[ALBUM REVIEW] monsta x shook me

[ethereal]

okay, so my back story with monsta x is a pretty long roller coaster ride of anticipation and disappointed. i did watch no.mercy while it was airing and really wanted to be a fan of them, but i didn't really like their debut so i lost interest in them for a while. fast forward to 2016. i REALLY loved all in but then i didn't like fighter at all so my interest in them depleted once again. but then today i finally sat down and listened to their new album the clan pt 2.5 and i'm legitimately shooken.

 

 

 

now when i say shooken, i mean my jaw literally dropped when almost all of these songs started playing. i honestly did not expect this type of musical and stylistic growth from monsta x. they're really committing to this edm, electronic sound and it honestly works soooo well for them. and they've perfected it a lot over the years. looking at some of their past b-sides, you can really tell it took them a lot of experimentation to get to where they are musically and i'm proud of them.

 

this album is one of the most cohesive kpop albums i've ever listened to. many kpop acts always draw inspiration in different tracks from different genres, which works better for some than others, but monsta x actually has a stylistically consistent album with a clear flow from hard hitting to softer songs. sometimes groups suffer from same sound syndrome, where all their songs of a similar genre start sounding the same with slight differences, but monsta x completely avoided that, which is very impressive. 

 

 

 

 

a zoom in on my three fav tracks on the album:

 

1. Incomparable  [track 3] 

 

this is such a good twist on the current tropical trap trend in kpop. like, it has that signature beat during the verses, but the chorus has the monsta x flare and i really respect groups that can take trendy sounds and morph them into their own style. one of monsta x's weaknesses is that they only have one power vocal and the other vocals all have a quite similar tone, but songs like this really give shine to that sort of group vocal dynamic.

 

 

2. Need U  [track 4]

 

this is really reminiscent of say a jay park or gray beat, and i really like this sound from monsta x. i.m and jooheon have such flexible rapping styles and i really like their tones when they do chill, laid back rapping. it's a huge contrast from the aggressiveness in their more hard hitting songs. 

 

 

3. Calm Down [track 7]

 

this is just such a good track to tbh. one of those songs you just turn up at full volume and bump to. and this song as well as the title beautiful basically completely sum up their musical style.

 

 

 

 

this is honestly my favorite album from a  group i don't bias  since seventeen's love&letter. i wouldn't skip a single track. my overall rating is 10/10. i am officially a monsta x enthusiast . 

 

 

 

 

[Ðœimi]

This album is a masterpiece. I didn't expect anything different from them though.

thanks for appreciating art!

 

[analyna]

It's legit a solid album and they've found a sound that works for them it impressed me even more so that the members had more involvement in this album than any of their previous works,it might have taken a while and some fine tuning but they've done it. The contrast between the type of rapping Im and Jooheon do has always made me love the way they play off each other at times and in some songs like calm down you hear it clearly.

 

I'm always annoyed when some groups put out an album and all of a sudden a super slow ballad comes on that just doesn't fit with the hard hitting songs they had earlier so I liked that they chose a more R&B type of sound for the slower tracks and that it still had that little bit electronica involved so if you just played the album freely there was no jarring change.Major props to kihyun though he's their strongest vocalist by far and he holds it down in every track. Even when he isn't in the forefront singing you hear him in the back adding melodies and such. It's a well produced album so good for them on delivering some great content.

[Forever_Ahgase]

It really is their best so far. 

[one-hoe wonho]

thanks for the appreciation of this album. it truly is one of the best albums where they were consistent and kept their style of sound, but yet different.

[versace]

Lost will always be their best in my opinion but this was better than Guilty...Ready or Not and Calm Down are such fucking amazing turn or songsssss my only problem with the rest of the hard hitting songs were the choruses which were kinda awkward + some vocals weren't super polished.. + the slow songs in Lost were e v e r y t h i n g 

the slow portion (last 2 songs) were just not on the same level as ex girl, because of you, or somehing like white girl

I also noticed that they have been doing funk songs quite often in this trilogy, i would love to see them move towards a funk-ey direction in the future

[OldGenNewGen]

I feel like I'm a fan of too many groups so for a while now I've been resisting the urge to stan Monsta X since Hero but this album ruined that. After hearing this I listened to every one of their minis and I agree that their growth in this is noticeable. The think the reason why this is better than the rest is because it has this Monsta X style of song progression and production from beginning to end where as the other albums would have a track here and there that would kinda sound like generic kpop song that could've came off any groups album. 

[TWOYOO]

This album is indeed their best yet and it seems the majority feels this way so hope Starship lets them continue with this kind of sound for their next album. I feel they currently kinda grab people with one comeback then lose them in the next so it creates this situation where they are known by people but not stanned as much as they could be. They need back to back strong comebacks to secure a more stable fanbase.

[Waves in the sand~~]

I still can't choose my favorite ones bc I really love all of them! It's so difficult! They're amazing!

[hobae]

Yes yes a thousand times yess