U-Kiss Only You Review

At the end of 2013, U-Kiss announced a unique partnership with the clothing company, DressCode, to release their latest mini album, “Only You”. This album is unique in that there is no physical album, and it does not qualify as a digital single either, since it cannot be found on any of the regular Korean music streaming sites. Instead, the music was accessed through QR codes and touch codes embedded into teeshirts and sweaters sold online and in a store in Seoul. The clothing line released six different member teeshirts, one for each member, along with a shirt with the album art, and a hoodie as well.

This is not the first time this technology has been used in Korean music. 2PM released a clothing line that offered remixes of their music and solo pieces by the members earlier in the year. However, this technology is still very new, and so U-Kiss are well on the forefront of what could become a popular new way of sharing music with fans without going through the media and promotion circus.

To be able to access the music, you do need to have a device that can use the Google Play store or iTunes Store. This means you will need an Android device, or an iPod, iPhone, or an iPad. When you receive the clothing, you will find the code on the inside of the shirt, and you scan that to get a link to the application. Or, you can search “U-Kiss Only One” and be able to download the app. You won’t be able to access the content without scanning the code once in the application though.

The application itself is much more than just the four tracks on the album. There are some really adorable photos available, an MV for “Only You”, a making of video, three recipe videos where the boys teach you recipes, and then the wonderfully hilarious “Star Photo” section, where you can add in skins to each photo so it looks like you’re taking photos with each of the members of U-Kiss.

Since many of the international fans are still waiting to receive their barcodes, I was asked to give a review of the tracks. There are leaks of the songs on Youtube, however… The biggest appeal of this application was that pirating the music was much more difficult and was supposed to encourage fans to support their idols and let them enjoy the anticipation of getting an album. Me personally, I had to wait about two weeks to get an application to finally hear the music, since I’m an iPhone user. And I didn’t even think to look up the tracks. So… I think you all can be patient too. 🙂

내숭떨지마 (Don’t Act Innocent)

For anyone who was a fan of 불꺼, you will enjoy 내숭떨지마. With the same sexy confidence and smoothness that was on the promoted album, “Don’t Act Innocent” has just enough English in it for even the most Korean illiterate fan to get the general idea of what this song is about.

“It’s feeling hot in here, getting hot in here” “S.t.o.p. being so coy hey you just let it go” “Hey stop, don’t be shy come here my babe”

Getting a full translation of the lyrics will take me time simply because I can’t copy the text out from the app easily, and I’m not good enough to give translations from ear. However, English speakers will probably have the same moment of “He’s not going to… Oh thank god…” during the first line of Eli’s rap in the first verse when you realize he has to rhyme Venus with something… And sadly, they don’t use the word I was hoping they’d use.

There is a really great energy to this song, from the guitar at the beginning, right to the very end. It’s really easy to imagine a music video for this song where the members of U-Kiss are driving around in the summer down some bright lights city like Las Vegas, just being awesome and acting their age (Think Big Bang’s “Tonight” meets 2PM’s “Hands Up”)

Only You

The title track! I love this track, a lot. While I know that U-Kiss has been going more towards their more adult, manly concepts over the past few years, I genuinely believe that a promotion with a song and video like “Only You” would not hurt their image at all. I think all U-Kiss fans accept that we’re probably not going to be stealing buckets of new fans with every promotion, what with all these new groups coming out that all sound the same and all come out with their annoying manly concepts. What Kiss Mes want is just a nice solid mix of what we know are the members personalities now. And we know that the members of U-Kiss are far sweeter than their songs imply. This song really shows those sweet sides much better.

That being said, this song sounds a bit more like a Japanese single, simply because the Korean singles never get to show those sides. It’s a lot harder to compare this track to others, because “Only You” has a nice, original sound to it, but if I were to compare it to previous work, it would be most like “Beautiful” and a little bit like “One of You”, which are two of my most favourite Japanese releases.

The video for this song is perfect in capturing U-Kiss in a way that I feel shows U-Kiss as they actually are. They are a very sweet group of guys who are very caring and very friendly, and after seeing the video they made, I can’t think of any other way I’d want to see it done. I’ll talk more about the video after.

One Love

I really love this song, and I feel like a lot of people might overlook it, but there are some really small things in it that make it feel really special to me.

Now, we know that AJ wrote and produced all of the tracks, however, this is the one song where I can HEAR that he did it, because it sounds a LOT like another song he wrote which was much more public. AJ was involved in the writing for the Japanese single “Fall In Love”, and this song sounds like it might have been written during the same song writing session or during the same period, because there are some very similar music styles used between the two songs. The thing that really seemed to grab me in “Fall In Love” was the half step chord progressions. Both songs used the same technique of going up just a half step with some chord progressions, which actually creates a feeling of tension for the listener, because it does not sound complete to us. During these notes, even if you don’t understand the words, you’ll probably find yourself listening and feeling like you’re getting those feelings of being in love. That’s because the music is actually making your body feel like that.

