Apologies!

Hi there!

My original plan was to take a break from this blog after posting my top 30 songs chart from female K-pop groups (which supposed to have 3 parts) but I took a break before I even posted part 3 (the final part) of the chart! My apologies for that! I will post it immediately after this.

Due to the hectic schedule of my personal and work lives, I will continue to take my break but I'm hoping I would be able to actively blogging again soon.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoy my blog.

Have a nice day and take care. :-)

- Dekz - 

It has been slow lately~

I have been lazy in posting new post for this blog and because of that, I am so sorry! I will try to get a new post uploaded as soon as possible.

And as a token of my apology, here's a picture of a "handsome" cat that has been lingering around in my neighbourhood lately. It's not related to anything really but I thought I'd shared the picture with you because he is just so gorgeous!💕

I will be back with new posts soon.

Time out! ~ Trip to Bukit Bendera, Pulau Pinang - Feb. 2016 -

I don't normally post personal stuff here but I thought maybe I'd do just that, just to try something different. Besides, it's not really that personal anyway.

My family and I went for a trip to Bukit Bendera (also known as Penang Hill) at the end of last February. It's quite an interesting trip so I thought I would share some of the nice pictures I managed to take and some of the interesting things we did up there. At least it could serve as a simple guide to people who are planning to go there, or perhaps introduce the place to people who have not been there before.

So where is Bukit Bendera a.k.a. Penang Hill? It's located in Pulau Pinang (or Penang in English), one of the state in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia. There are island side and mainland side of the state and the hill is located on the island side. It's a popular tourist spot so if you ever get lost, you can stop to ask the locals, most likely they would know how to direct you there. It is also stated in some of the road signboards once you get closer to the area. You can get quite a few useful info from their website too like how to get there, the ticket prices for the tram to go up the hill and any interesting activities that are going to be held there.

I visited their website before we went up the hill and thought it would only be a short trip since it seems like there is nothing much to do, but we end up spending around 4 hours up there! I was shocked myself. My last trip there was when I was in secondary school so it's been awhile. It's definitely exciting to see the place had been developed well.

So here are some pictures that I managed to snap. I'm going to spam a lot of pictures here so I apologize in advance if they slowed down the loading time.

You can see the tram tracks from here

My 10 Favourite Moments from 2014 Movies

Okay, so I know we're already into February 2015 and 2014 movies are something of the past but since I have spent my time on this list, I thought why not just released it anyway. I might be stretching this just a tiny bit but if you could just bare with me for just one more post regarding 2014 movies, I would be very grateful.

So here goes, my simple list of 10 favourite moments from 2014 movies that I've watched in no particular order.

Oh, I almost forgot! Before that, let me remind you that since these moments/scenes are directly dig into the plot of the movies, so there will be spoilers all over this list. If you want to avoid spoilers for any of 2014 movies that you haven't watch, please considered yourself warned!

Now let's begin. :-)

My 2014 Top 10 Films ~ No. 5 - No. 1

Hello there! Welcome to the second part of my top 10 movies of 2014. This is where finally I'm revealing my top 5 films of the year. If you missed out the films I've listed at number 10 to 6, you might want to check Part 1 of the post. To continue to my top 5, read on below.


5 - Gone Girl

I went to see this movie because there were a lot of talks about the twist that was featured in it, and it got me curious. What the twist is about? And who killed the wife? After watching it, I must say that I like the movie a lot, more than I expect I would. To be honest, when the twist was finally revealed, I was satisfied with it and thought that it was the end of the movie, I was even ready to walk out of the cinema. Little did I know that it wasn't the end, and I still got almost half of the movie left. Eventhough the movie felt long to me, it was worth a journey to take, and the part after the twist was revealed was even more crazy and satisfying to watch. I have to admit, my jaw dropped a few times during this part of the movie. It was seriously insane! - in a good kind of way of course. I really like Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike performances in this movie, they were really great. The rest of the cast were good too, especially the main supporting cast which include Carrie Coon, Kim Dickens, Tyler Perry and Neil Patrick Harris. Gone Girl had been received well among critics, and it has been commercially successful too, garnered more than $350 million worldwide.

Image source from Gone Girl official website.


4 - Interstellar

I love movies about space exploration, how humans venture into the unknown and try to solve the mysteries of the universe, or simply trying to find another planet for humans to live. That is why I love Prometheus, the 2012 Ridley Scott's movie eventhough the plot was a bit confusing. But Interstellar is more than just a sci-fi movie about space exploration, it is also a movie about relationship between a father and his daughter. There were quite a few touching moments between the main character Cooper, played by Matthew McConaughey, and his daughter Murphy played by Mackenzie Foy as young Murph (she's really amazing in this film, by the way) and Jessica Chastain as adult Murph. Not just that, they were some emotional scenes between other characters too. It's amazing to think that I could love Interstellar as a drama as much as I love it as a science fiction movie. And talking about science fiction, this film doesn't disappoint in that regard as well. Christopher Nolan, the director and co-writer of the movie, as well as the crews that involved in it, want to achieved a sci-fi movie as close to reality that they could, meaning that they want to portray the science aspect of it as accurate as possible. That was quite a huge goal to achieve given the ambitious story they were trying to tell. I'm no scientist, but as an average moviegoer, I'm happy with the result; it tried to explain to me all this science theories but at the same time it doesn't forget the development and emotional weight of the characters. Quite a brilliant movie, I might add.

