After School – New Schoolgirl

March 5, 2011 at 11:55 AM | Posted in After School | Leave a comment

SINGLE REVIEW
After School – New Schoolgirl

1. Play Girlz
2. AH
3. Nabbeunnom (나쁜 놈)
4. AH (Inst.)

New Schoolgirl is the debut single by Korean pop group After School. It was released on January 15, 2009, both physical and digital. The digital cd cover is seen here, the physical release has a different cover.

Back when it was just Kahi, Bekah, Jung Ah, Jooyeon and So Young, before it would be one big member changing and sub-uniting mess. Play Girlz is initially an interlude with opening raps by Kahi and Bekah and an electropop music sound with some hiphop influences. The arrangement features a good strong beat and synths, and after the opening raps the other girls come right in as well. Surprisingly good, these girls. This interlude song makes a good first impression on how the group presents her music.

AH starts off the same way as Play Girlz (altered male vocals saying ‘blazing sound’), but AH is more lighthearted and started right away like BOOM. The girls have good voices, everyone has an enjoyable sound. The chorus is kinda quircky with someone with a high pitched voice shouting ‘aaaaah’ all the time, kinda made me laugh. After School makes some catchy songs though, this one is very nice.

Nabbeunnom (나쁜 놈)  is more of a darker song with a bass heavy beat and opening raps by Bekah, who is a very good and fierce rapper. The synths are definitely not as lighthearted as in the previous track, and the verses only feature bass, vocals and fingersnaps (and very annoying male ‘moanings’). I needed this song on this debut single, because I know their sub-unit Orange Caramel with their cute candy style. After School shows they can also do darker pop/hiphop songs.

My first encounter with After School was quite good, I’ll go and download some more of them because they really make some good music. But let’s face it, sometimes it seems like Koreans do it a lot better. The quality of After School’s music is very good, they don’t have one signature sound but blend different things together for some good songs on their debut single. This single has made me curious about the rest of their discography.

Favorite tracks: Play Girlz | AH | Nabbeunnom (나쁜 놈)

OVERALL RATING

4½ stars