[MUSIC ALBUM REVIEW] 2NE1 - Crush (2014)

When YG Entertainment finally announced the release date of 2NE1 newest album on February 24t, 2014, many people got mixed responds about it. Some of them gave positive responds since 2NE1 is one of the leading K-Pop girl groups and it has been 3 years after this four-member girl group released their latest album. Meanwhile, the rest of them remained skeptical. In the past 2 years, 2NE1 releases have been quite disappointing, lacking, and not really able to reach the success of their previous releases. Beside that, the constant delay of their newest albums from YG Entertainment seemed to hype down people attention towards them. Plus, the fact that their new album release that is on the same day with Girls' Generation's also seemed like a suicidal mission plan from YG Entertainment (though at the end, both groups delayed their album).

Fortunately, CL, Bom, Dara, and Minzy do not disappoint this time. In fact, their newest album, Crush, becomes their best album based on my opinion. Want to know why? Here I present to you my track by track review on their latest album, Crush...............

The first track, Crush, reminds me a lot with 2NE1 previous hits such as I am the Best and Fire. It has similar electronic dance music along with a touch of Middle East. It also has similar sassy and confidence lyrics. With Crush, 2NE1 invites us to sing and party along with them, especially during the last part where the girls clap hands and say “Nolza Nolza”. By having all of these elements, 2NE1 seems trying to create another anthem just like both of their previous hits that being mentioned on the above. Unfortunately, in my opinion, they failed to do that.

The main reason why it failed is because everything about this song is perfectly executed from music, lyrics, and vocals. For other songs, this is a good thing, but not for this type of song. Since they try so hard to replicate the similar success, they lose the natural sassiness, playfulness, and swag, which is the important element for making the past hits become an anthem. Everything sounded too forced and it affected how the song flows seem to be lacking. It is a pity because we all know how 2NE1 swag, sassy, and confidence actually comes from themselves, they do not have to try to be that.

The second track, Come Back Home, is one of the title track on this album. When I first listen to this song, I immediately love it. It even becomes my favorite song throughout this album. For me, Come Back Home is definitely a title track material since it has catchy beat, great vocals, and addictive chorus.

With Come Back Home, 2NE1 once again plays with reggae genre while still includes their signature electronic music. This song opened with xylophone that sounded like a waiting tone on a phone. I really like the usage of xylophone here because beside its rare, it also matched the song lyrics, which is about a girl who waits for her boyfriend to comeback. Then, the drum kicks in along with the percussion and bass, which changes the song into more reggae vibe. CL starts starts the song and followed by Minzy. I honestly love the strong voices of these two girls since it matched the emotion and reggae vibe of this song. Dara gets in with her soft voice that also matched the sorrow and desperation feelings of this song. Bom leads the chorus with her powerful voice that once again, able to convey the pain and sadness emotions of this song. The chorus shifts into more pop/electronic vibe with synthesizer, piano, drum, and bass. I love the way they play the drum and bass in a fast way. It shows the urgency and desperation of the girl who wants her boyfriend back. For me, the beginning until the first chorus is the strongest point of this song; it is powerful, dynamic, and making me want to listen to the rest of the song.

Unfortunately, the rest of the song does not offer something new. There is not much different between all the verses and choruses from the beginning until the end. There is no rap part or other part that can distinct the song. Also, the electronic beat starting from 1:20 is another minus point of this song since it disrupts the song flow. It is a pity because Come Back Home is actually a really good song.

Come Back Home followed by another title track of this album, Gotta Be You. With this song, 2NE1 is back with their signature electronic dance track that suitable for club music. Gotta Be You overall is very catchy song. It makes you want to sing along with it whenever you listen to this song. Many people said that this song reminds them with 2NE1 past release, Go Away, but for me, there are some parts of this song that reminds me with Tonight from Big Bang such as during 3:05. I also think it is kind of ironic when people say this song is similar with Go Away because the lyrics are the opposite of Go Away. In this song, the girl cannot forget her boyfriend after breaking up with him and she wants to comeback with him although he already did many wrong things. Meanwhile in Go Away, the girl decides to leave her boyfriend for good because she cannot stand his bad behavior.

The minus point from Gotta Be You would be there are some parts that sound disjointed especially between the bridge to the chorus. But thankfully, there is certain melody that keeps repeated throughout the song in many various way. This melody helps in keeping the continuity throughout the song; it is like a reminder that this is actually still the same song. Also, the melody is very unique too. Because of this, the disjointed parts do not really bothering again.

After partying it up with Gotta Be You, we are now finally cooling down on the fourth track, If I Were You. Once again, 2NE1 shows how easy for them to basically eat up a ballad song. The girls' vocals are great in here, especially CL who has the best delivery among them on this song. I think the fact that she composes this song helps her a lot in conveying her emotions throughout the song. The music supports the girls' vocals to shine more while also gives the dramatic effects throughout the song. The verses only have simple music with the domination of piano and drum. But the chorus has being keep in dramatic with the usage of synthesizer and violin. Definitely one of my favorite track on this album.

