written by: McRoth
If anything’s going to alleviate the pains we’ve suffered from SM Entertainment‘s stupid ass marketing stunts, and also save poor EXO from an impending doom, it’ll have to be their music. Fortunately for all parties, these twinks are fucking serving it with this one.
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“History“, EXO’s second pre-debut release, has a fresh contemporary style that is reminiscent of SHINee‘s music circa 2009, which by my standards is a style that’ll never get old. In retrospect, 2009 was solid gold for SM (and K-pop), and I’m thrilled as fuck to hear them caring about the quality of their music again and bringing back some of those classic elements that made their past records a success.
The production value in “History” is top notch, with tight vocal layering, crisp drops, and vibrant nuances. It’s legit shit, and I’m astounded by the amount of effort SM Entertainment has invested in these kids, at least compared to the rest of SM’s idol groups. I mean, they sure as hell didn’t treat the almighty Super Juniorwith this degree of quality in their 2011 album.
EXO sounds fantastic on this song, and that goes for both EXO K and EXO M. EXO K is definitely the more aggressive unit, which doesn’t come as a surprise given the fact that both of their markets are tonally very different. EXO M gives “History” a softer delivery, which floats closer to what the Chinese audience is used to. The only dull point about EXO M is how crappy their Mandarin sounds. It’s fucking terrible, and I don’t even understand that shit.
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“History” EXO K
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“History” EXO M
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Overall, “History” is a tight song with a lot of great elements working in its favor. If it weren’t for SM’s irritating marketing strategy, I’d probably be a lot more excited for EXO. At this point though, I just want this entire promotion period to be over.
via Asian Junkie
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I’m slowly falling for EXO (mostly EXO-K). I just need more songs and some live performances to confirm it.
If only SM put this much effort into their other groups, people would take them more seriously.
SM put so much efforts into them because they’re new and they need to impress the public. When they hit it big and start selling, they will be treat like the other groups.
SHINee‘s music circa 2009…ring ding dong? it sure is timeless
because of the truckloads of teasers … im really not excited about this group..lost my interest… but their music really is their saving grace (and the dance moves– as expected from SM)