[REVIEW] Do U Wanna B? Album – Block B

Review on Block B’s debut album, “Do U Wanna B?”

Block B is this new boy group that debuted a couple of weeks ago and they’re like a hip hop/rap group. They’re actually pretty good. I mean, they don’t suck or anything. Their songs are all pretty catchy and fresh and new. I rikes.

But I can’t place their names on their voices yet. I know PO (his Korean name is 허스키 which basically is ‘Husky’. And it matches him perfectly.) is the guy that has the super low voice like TOP’s. Other than that…I only know their names. ZICO, Kyung, TaeIl, … shoot… what were the others… ._. So maybe I don’t know all their names off the top of my head… ._. Ah well. I’ll learn sooner or later.

I guess I’ll review the individual songs first and then I’ll review the album in general after. So this post isn’t really an album review, it’s more of an individual song review. I guess. :P

1) Wanna B

The first song in the album is Wanna B. It’s like an intro but in song form. So it starts out with “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.” This was…random… I see how they wanted to make it seem like they’re the beginning of everything. Or something like that. But why something from the Bible? This puzzles me. Anyway, then after that line, the song’s style shows with “Round, round, round”. And it’s really catchy. o.o I don’t think I’m the only one that thinks that. So the “round, round, round”, “bounce, bounce, bounce”, and “down, sound, sound” goes of for a little bit, and then the rap starts. I think this is ZICO… But I’m not quite sure… And then PO goes and raps. And it’s like…TOP eargasms but in a different effect. o.o I don’t really know how to explain it. It’s just…a different feel than TOP eargasms but I still get eargasms. o.o I don’t know how that happens. I think I just have a fettish for guys with super low voices that rap. o.o Ahaha… Anyway… Since I don’t really know all their names and I don’t know who’s voice is who’s, I can’t really review anything about their voices… D: So I guess…I’ll keep talking about the style of the song.

When they rap, it sounds like they’re trying to copy American songs…in a way. And then when they sing, it also seems like they’re trying to copy American songs. But then at the same time, the style is not the same as American songs. I find this happens A LOT with Korean songs. KPop is tending to me a little more American than Korean, but at the same time, it doesn’t sound a bit like the American pop/rap style. Korean songs just have their own style to it that makes them different from American songs no matter how alike they sound to those American songs. I think that’s the reason why I love KPop so much. The variety in style and the uniqueness from American songs make the songs really catchy and just…more likable?

Wow… This song kind of ends abruptly. O.o

2) 그대로 멈춰라! (Just Stop!)

So the second song is Just Stop!. The style is different from Wanna B. It’s more electric and less rap and more hip hop-ish. Songs more mainstream than Wanna B. I don’t hear many songs like Wanna B in the KPop industry. Songs that are like Just Stop!, I hear more often. But at the same time, there’s still more rap in Just Stop! than most other songs. This leads me to the conclusion that they can’t really sing. They just rap pretty well. You see, when they sing, it’s all autotuned. The only parts that aren’t autotuned are the rap parts. I guess this is good and bad at the same time. Good in the way that you don’t see many boy bands that are mostly rap styled. Bad because they can’t sing as well as other boy bands. I’m not saying they suck at singing, they just use a lot of autotune when they sing. Mmmmm… But at the same time, the autotune isn’t exaggerated (like coughcoughBLACKEYEDPEAScough. >>). So I guess, I don’t really mind the autotune.

When they sing “가가이와 (ka-ka-i-wa)”, it sounds Japanese to me. o.o Maybe it’s just me… But the first thing I thought of when they sang it was Japanese words instead of Korean. Maybe it’s the way they said it… They emphasized each vowel so made what they were saying sound like Japanese. I guess it’s also cuz the 가가이와 sounds like Japanese in the way it’s Romanized. Like…I seriously can see the Japanese leaking out of ka-ka-i-wa.

The onomatopoeia in this song was cool. XD Maybe it’s just me, but I thought it was cool how they were like “심장은 쿵쿵쿵, Baseline 은 둥둥둥, Focus zoom zoom zoom, 난 나을가 Like 슝슝슝” (forgive me of any misspellings… I isn’t Korean… ><). You don’t really see onomatopoeia that obvious in songs anymore. And their onomatopoeia was different from most too. It’s like…more…unique…o.o I really have no other way of describing it other than different and unique…o.o I can’t really find any better words…cuz I don’t even know how I feel about the onomatopoeia. On a side note, after typing onomatopoeia like a bajillion times in this paragraph, I think I finally learned how to spell onomatopoeia. ^^ Yay! I learned something from typing this! Now I hope that you all will know how to spell onomatopoeia now cuz I bet you haven’t seen so many ‘onomatopoeia’s in the same paragraph before. Shazzam! (Simon, you have rubbed off on me. And for those that don’t know this “Simon” is, I’ll write a post someday about Simon and Martina. Or you can just search them up on YouTube. Simonandmartina.)

This song also ends kinda abruptly like Wanna B… o.o Why not end the song with a taper in the singing and not electronically? What’s so hard with doing that?

3) 나만 이런거야 (Am I The One Like This)

Woah. Wait a second now, you say this song is by Block B? This ballad-like song is by the same group that sang Wanna B and Just Stop!? O.o Oh wait a second, they still mostly rap. It’s just the background that makes it sound all ballad-y and slow. Okay now. I get it. But wait. They actually CAN sing without too much autotune. O.O Woah… I am impressed. But it always seems to be the same person or two singing… Ah well. No biggies. All the awesome rappers make up for the solo singers in the group. ^^ Wait wait wait. Is that PO singing? O.o I can’t tell… Either way, it sounds like a low voice singing… Teehee. This song is kinda short… o.o It ended after I typed “Teehee”… (I put the song I’m reviewing on repeat when I’m typing so I can hear it and review it at the same time. Oh yeah, multitasking. ^^)

Ahha…that was random… Ok… Back to the song… I think it’s kind of plain… The background music isn’t as strong as their other two songs. So the song doesn’t sound quite as thick as the other songs. Wanna B and Just Stop! had a lot of stuff you had to take in. So I guess Am I The One Like This is kind of relaxing after listening to two really hardcore rap/hip hop songs. And it’s a pretty good change of style for Block B. I’d still like to see them rap less though… I feel like the rapping component still takes over this song even though there was more singing that in their other songs.

Okay, woah. This song…ends SUPER abruptly. O.O It ended and I was like, “wai– Wuh??” Anyone else feel like this song ended super abruptly? O.o If it’s just me…then I guess it’s my problem.

Do U Wanna B? Album

As for their whole album (of only 3 songs. So I guess it’s an EP.), I think it’s pretty good. It’s kind of cliché for them to put the ballad-y song last after the first two rap-y/hip hop-y songs to refresh listeners, but I don’t blame them. It’s nice to hear a song with a different style than the other songs in the album or EP. Pretty much every other artist does that.

I think the songs blend together well when you play all of them straight through from the beginning to the end of the EP. Wanna B and Just Stop! are both pretty similar in style and beat so they go together pretty well. And then the transition between Just Stop! and Am I The One Like This was pretty big but it wasn’t way to drastic. The new style Am I The One Like This had fit into the album pretty nicely.

For the whole album, I give it a rating of……….I actually don’t know… o.o

How about a…4.2/5? I think that’ll work… It’s a ballpark estimate. :|