Previous release expanded
Super Junior
Spy
SM Entertainment
Did you know
Nattawut directed a short film called The Misbehavers in 2010.
Super Junior’s latest release, Spy, is a repackage of the group’s sixth album, Sexy, Free & Single. The new version has four new songs added. K-pop fans may also be interested to note that this CD was recently awarded album of the year at the Mnet Asian Music Awards.
The 14 tracks on this album range from electro dance music to beautiful ballads. The slower tracks tend to be the strongest, as they’re all pleasant songs that you can enjoy listening to again and again.
The heartbreaking “Bitter Sweet” is a particularly beautiful and emotional song, with the vocalists expressing their pain through great singing. “Only U” is a meaningful song composed by the leader Leeteuk, who recently left the group to do his army service. With this sweet song, Leeteuk says goodbye to his fans and asks then not to forget him. “Someday” is another great track which shows that rapper and main dancer Shindong has the potential to be a great singer.
While the slow songs on this release are all highly enjoyable, a lot of the dance tracks aren’t as well made, with some sounding annoying after a few listens. “Outsider,” for example, has interesting lyrics about relaxing after working hard, but the music and singing are messy and don’t go well together. Rapper Eunhyuk wrote “Gulliver,” which brags about Super Junior being the leading K-pop group, however that theme was already explored in a better way with the group’s much more powerful previous hit, “Superman.”
Despite the Mnet Asian Music Award, this isn’t the best K-pop album of the year. However it’s definitely the biggest selling, especially in terms of physical CD sales. Unless you’re a hardcore Super Junior fan, the best way to check out Spy is to legally download the slow songs, which are definitely worth listening to. — SC
Vocabulary
- meaningful (adj): serious and important
potential (adj): that can be developed in the future
brag (v): to talk too proudly about what you have done or what you own
