Help me welcome McRoth’s Residence’s newest contributing writer, NaRae, to the Team! She’ll be here to review and fangirl her little tush off to the latest in KPOP right next to me from here on out. Show her some love and read her very first review of B.A.P and their debut single, “Warrior”, below!
I’m just going to say it straight-out that B.A.P is already on my bias list cause I am definitely digging the blonde one. It kinda irked me to pair their faces with their names since their hair did no justice. My word of advice for future rookie groups—don’t go full out blonde on me, we’ve already seen B.A.P being Blonde And Proud, so I would really appreciate seeing other colors in the spectrum.
We are not new to the Kpop scene throwing us some seemingly sensible engrish group names. Needless to say, I will forever bawl over the ultimate grammatical fail that’s called 4minute, and dear SHINee with viral “fantastic elastic, loverholic robotronic.”
“SHINee” is a coined term that added the suffix “-ee” to the word “shine”, to be interpreted as “the one who is in light” (courtesy of Wikipedia)
But seriously B.A.P—Best. Absolute. Perfect—tops it all.
Here’s an honorable mention to their ridiculous out-of-this-world (literally!) concept. They are supposed to be agents from planet B1A4AP224 trying to conquer earth. So debuting as idols is really a scheme to gather screams of fangirl/boys as energy source. I’m just gonna stop here cause i can’t even… although I’m confused if they are supposed to be bunny warriors since each member is represented by a bunny.
Aside from the somewhat irrelevant noises they are making with their name and concept, these boys themselves are definitely worth the hype. I will bask in the epicness of “Warrior” while pretending “Never Give Up” with Bang Yong Guk and his robot, Zelo, had never ever existed.
Going back to “Warrior“, there’s a lot going on in the instrumental. It does take awhile to get used to, but it’s not completely off the tangent. You have some heavy bass mix in the background as the foundation of the song, mixing in some clapping and whistling here and there, and of course who can ignore Bang Yong Guk’s sexy growling/groaning. The result is a hot mess that actually flows.
Usually, whenever I listen to a song, I put my attention to the chorus since the main melody is established here. Not for “Warrior” though. The intro is pure genius. You have DaeHyun smoothly Oh~No~WoahWoah~ ing to his heart’s content with only a simple heavy bass rhythm in the backdrop. And then it explodes into a badass Bang Yong Guk rap amidst that one soft growl (which obviously does not come from Bang Yong Guk. Trust me, I know.)
Another element, which I love, is the blend of singing and somewhat of a rap-singing within each verse. It gives contrast to those few bars without losing the momentum of the song. Okay, and need I mention Zelo’s speed rap as middle 8? I know we’ve been exposed to those oddly inserted raps (that desperately try to serve as a bridge) near the end of the song all too often. So thank you Zelo for doing it right.
After all the aggressive groaning, at last, we have the bridge to tone down the song. I adore the string orchestra that dominates this part. Perfect contrast to the heavy bass we’ve been listening to. And DaeHyun’s passionate neoneoneoneoneoneo neoneo neon~ leads us to the most stunning part of the song— the last chorus with the addition of strings. You can tell how much the strings play up the song if you compare the last chorus to the ones before. If you’ve watched the MV (just imagine their blonde hair blowing in the wind. Newspaper in your face. And Bang Yong Guk in flames) this part is E-P-I-C.
Sexy groaning isn’t your thing? Well, I’m sure those “Get down Get down GetGetGetGet Get down” and “digidigideom digidigideom” in the chorus will have your head wrapped around the song. I don’t know if B.A.P will ditch the Blonde Asian People image in future comebacks but I know these bunny warriors are here to conquer Earth stay.
Also, one thing for sure is that B.A.P has set the bar unexpectedly high for other rookie groups — we still have 11 months to endure the swamp of rookie debuts. Just watch B.A.P’s powerful live performance: (I must praise Inkigayo for the camera work minus the shaking)
Now I’m gonna sit back and wait for EXO’s debut…that is if I still have the patience to watch another 1397973450 teasers of Taemin Version 2.0 and his sidekicks. Anyway, I’m sticking with my new bias for now, cause Bunnies Are Perfect, indeed.
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“I’ve been around the Kpop scene for about 5 years. Among the many genres I listen to, I especially appreciate the simplicity as well as the intricacy Kpop music delivers, and obviously those fresh, eccentric concepts it brings. So that’s why I begin writing reviews to share a piece of my mind on the current trend.
McRoth's Residence is a fun blog with quick access to everything McRoth and his friends enjoy. From their fascination for Korean media to their full-fledged reviews on the latest Korean pop music - they'll make sure the hospitality is badass and the content awesome. So, kick back, take a sip of your tea and enjoy your stay.
LOL! NaRae, you’re hilarious. I’ve been laughing since I read the title of this post. Welcome to the neighbourhood! The instrumental of “Warrior” is definitely well done – glad you mentioned it. I knew there was another reason for my playing this song on repeat apart from the catchy “get get get get get down” bit.
thanks for the warm welcome :) yah I’ve this song on repeat too, it is catchy minus the annoyingness (maybe I’m just too biased, lol)
This review is interestingly written hehe:) hmm I’ll appreciate it more if u could write about the other tracks in the album too!^^ but this is rly a job well done for ur review! It got me laughing so much ESP the BAP and Bunnies part hehe ^^ and the parts about ‘Warrior’s music make-up was also professionally written!:)
aw, thank you <3 yah I'll definitely improve in my next review, bringing more inputs for other songs as well. I do enjoy other tracks in the album a lot :)
Welcome to the team! It’s good to see another person here that doesn’t just trash on everyone and everything (like me).
Thanks :) I’ve just read your posts, keep on trolling like mad. they are fantastic.
Welcome to The Residence, Narae! Love your hilarious take on BAP. Hope to read more ^^!
I swear BAP’s rabbit dj reminds me of the deadmau5 costume. Loved reading this op-ed.
i like this review. haha. i previously thought b.a.p stood for “bang yong guk and peers” but seeing the others also not bad, i think i’m going to put them in my watch list. i put infinite in my watch list when they first debuted, but i never thought they managed to grow until this point now. who knows what b.a.p will bring next time. xD