12 February 2015 – As of late, SM Entertainment has been rolling out solo debuts one after another! Good for the fans, not so much for our tiny pockets (ㅠ_ㅠ)! They started with Super Junior M’s Henry back in 2013 (and a comeback in 2014), SHINee’s Taemin, Super Junior M’s other Chinese member Zhoumi and Super Junior’s main vocals Kyuhyun in 2014. SHINee’s lead vocals Jonghyun kicked off 2015’s solo debuts and now, f(x)’s Amber follows up! With so many solo acts being put out within the span of 6 months, how many of you actually managed to breathe? Are each of them different from the other?
SJM’s Henry started the ball rolling with his mini album ‘Trap’ that captivated his fans’ hearts. Together with his team at Noizebank, they wrote music that he enjoyed singing and making and it showed throughout the album. In 2014, he made a comeback with ‘Fantastic’ that is like a completely polished version of ‘Trap’ with different genres of music put into one album. It even featured Red Velvet’s Irene, EXO’s Chanyeol and Infinite’s Hoya.
Trap:
Fantastic:
Now, SHINee Taemin’s debut was something I had not expected as he was more of a dancer than a singer (I’m not saying he cannot sing, he can and has improved so much over the years). Since I did not know what to expect, I was in for a ride. Taemin proved to everyone that he is no longer that scrawny and shy boy you saw in the Summer of 2008. He is now TaeMan! Throwing out grungy, moodier and more mature feels into his songs and music video for ‘Danger’, his title track from the album ‘Ace‘, anyone could tell that this man, means business.
Danger:
Zhoumi’s ‘Rewind’ was suddenly announced one day and the next thing I knew, he was making his debut with f(x)’s Amber by his side. His album gave off a classy, clean and gentlemanly kind of feel. Exactly the person he is. The title song ‘Rewind’, was well choreographed and has a catchy beat to it that anyone can dance along to (Stop, rewind, rewind, stop. Okay I really cannot stop!!!). In the album, he collaborated with f(x)’s Victoria, his long time friend, in a Chinese song. Both their voices blended really well. It is also not the first time they sang a duet together and have performed numerous times on SMTOWN stages.
Rewind [KOR Ver.] featuring EXO Chanyeol:
Rewind [CHI Ver.] featuring EXO Tao:
Did anyone forget Super Junior’s evil maknae, Kyuhyun’s debut? He was anything but evil in this concept for his mini-album, “At Gwanghwamun”. I am afraid to say that other than the song being very nostalgic and showed off Kyu’s charismatic vocals, his solo debut was rather forgettable. I’m not entirely sure what happened but it may be because the debut song being a ballad over a catchy dance track that made it seem as though this song was just a follow-up from SUJU’s repackage album, ‘This Love‘. I have to admit, ‘At Gwanghwamun’ is a good song to listen to in the winter, while sitting alone at a cafe as you watch passersby go pass.
At Gwanghwamun:
That’s right Jonghyun, I’m drowning in you! SHINee’s lead vocals finally makes his solo debut with ‘BASE‘! He’s actually one that I’ve been looking forward to as anyone knows that this guy can really hold his notes! And the recent interest in songwriting is a plus point to this fine chap. SM allowed Jonghyun to work with people from different companies for this album. Artists like Zion.T, Iron and Younha assisted Jonghyun in making this album happen. Each song has its own flavor to it and is very different from the track before. Having penned many lyrics before, it was only natural for Jonghyun to do so for his very own solo debut album.
Crazy (Guilty Pleasure):
Shake, shake, shake that brass! Here comes f(x)’s Amber! A couple of ‘leaked’ comeback lineup surfaced on SNS portals and many had Amber’s written on them, therefore, fans have been speculating if this is finally her time to shine? SM Entertainment have been known to stifle or hold back on promoting f(x) for as long as we can remember so a lot of the fans had their doubts. Oh but wait! Doubts squashed now that news portals put out articles that the tomboy of f(x) was to make her debut sometime in February. This news confirmed by SM reps.
Beautiful:
After waiting for almost 2 months, SM started teasing fans by uploading a photo of Amber every other day from the beginning of February. On the 9th, they put up a lyrical video of the song ‘Beautiful’ that her album is named after. The first teaser of her music video also followed on the same day. So far, we know that Girls’ Generations’ Taeyeon (who will also be making her solo debut after Amber) and close friend, Eric Nam are featured on this album and with the third teaser being released earlier today, we spotted Hyoyeon, Miss A’s Min and Jia, Model and Kstyle Host, Irene Kim, Busker Busker’s Brad, C Clown’s Rome, G.O.D’s Joon Park, Rainbow’s Woori, Crayon Pop’s Ellin, N’UEST’s Aron, GOT 7’s Jackson, Gagwoman Ahn Young Mi and some of Amber’s close friends starring in ‘Shake That Brass‘ that will be released soon.
SHAKE THAT BRASS TEASER 1:
SHAKE THAT BRASS TEASER 2:
SHAKE THAT BRASS TEASER 3:
Good news to those who play Superstar SMTOWN as ‘Shake That Brass’ preview is now available for play before the actual release of the song!
Now that we have sort of reviewed all who have debuted and are about to make debuts, what do you all think? Are SM focusing too much on solo acts or should they pay attention to the existing groups? Comment and let us know what you think!