OMG all the new music this week. Yay January! But like really, can they stop releasing stuff, because it hurts my wallet. Not gonna lie, I was definitely looking forward to this album…. cause Bobby is amazing. I also totally purchased both copies of this album today after hearing that I got a promotion at work… cause they looked cool… Korea… and the album is actually pretty solid (I will totally give Bobby all the credit). The album is called Return and it was released on January 25th, 2018.
I do a lot of my album shopping on Music Plaza LA. Additionally, if you have never used Music Plaza before, this link will get you an extra 5% off of your first purchase!
You can also order a copy of the album from an eBay, as they typically have good prices. Plus, with eBay, you can save a little bit of money by using the E-Bates extension on your browser, as it will save you 2% on all album purchases, which definitely adds up.
What is E-Bates?
E-Bates is a cashback site that gives you money for purchases you may have already made. They even have an extension for multiple browsers so when you go to a website that uses Ebates, it will automatically pop up the cashback button to make sure you are saving money. I use this all the time, and I got over 80$ back from them for purchases I was going to make anyway. That’s about 3 more albums I can buy!
If you’ve never used EBates before, you can use this link to get $10 when making a qualified purchase of $25 when using EBates. You will also get whatever percent cashback is being offered from the site you are purchasing from. Sephora, typically has 4% cashback, through here. Sokoglam typically has 3%. These percentages Many other major retailers are on there as well.
iKON Return, Track by Track:
- 사랑을 했다 (Love Scenario): This is the title track of the album, honestly I’m quite a huge fan of it. Yes, Bobby is in it a lot, but he also helped write the song. I like how it starts with more of a retro vibe, as it is just Bobby and a piano, and then a cowbell (cause we all need more cowbell). They do a really good job of building the music through the song. It doesn’t start off full-force with all of the instruments, it has more of an ebb and flows with lots of different layers of percussion. The main instrument through the whole thing is the piano, and I think it really highlights the vocals of the track. Although this track isn’t very heavy on the vocal harmonies, I really like what they do with the different percussion instruments.
- Beautiful: The group continues with the sick piano chords into the second track. which then turns it into more of an R&B Funk track. It reminds me of Uptown Funk, but that’s mainly because the tempo is the same. I don’t think this song is as musically complex as the previous track, as it seems to maintain more of the same instruments throughout the whole song than the previous track. I really like how it breaks into a hook that is a “clapping” section where the main percussion on it is legit just clapping. It’s a nice shift from the sound of the rest of the track. I do really like this track, but it is definitely not my absolute favorite on the album. It’s definitely cute though, and it did make it into my playlist.
- 돗대 (One and Only): This is BI’s solo track, and the only word I can think of for it is “ratchet”. Super percussive, and he swears, in English, a lot. This is one of those tracks that you blare going down the street when you want to feel like a baller, and tell everyone around you not to mess with you. It really doesn’t have a ton going on with the instrumentation, but he builds a pretty sick percussive beat. The whole song builds with sirens, cowbells, and super deep bass. It focuses on the rhymes he’s ripping though.
- 나쁜놈 (Jerk): Taking it down to a ballad, with an intro from an electric guitar. The song, overall, is super chill. I don’t think that the lead singer’s singing is fantastic on it. Per usual, I love iKON’s rappers. They take the verses and roll with them and it’s amazing. I do like the chorus too though, and I think they get some decent harmonies in this song. It was not a track I really jived with at first, but as I listen to the lyrics, it’s really growing on me… Yet again, I blame Bobby.
- Best Friend: We start with some snaps and some futuristic songs. And then it breaks into a 1960’s style track that you would hear at a school dance… and then Bobby raps. Honestly, the lyrics to this song are extremely cute. Cause it talks about how my friend is so beautiful and how they like to hear her voice…. I do really like this track for the lyrics. It’s a 100% Love song, and the world doesn’t have enough of those.
- Everything: Back to a more mid/uptempo song. I actually really like this song. I like how it moves and how they play with the tempo and percussion to build the movement in the song, as it makes it feel like you are getting a tempo change, but all you are getting is a rhythm change. They really just play with different rhythms in the song. Bobby is not as prevalent in the song, but I still enjoy it. IT made it into my playlist.
- 안아보자 (Hug Me): Slow tempo song that starts out with riffs from any electric guitar. And then gets overlaid with a falsetto descant, which then moves into a rap. Overall, this song isn’t my favorite song on the album, as there are definitely others that I prefer more, but I really like how it highlights the group’s rappers, as the verses are fire. I also enjoy that it plays a little bit with the main singers’ higher vocal ranges. I’m curious as to how this song would be live, because it could be towards the edge of their ranges
- 잊지마요 (Don’t Forget): In comparison to a lot of the ballads that I have heard, I enjoy this one far more, as I think the singers in iKON are relatively strong ballad singers, and it’s nice to have a song where you have them, plus a piano and some drums, and that’s it until the end of the song. They also play with harmonies a bit with this song. Now, as for the song itself, I don’t think it is very unique as it seems like a very standard pop song structure. It feels like a lot of other songs that I have heard before. From that perspective, this song doesn’t get massive brownie points from me, as I want something a little bit more original.
- 시노시작 (Sinosijak): This song is much more uptempo, and it is definitely much more of a dance song. It did make it into my playlist because it gets stuck in my head, but yet again, this song doesn’t feel 100% original, and I wish that they had played with the musical structure of it a little bit more. It’s predictable, I don’t think it is musically very complex, and I don’t really think that it highlights the artist’s strengths very well either. It feels like a filler song to me.
- 나를 사랑하지 않나요? (Love Me): This song I love. It’s upbeat, it is fun, and it’s cute. It still has a standard feel to it, but for something like this, I think that is okay because it has more of a swing brought to the 21st century feel to it. I will point out though, I find demanding love from others slightly forward, as I’m pretty sure you would look like a total tool if you did that in real life, but I guess if you back it with swing chords it makes it much more acceptable. Still like the song though. It’s fun.
- Just Go: I really like how they play with the harmonies in the chorus. I wish that they would have highlighted the trumpets that they have in the background just a little bit more, and pulled them forward. I think that they add a layer of complexity to the song. Another pain point with this song is that the dynamics and emotions of the singers feel slightly flat and that they are just singing straight through, by the book, without any flair at all. So major sad face.
- Long Time No See: As a closing song for the album, it’s a decent song. It doesn’t really have anything special going on vocally, as their harmonies aren’t very strong. and it doesn’t really have anything special going on with the instrumentation. It is just predictable. Also, whoever sings the hook into the next verse after verse 1, is definitely singing at the edge of his range, and it is pretty obvious. What this song does have is strong rappers, per usual. As a closing song, it’s decent though. Not my favorite, not playlist worthy, but it is okay.
K-Points: 487/5
The whole first have of this album is very strong, but as you get towards the end, the rappers are the highlight of the group. Their singers aren’t particularly strong, and once you get to the second half of the album, the instrumentation is much more standard than what you get in the first half. I think this was part of the reason that iKON as a whole didn’t put out much work, and all of their work came from Bobby and BI. They just didn’t have the material for a full group album that the group could pull off. I would have cut a number of the songs from this album out, and made it an EP instead of a full album.
That being said, a little more than half of the tracks I really enjoy. The rest of them are just OK. None of the tracks offend me though. I think they could have taken a few more risks, or they could have let Bobby and BI just produce the full album. At the end of the day, this album is definitely worth purchasing though, and I did purchase both versions of the album, because I do really enjoy listening to this album.
Do you all think this was an amazing iKON album, K-Nuggets? Let me know in the comments below!
사랑합니다!
–Rachel
