[Album Review] KARA - 'In Love'

KARA's seventh mini-album, titled 'In Love,' dropped recently andKamiliasall over the world are probably celebrating the group's return. KARA is ever the tease with a mere six tracks present on the album, including the title track "CUPID."

The group has ensconced itself quite comfortably in its popularity, especially in neighboring country Japan. KARA actually released more full-length studio albums in the Land of the Rising Sun than in the Land of the Morning Calm. Now, there is no need to take any sort of offense as it makes more sense for the group to promote themselves in a country with a bigger, more developed music industry and also where they are more popular.DSP Mediahasn't quite been lax in promoting KARA in Korea, but it appears as though the agency is more enthusiastically promoting the girl group in Japan.

How is my above spiel relevant you ask? Well, it's relevant because I can hear that characteristics of the group's Japanese songs spilled over into the newly-released mini album, especially in the title track "CUPID." The group's Japanese songs seem to incorporate squeaky, squealing, high-pitched tones of singing which I presume the members employ to sound more bubbly and cute (or I am totally wrong in my observation and that's just the way the KARA members always sing their songs). I couldn't warm up to the auto-tune layered, almost shrill vocals upon initial listen of the song, but the persistently thumping bass and the main melody inevitably, unwarrantedly, and unduly settled in my cerebrum.

The other two songs on the album with the "squeaky" vocals are "I Luv Me" and "Peek-A-Boo." Despite the cutesy, overly sugary singing, the tracks stand out because of their upbeat tunes. What can I say, sometimes, I'm a sucker for those generic mainstream melodies. My only objections are the "rap breakdowns" which sent shivers down my spine—and not in a good way.Who was the nincompoop that thought it necessary to include rap verses in a dance song?!Had those little rap sprinklings not been packaged so awkwardly in the tracks, I wouldn't be sitting here cringing and face-palming. I'm not necessarily saying whoever—I believe it isYoungji—is rapping is bad; it just doesn'tfitthe songs well at all.

I was better able to enjoy the other tracks, thanks to their lack of oddly-placed rap verses. I could also actuallyhearthe KARA members' voices as they hadn't altered their singing pitch to ten times higher than its normal range. "Starlight" is a peppy track in which I realized, hey,Hara's voice is actually quite alright. It's throatier than I thought it would be—for some reason I imagined her singing voice to be extremely nasally, especially because that's how she sounds when she talks (to me anyway).

"Back Then" and "Dreamlover" are cloyingly sweet acoustic ballads that took me a while to fully appreciate. The angelic vocal harmonization and the tinkling instruments in "Back Then" are the song's notable highlights. I was surprised at myself because I really came to appreciate "Dreamlover," especially since I normally can't bring myself to enjoy ballads, no matter how hard I try. After careful listening, I was able to discover the cause to this strange phenomenon. No, it's not because I have become a KARA fangirl. It's because the song contains slight hints of R&B. Give me any nice, lustrously composed R&B song and more often than not, I will like it.

Besides the negligible slight that KARA didn't content its fans with a full-length album, I'm happy to say that 'In Love' is a pretty solid effort. Maybe exclude the weird, cringeworthy rap verses next time around.