Stardom Entertainment’s feisty five-piece, EvoL, are back with their second mini album, ‘Second Evolution’, and they’re packing a powerful punch.
‘Second Evolution’ opens with the new single, ‘Get Up’, so there isn’t any prolonged teasing with this album. The song is a hip-hop track with an refreshing bouncy riff throughout accompanied by simple but soulful harmonies. One thing that EvoL have proved they do well is the way they avoid predictable song patterns and manage to skillfully weave rapping into their songs. For example, rather than using a rap as a filler towards the end of this song, ‘Get Up’ sees Jucy and J-Da carrying the weight of the song with rap verses. Rapping is broken up with interesting inflection and frequent switching between the two rappers. The lyrics are not unlike the lyrics to Magnet from EvoL’s first mini album, ‘Let Me Explode’; something along the lines of ‘can-you-even-believe-how-awesome-we-are-no-you-can’t-so-don’t-even-try-to-keep-up’. However, I’m going to let them off for re-using this concept since they have good reason and justification – (just this once, mind you). The bouncing riff changes to a new melody during the bridge, where Hayana and Yull show off mellow tones and soon enough the simple, catchy chorus is delivered by Say – it goes without saying that this is the part that will get stuck in your head.
The second song – possibly my favourite song on the album – is, disappointingly, the only other new song on ‘Second Evolution’. While it’s understandable that Stardom Entertainment have been somewhat busy lately, roughly eight months after debut and only two new songs to show… It might not be completely wrong to call this neglecting your artists. However, ‘Love’ is fresh and fun and – ehem – definitelygoinginmysummerplaylist. It’s like sugar-coated EvoL; the same powerful rapping and vocals as usual can be found (my, they’re hard to escape from) but now with dizzy beats and fluttery vocal melodies. Just when you think a verse is slowing down, you’re swept back up into the soaring chorus. A funky guitar riff layered on the top of the song at the end is a nice addition, too.
The next two songs have been recycled from ‘Let Me Explode’. Tracks 3 and 4 are ‘Magnet’ and ‘I’m Sorry’; a dynamic rap thriller with one of the most well done breakdowns in K-pop (in my opinion) and a soft, plucked-guitar groove which is as close as ‘Second Evolution’ gets to a ballad. Although we’ve heard these songs before, they were my personal favourites from the first mini album and I’m not disheartened by their reappearance. While it would have been awesome to hear some new tracks, it’s great that the old ones have enough staying-power to flesh out another album. Having said that, a six track album with only two new tracks..? Come on, Stardom…
The penultimate song is a remix of ‘Get Up’ and although the background music different, the remix sticks to the same pattern as the original song which leads me to question if this is really a remix as such. This ‘remix’ is followed by an instrumental version of ‘Get Up’. Here, I say to Stardom, “Why?” This isn’t a personal dig at Stardom Entertainment, it’s just that I’ve always been curious as to why instrumentals are included on albums. Are they really necessary to the overall appeal of the album? Probably not, but perhaps they have a different understanding of the situation.
Overall, this album deserves a 7/10 – The two new tracks, ‘Get Up’ and ‘Love’, have clearly been thought out well as the actual music, along with the vocals, pleases and delivers more than anybody could ask for. The album certainly does not follow regular K-pop rules and it’s great to see a group who are so involved with the producing of their songs. Unfortunately, the lack of new material and the repeat of one song (technically) three times, therefore making up half of the album, is fairly disappointing. As for popularity in the UK, it seems that the album probably wouldn’t gain much… I would love to see EvoL doing well here but there isn’t a song on ‘Second Evolution’ that would grab bias, non-K-pop fans’ ears. As well produced as the album is, unfortunately it’s hard to imagine a song like ‘Magnet’ capturing the attention of the mainstream British public. For success in the UK, perhaps they would have a better chance with ‘We Are A Bit Different’ – EvoL’s debut song from last summer; a catchy electronic dance track with a chorus that non-Korean speakers can still sing along to – simply great pop music.
