Life‘.  Jonghyun on the other hand has the kind of voice you’d hear in the Mexican music industry.  Now how would I know that? Well because 1.) I admire the quality in Mexican baladas – they’re what I base most of my critiques on when it comes to slower tempo songs, and 2.) uh, I’m Mexican.

Jonghyun has that sensual twang in his voice that reminds me of big Mexican vocalists, such as the beloved Luis Miguel.  I highly recommend you click on this link to understand what I’m talking about. And if Jonghyun’s cover of ‘Y Si Fuera Ella‘ by Alejandro Sanz (Spanish) is not enough evidence, I don’t know what is.

Anyway, the song is just a classic.

Of all the uptempo songs on Lucifer, ‘Ready or Not’ is my favorite. Its erratic verses and shifting rhythms drive me crazy! The processing isn’t too over done, but it works well with the buzzing in the background. It’s a quirky song I can see myself replaying just to get me moving. Oh wait.  Been there, done that!

‘Love Pain‘ was the first song that just flashed and disappeared before my eyes – er- I mean ears. It has a really nice shift in pace around the middle 8, but other than that I snoozed a tad while listening to it.  Sorry!  But at least SHINee finish it off on a higher note with ‘Life Still Goes On‘.  It isn’t as explosive of an uptempo song as, say, ‘Lucifer‘ or ‘Ready or Not‘ but it features a killer rap section courtesy of Key/Minho which features just how speedy they can get with their syllables.  Rather than it being a typical song with random rap blindly tossed in for added effect, ‘Life Still Goes On‘ focuses more on the rap than the singing, which only embellishes the rap with harmonies and a pretty catchy chorus. The more I listen to this song, the more it’s growing on me.

The album as a whole, though, needs no time to rub itself on me because I’ve done the job for it.  I adore where SHINee ended up this year. Not too drastic, but enough eccentricity to last me til the end of this year. I’m sure they’ll use some of these songs for the fall (I betcha they’ll perform A-Yo after Summer’s officially over) and kill it on stage.  They always have, and I am starting to believe that they always will.