Kwon Ji Yong aka G-Dragon, 23, Choi Seung Hyun aka T.O.P., 24, Dong Young Bae aka Taeyang (meaning Solar), 24, Kang Daesung aka Daesung, 23, and Lee Seung Hyun aka Seungri (meaning Victory), 21, the boys of South Korean pop act BIGBANG have just released a video for their latest hit, "Monster", taken from the Special Edition of their fifth LP. The lyrics of the song are very poetic. Imagine you are listening to pieces of a puzzle, the song needs to be listened to several times in order to grasp the story G-Dragon is trying to tell. What's the true meaning behind it ? Taeyang, Seungri and Daesung feature off their signature vocals in the song but because of the lyrics, it seems like they are vocalizing the different thoughts that are going on in the mind of the protagonist. "Monster" sees the boyband treading familiar territory by returning to the melodic dance-ballad sound of "Haru haru". They kinda like to stick to their mainstream lane of commercial pop, but they’ve mastered it to a point where they rarely end up sounding derivative or generic like most American acts from the same genre do. "Monster" might be a little formulaic, but there’s a nice emotional undercurrent that runs through it that elevates the song up. And of course, the vocals are beautiful, the harmonies are gorgeous, and the rapping is as amazing as always. If the song isn’t wild enough for you, then the video should suffice. It’s like an evil version of "Fantastic baby", with the same kind of high avant-garde fashion, only much darker and more sinister. The boys have been making more of an effort to assert themselves as fashion leaders in Kpop, so if they haven’t already snatched SHINee’s wig in the style stakes yet, then they will after this.