The next track, Good to You, has similar slow vibe with If I Were You, the previous track. Good to You is heavily influenced R&B track that dominated by piano sound. This is the type of song that we often listen on lounge or cafe. It has a smooth, alluring, and chilling vibe. The unique thing about this song is that there is a percussion sound, which makes this song does not sound too slow. Good to You tells a story about a good girl who loves a bad boy, but a bad boy loves another girl who actually does not love her. Sounds complicated, but you know this often happens in real life, right? However, Good to You has a potential to make you bored since the song flows repeatedly again and again.

We pacing it up again on the sixth track, MTBD, which apparently is CL solo. I actually wish they give Minzy a solo song since CL already gets one last year and Bom on previous years. But, it is fine since MTBD does not disappoint. 

MTBD actually has a simple music with synthesizer domination. But this creates advantage for CL since it able to showcase her ability as a rapper. CL sounds comfortable on this song and because of this, it able to shows her natural charisma as a rapper. Unlike her previous solo, The Baddest Female, that has many layers of music, but sounds all over the place. Her previous solo also tries to make her as "cool and swag" as possible, but it comes out as too forced. 

Overall, MTBD is a catchy song. I wish CL going into MTBD type of songs for her solo work in the future instead of going into The Baddest Female direction. Seriously, stop making her the female version of G-Dragon, she has her own style of rap. And yes, stop trying to the baddest female of them all because we know you already the baddest female of them all without even trying ;)

The seventh track, Happy, shows another different side of 2NE1. Happy is a cheerful song that dominated by acoustic guitar, which portrayed the opposite image of fierce 2NE1. It is a layback type of song that will makes you want to lazy around or sing along while listening to it. Of course, listening to this song will gives you happy feeling.

However, the cheerful music does not being followed by the lyrics. The lyrics is actually very sad since it tells a story about a girl who is not happy after her break up. But, she knows if she continues in the relationship, her boyfriend is the one who does not happy. That is why they break up because for the girl, the boyfriend happiness is more important than her. Wow...Happy is the most ironic song throughout the album.

Through the eight track, Scream, we back with the usual signature style of 2NE1, which is electronic music. Scream is originally their first Japanese release and it is being released on 2012. Sadly, this song does not really successful in Japan. Personally, I do not really like this song too when I first listen to the Japanese version 2 years ago. But, when I first listen to the Korean version, I really like it. I think it is because the music sounds more layered, so it makes the song becomes more upbeat and pumped up.

Scream actually has so much potential to be a hit like their previous releases such as Can't Nobody. It has nice flow, catchy and addictive chorus, and enjoyable music that surely will makes you want to dance to it. It also has sassy lyrics about a girl who wants to get away from her boyfriend since she is sick of him, which pretty much screamed 2NE1 previous releases. It is really a pity that this song does not achieve many success when first being released.

The ninth track, Baby I Miss You, is another CL own composed track. It has similar vibe with If I Were You and Good to You, but this song sounds more upbeat compare to the other two. This R&B influenced song opened with their singing voice and minimalist music. There is also a harmonization on the opening, which is one of the several things that I really really really like from 2NE1. One of the things that sets 2NE1 apart from other K-Pop groups is that they often do harmonization on their songs. I always love when a group harmonizes because I think it is one essential point when you are in a group. However, despite the huge number of K-Pop groups that debuted, only few of them that are harmonized, which is sad.

Like being mentioned earlier, Baby I Miss You has the minimalist music, which keep maintained until the end of this song. There is only the domination of keyboard sound and certain R&B beat throughout the song. But, it does not make the song falls boring since every part are different with other parts unlike Good to You. 

Another thing that keeps me interested with this song is the lyrics. The song is about how a girl misses her boyfriend who already break up with her. It is a simple lyrics, but what takes my interest is are they hinting noona & dongsaeng romance in this song? Hahaha. I think this is interesting because not many K-Pop songs take this issue on the noona perspective. Hopefully, this song able to encourage other K-Pop musicians to cover this issue on female perspective since it is very unique.

Finally, Come Back Home (Unplugged Version) closed this album. Since it is an unplugged version, the music is being kept to minimalist with acoustic guitar and strings. Because of this, it able to showcase the girls vocal in clearer way and yes, the girls sound fantastic here. They able to convey the emotions of the song more. Beside that, the way the girls sing in this version is different from the original version, especially Dara and CL. I think all of these are the reasons on why the unplugged version sounds more sorrowful and sad compared to the original.

Basically, Come Back Song is already a good song, so it is kind of hard to compare it. For me, both version has its own pluses and minuses. The original has more “kick” since the music is more rich compared to the simple unplugged version. As for the unplugged version, it actually has better flow and emotions. The most important thing that makes the unplugged version has better flow than the original is that there is CL rap after the second chorus. Her rap makes the song does not flow repeatedly throughout the song unlike the original version. There is differences between each part. However, still, both version rocked on their own way in my opinion.

Overall, Crush does not disappoint. The music, vocal, concept, all of them are great. I love they take a more mature side towards this release in terms of music and vocal. CL compositions also do not disappoint, in fact, her compositions are nice. Hopefully, she will able to take part in composing 2NE1 songs in the future. So far, Crush is 2NE1 best album and with this album, they have just prove that........yes, they are back and they are worth the wait :)

My Favorite Tracks                   : Everything beside Crush

Rating                                              : 4/5

Categories: 2NE1, Album, Bom, CL, Crush, Dara, Kpop, Minzy