“One Love” is a gorgeous song, and I hope that all of you make sure you sit down and listen to this one with your eyes closed and listen to it properly. It’s a really well done song.

Nobody

It’s not a U-Kiss album unless Eli is awkwardly talking at the beginning of at least one of the songs. However, at the beginning of “Nobody”, Eli’s little dialogue is natural sounding, and is quite sweet sounding. The opening of “Nobody” sounds a LOT like really really old Infinite. Like… It’s almost identical to the opening of “Nothing’s Over”. But, I’m okay with this because that is the ONLY good song that Infinite have released. (Inspirits, deal with it. :DDD)

I do quite like “Nobody”, but I find that out of the four, it’s the one I have the least attachment to. It’s really cute, and really uptempo, and the lyrics are really nice. It’s definitely a good song. But perhaps because the other three songs were so unique sounding, and had such a distinct U-Kiss sound, this one didn’t jump to me because it could be performed by almost any boy group and it would sound good. The other songs… They’re U-Kiss style.

The “Only You” video

This. Video. Is. Perfect. It seems to capture U-Kiss so perfectly, the fact this video WASN’T promoted actually pisses me off. Don’t get me wrong, I loved “She’s Mine” A LOT. But, to me, this video is the type of video that needs to be broadcast from the rooftops. I want this to be on Youtube so I can show it to everyone and brag about how perfect my favourite group are.

So, the video opens with the sun streaming through the lights and windows of Kiseop’s bedroom window as he struggles to wake up. His adorable alarm clock goes off, and he wakes up slowly. Next one up is Hoon, managing to be the only person ever to look amazingly good while brushing their teeth. How one can look so charismatic while removing plaque is a modern mystery. But he sings into his toothbrush microphone, and then slides back into focus to give himself one last check in the mirror. Meanwhile, AJ has been up long enough to actually be dressed, drinking a coffee, reading the newspaper. But apparently, he took too long reading the paper, checks the time and realizes he’s late. In adorable, over-acted fashion, he scratches the back of his head and goes to run off, but runs back to steal a muffin.

AJ raps for a bit while we see Soohyun heading into a bakery. He finds a cake that seems to be perfect and picks it out. Then it cuts to Eli, who has a big gorgeous bouquet of flowers. (Lets all pause for a moment to reflect on the fact that this is the first video where they’re actually showing that Eli IS the member the guys consider the one to get married and have kids first. Most videos, he just plays the rapper, but in this, he looks insanely romantic and it’s so sweet it’s painful.) Kiseop is next, coming out of some store with a BIG pile of boxes. After that, Kevin seems to be the one driving the car that is going to help them pick up some serious chicks: an old, beat up Volkswagen van. Obviously, the boys are preparing for a date, because the boys are then helping each other pick out clothes.

As the boys play about and talk, they then turn to the camera and, surprise, the “only you” is the fans! Date with the fans. All aboard the Volkswagen, let’s get out of Seoul and into the woods and all that other good stuff.

So the guys arrive in the middle of where ever they drove to, and set up a cute little picnic complete with pillows and a wagon so the children (Hoon and Kiseop) can play. Soohyun brings out his cake and it turns out that it says “Only You” on it, and all the guys pose around it and that’s the end!

The driving scenes are filmed with all the best Instagram filters. I wish I could get these kinds of effects on my videos. They look really retro and old-fashioned, but the colours and styles are gorgeous. While the video is quite simple, it’s very well done, production value wise. As a U-Kiss fan, I’ve wanted a video like this for a long, long time. Back on the “Collage”” album, there was a track where this kind of video would have worked well, which was “사랑하니까”. I wanted it so bad, I was willing to make a fan video for it, that’s how badly I wanted it. Sadly, time and man power was not on my side. However, the video for “Only One” has somewhat sated my need for this style of video.

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Overall, I’m going to say that this is some of AJ’s best work, and some of U-Kiss’ best work with videos. The sound that they have in this album is what I would like to hear more of in future albums in both Japanese and Korean (and maybe English? Come on Jaeseop, I know you want to…) and I think that at this point, it would be wiser for U-Kiss to both dabble in other styles, but also really get their own identity sealed in. U-Kiss have been known as a group that can evolve and change with the times, but this also means that they haven’t actually had a sound that is purely theirs. If someone were to tell me that U-Kiss were going to release more music that sounded like this album, I would be a VERY happy Kiss Me.

Excellent work, Jaeseop and the rest of U-Kiss!