[Album & MV Review] SHINee - '1 and 1'

1. Tell Me What To Do
2. Wish Upon a Star
3. Rescue
4. Beautiful Life
5. If You Love Her
6. Beautiful Life (Inst.)
7. Wish Upon a Star (Inst.)
8. Tell Me What To Do (Inst.)
9. Rescue (Inst.)
10. If You Love Her (Inst.)
11. Prism
12. 1 of 1
13. Feel Good
14. Don`t Let Me Go
15. Lipstick
16. Don`t Stop
17. SHIFT
18. U Need Me
19. So Amazing (Special Track)



Not content with just the chart-topping '1 of 1,'SHINeeis back again with '1 and 1.' A special treat for fans, it has a whopping 19 tracks here, including five new ones and their instrumentals. That's practically another LP here. Just like the first one, this one's trending high on the charts. The 5th album review can be foundhere.

The album kicks off with "Tell Me What To Do." It's their title track, and it starts out soft, but it acquires a marching beat in the bridge.JonghyunandTaeminbelt that bridge fiercely. It's a sharp contrast to the rest of the tune, which has a whispery quality to the vocals. I love that. I thought it was headed one way and it took the expressway and shot off in a different direction. If there's a stronger way to start this off I can't think of one.



"Wish Upon a Star" is a quiet ballad and, while it brings in strings and soon after a full-blown orchestra, it doesn't try to ruin the production with overwrought vocals. The boys have powerful enough vocals where they can tackle the emotional parts without losing control. It proves to be a good thing here.

They pick up the pace again with "Rescue." It's a little like the first track, only they have a harmony for the chorus and it's not quite so fierce. This is to its benefit, giving it a quiet strength. It's a rock solid tune. It reminds me a lot of R&B, only done inSHINee's inimitable style.



Harmony-heavy "Beautiful Life" is a soft pop number, mid-tempo, and that's kind of where they lost me. There are so many songs like this it felt like they were throwing their hats in the ring saying "me too." It was okay for what it was, but it just seemed like filler.

"If You Love Her" is a tenderly sung ballad, stripped down and relying on the vocals to carry it. It's well put together, and it again avoids being lumped together with other ballads simply because of the superb voice work. This is what I'm talking about when I talk about a ballad done right.



Sometimes the artists skimp on the repackage, and there's a couple new tracks and remixes. This, I'm happy to report, is not one of them. As always,SHINee's amazing vocals are what come through to save the day. The instrumentals by themselves are soothing, and serve as good ambient music, bereft of vocals as they are. This is a pretty good album, except for one dud, but as always YMMV. An extra fewSHINeesongs are always a good thing, right?

MV REVIEW


I keep feeling there's a narrative here, but I think it got lost.

We have fire, a car, a pyro apparently responsible for the fire, a burning gun, and guns galore floating in mid-air. If someone can explain this, I'd love to hear it. Make it funny, though. Funny interpretations are always better than straight ones. Near as I can tell, they're partying when someone sets things ablaze and picks up a gun.

I'm not quite sure where to begin and end on it. It seemed like a series of vines, almost, scenes lasting no more than six seconds before we hit a new one. It's exceedingly well filmed, and if there's no story here, then there needs to be one. I'd like to think it's not just a random series of lightning fast vignettes.



But, as I said, it's wonderfully filmed. There's also no synchronized dancing, and indeed, no dancing at all, which makes me think there's a ghost of a plot in there somewhere. Regardless, there's some fantastic stylistic touches that make this thing entirely watchable.

True, I'm not sure what's going on, but that's okay. I still liked it.

Score:
MV Relevance..........7
MV Production.........8
MV Concept.............6

Album Production...7
Album Concept........7
Tracklisting..............7