Boy Bands Over Flowers After an anime series, two seasons of Meteor Garden, two seasons of Hana Yori Dango, and a really long movie, haven't we all had enough of F4 and Boys Over Flowers? The answer is, of course, NO. Korea's own take on Hana Yori Dango hit the small screen in January after months of buzz, and fans have dutifully tuned in. In a deja vu of Meteor Garden in Taiwan and Hana Yori Dango in Japan, the series has started a Boys Over Flowers trend in Korea, and the craze naturally includes the music.
Meteor Garden gave us Harlem Yu's Qing Fei De Yi and F4's "Meteor Rain", and Hana Yori Dango made mega-hits out of Utada Hikaru's Flavor of Life and Arashi's Wish and Love So Sweet. The Korean Boys Over Flowers, meanwhile, delivers a hit theme song in Paradise by T-max whose member Kim Joon plays F4's Woo Bin in the drama. Starting quietly with a beautiful, mood-setting piano intro, Paradise (Track 1) surges into the memorable opening line "Almost Paradise" and a stirring, uptempo ballad that sounds quite different from typical K-pop. There's a surging power to the melody and T-max's performance that gives the song edge, and the lively arrangement and husky harmonization work well. Sung by both T-max and composer Oh Joon Sung (GreenCacao), the Main Title version (Track 13) of Paradise, which opens with a wonderfully cheesy jingle that sounds like something from an early 90s American sitcom theme, comes out even stronger with the harmony and vocal for greater impact in its short running time. Korea has no lack of boy bands, but decent vocals and a distinct J-pop-inspired music style make the under-the-radar T-max one of Korea's more underrated idol acts. It'll be interesting to see if the Boys Over Flowers hype translates into a break for the group.
With T-max singing the main theme song, more famous boy bands SS501 and SHINee take the subthemes "Because I'm Stupid" (Track 2) and Stand By Me. Despite being represented by only the three Triple-S members, "Because I'm Stupid" ranks as probably SS501's best ballad to date. The music-box opening and piano and string sections create a fairy-tale atmosphere that nicely underline the catchy mid-beat ballad and heartrending lyrics about unrequited love. Making their first soundtrack appearance, SHINee goes softer and lighter on the vocals for the upbeat, mid-tempo Stand By Me. The result is a less distinctive SHINee presence than the group's previous cuts, but a likably sweet and energetic K-drama love song.
Four-man R&B group Someday (includes two members of R&B trailblazer 4MEN) show they're new in name only with the simple, silky, and perfectly harmonized ballad "Do You Know" (Track 3). This is Someday's first released song, and it definitely raises anticipation for their upcoming debut album. The always wonderful Tree Bicycle also do what they do best with the earthy, folksy One More Time (Track 8). Kim Yoo Kyung's "Starlight Tears" (Track 6) and Seo Jin Young's "A Little" (Track 7) are both effectively melodramatic ballads, though neither are as memorable as Ashily's Lucky (Track 5) i.e., the cutesy high-pitched song that's always playing in the background when Jan Di is staring wistfully yonder. Ashily's childlike voice and short pronunciation don't do anything for me, but the song grows on you if you watch the drama. Biggest kudos ultimately go to Oh Joon Sung who composed and arranged all the tracks in the album and co-wrote lyrics to all but one of the songs.
If you haven't seen the drama yet, then the main reason to get the soundtrack would be the boy band combo of SS501, SHINee, and T-max, plus the photo cards that come with the album. There are seven photo cards: one of all five main cast members, one of F4, and one each of the main cast. Best of all, there's also a red skull-and-crossbones F4 card in case you would like to, er, find a classmate of your own to haze.
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