[Album Review] Super Junior 'SPY' (Repackage)

SM Entertainment

After 11 months of hiatus, Super Junior finally released their sixth studio album Sexy, Free & Single on July 4. Right after that release, they released Spy, the repackaged version of the 6th album on the midnight of August 5th. SM has been busy the first part of the year with the continuation of Girls' Generation's The Boys activities extending into 2012, the comebacks for SHINee and  f(x) taking place and EXO's debut finally after countless number of teasers.  Sexy, Free & Single was a catchy dance track being the normal generic title as expected from all SM, but Spy in the repackage does a total 180 degrees change in terms of the overall feel. Spy exudes a certain originality but lacks in creative arrangment. The repackage contains four new songs with all the tracks from Sexy, Free & Single included. 

Let's see if this repackage delivers...

Rooftop Prince and the Case of a Missing Song

The plot line was more than complicated, Lee Gak, a Joseon crown prince transported to modern day Seoul along with his three loyal colleagues where he tries to solve the mystery behind his wife's death in Joseon. Rooftop Prince (Romanized: Ok-tab-bang Wang-se-ja) aired from March 14, 2012 to May 24, 2012 on SBS and competed directly with 'The Equator Man' and 'The King 2 Hearts'.

Now that the series is over, I have been gripped by another aspect of the show, a missing song...

[Album Review] ZE:A 'Spectacular'

Star Empire Entertainment

Following their debut in 2010, ZE:A, also known as 'Children Of Empire' under Star Empire Entertainment (which also houses Nine Muses and Jewelry), kept a resilient effort, trying basically everything by the book in order gain better success. The nine member boy group has come a long way from their auto-tune ruined Mazeltov single days but before this release, they seemed to be stuck with self-imposed bad luck. Their title tracks after Mazeltov were much better but  due to some stroke of bad luck, they failed to attain the recognition they deserved and struck out. Their career path in some form shares stark similarities with U-Kiss in that they both lacked a solid debut due to lackluster songs releases with the above mentioned Mazeltov and the latter's Not Young. U-Kiss were finally able to come into their own and shine with their second studio album 'Neverland', which featured some great songs. Since U-Kiss has escaped Neverland and ventured into a much better place, let's examine if ZE:A will step up and prove themselves to be Spectacular. After listening to the title track Aftermath, I'm excited about how the whole album will turn out.

Let's see if their second studio album Spectacular will finally prove to be the breakthrough they were hoping for after its release on the 4th of July.