M.I.C – V

Release date: November 11, 2011
Label: Taihe Rye Music

Tracklist

  1. Get it Hot [MV]
  2. 望 That Sea (Hope That Sea)
  3. To Bad Girls
  4. Dance with M.I.C
  5. 买单 (Pay the Bill)
  6. 当你看着我的眼睛 (When You Look into my Eyes)
  7. 非常21世纪 (Extraordinary 21st Century)
  8. 心恋 (Heart Attached)
  9. You Are so Cute
  10. 将爱 (Desirable Love)
  11. Bonus
    • 半梦 (Half Dream)
    • 风暴夏天 (Stormy Summer)

China is doing good. So good, it now has companies that can put in the money and the work to push new talents. They’re not in EXO-M [1] territory in terms of scope, but they have quite a successful boyband called M.I.C [you can read all about the members here], all as talented and hard working as any pop idol group can be.

I didn’t really appreciate their variety until I sat down to write this and try to peg them in different genres. For the life of me, I couldn’t.

For example, lead single Get it Hot is your party anthem, part hip hop, part pure pop, the song gets you thumping and jumping, but then V surprises you with a completely different vibe. Though the first track connects quite easily with the third track, To Bad Girls, we find that songs like Hope That Sea, Dance with M.I.C, Pay the Bill, and When You Look into my Eyes are basic pop songs with a certain freshness added in the guitar intros, interesting vocal arrangements, bluesy piano intros, and accompanying trumpets.

This is probably the purest pop album I have listened to in a very long time. It has heavy music influences from a cappella choirs, hip hop, blues, and electronic music without ever sounding like those genres and staying within the boundaries of pure pop.

V continues with the infectious pop song with heavy electro voices, fitting for the theme of the song, Extraordinary 21st Century, to then give us an a cappella rendition of Heart Attached, deemed worthy enough of a Rajaton collaboration. That’s the thing, however. How do you follow a track like Heart Attached with something that’s remotely as interesting sounding as that?

The album doesn’t really take a dive, but doesn’t really captivate us with the four remaining tracks You Are so Cute, Desirable Love, Half Dream or Stormy Summer, but that’s not to say that they’re terrible songs. In fact, V marks a VERY strong debut album from M.I.C as a band, paving the way to a very interesting discography if it continues to have the support of their fans and, maybe most importantly, the Mandopop music industry.

Great things are to come from the Mandopop scene, I can feel it.

Highlights: Heart AttachedExtraordinary 21st Century

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

Preview on Xiami.com

If you have any idea where to purchase the album, let me know!

amy

YAM Magazine editor, photographer, blogger, translator and part-time web designer. Film junkie, music junkie… and lately series (a.k.a. TV) junkie.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.