Image source from Interstellar official website.

My 2014 Top 20 Songs from K-pop Girl Groups ~ No. 5 - No. 1

We're almost at the top! Welcome to the fourth and final part of my top 20 favourite songs from K-pop girl groups for the year 2014. If you missed any of the previous posts for this chart, you can click here for Part 1 (no. 20 - 16), Part 2 (no. 15 - 11) or Part 3 (no. 10 - 6). Now it's time to wrap this up!


5 ~ Stellar: Marionette

Group: Stellar
Track: Marionette
Members: Gayoung, Minhee, Hyoeun, Junyool
Watch Marionette MV here!

When the music video for this song was released back in February 2014, it caused quite a controversy with it's sexy, 19+ concept. Yes, the music video is age-restricted in YouTube. While there are many other groups that use sexy concept for their music video as well, maybe Stellar went a bit too far with their clothing (or lack of it), scenes and choreography. I have to admit, there are few scenes in the music video that I feel were unnecessary, while the choreography was a bit awkward with its "scratching" and "grabbing" moves. It's a shame that the music video took all the attention away from the song because the song itself is great. It's catchy and has a good beat to it, and the lyrics are quite good too, talking about being used and dragged around by someone like a "marionette". It's not fair to blame it all on the girls, since the concept idea might not even come from them. I hope that in 2015, they will release more good songs like Marionette but tune down a bit on the sexiness. They are already beautiful, so I don't think we need them to flaunt more than they need to.


4 ~ AOA: Miniskirt

Group: AOA
Track: Miniskirt
Members: Choa, Jimin, Yuna, Mina, Chanmi, Hyejeong, Seolhyun
Watch Miniskirt MV here!

I've mentioned that there are other groups that use sexy concept for their music videos too, right? Well, AOA is one of them. But they are quite popular, so I guess their level of sexiness is acceptable to the mainstream audience. As for me, I'm all about the songs. No matter how flattering or sexy they are, if the song is not good, then it's a no for me. Luckily Miniskirt is a great song, hence it landed on number four in my list. Miniskirt is a song about how a girl dress to impress a guy but the guy didn't even notice her. I've looked up the lyrics translation and one of the line is somewhat translated like this, "I'm so sexy, even if I don't show skin". It's a bit ironic if you asked me since the girls show quite a lot of skin in the music video. Nevertheless, I love AOA (my favourite member is Choa by the way) and I love Miniskirt too. I wish they continue to gain success with their careers and become one of the most fearsome girl groups in the K-pop music industry, because with the momentum that they are having now, I can totally see that happen.

My 2014 Top 20 Songs from K-pop Girl Groups ~ No. 10 - No. 6

We have reached the top 10! Welcome to Part 3 of my top 20 songs from K-pop girl groups. So far we have counted down from number 20 to 16 in Part 1, and number 15 to 11 in Part 2. You may click in the respective parts if you missed any of them. Right now, let's begin counting down the lower half of my top 10 songs. Here are the songs from number 10 to number 6.


10 ~ Orange Caramel: My Copycat

Group: Orange Caramel
Track: My Copycat
Members: Raina, Nana, Lizzy
Watch My Copycat MV here!

It's the third Orange Caramel song in my top 20 list, making it the group with the most songs charted in this list. What can I say? They had released amazing songs in 2014, and with After School having a break, Orange Caramel is on hyperdrive and kept on releasing song after song, gaining more attention and definitely gathered more fans. My Copycat has an interesting concept for its music video, where viewers get to play "Spot the difference" games and try to find differences between scenes that were played out. It's fun, interactive, unique and very creative. While concept-wise I still think Catallena has the best one, but when it comes to the song itself, I have to say that I love My Copycat more than Catallena. It's a great song and very addictive. I just love it.


9 ~ Secret: I'm In Love

Group: Secret
Track: I'm In Love
Members: Jieun, Hyosung, Sunhwa, Hana
Watch I'm In Love MV here!

To be honest, I don't really follow Secret so I can be a bit clueless when it comes to their songs. But I do know that they are very popular and have a big following in South Korea as well as on the internet. This song of theirs caught my attention almost instantly. This is that type of song that can attract you even if you are not a fan of the group. I had in two occasions were asked about this song and who sing them when I played it out loud on my laptop, one of them rarely listen to K-pop no less, which just shows the attention-grabber tune this song have. It's a great pop song and the vocal performance by the members were amazing too, it certainly deserved every attention it gets. I'll be looking forward for their next comeback.

My 2014 Top 10 Films ~ No. 10 - No. 6

It's that time again where I list down my top 10 favourite films of the year. I've seen a lot of people posted their own version of top 10 films of the year on the internet lately. So here is my top 10 list. For the record, I've only watched 26 films in the cinemas in 2014, down from the 30+ films that I've watched in 2013. Although it's not much, I'm still taking my time to list it down, making sure I consider every film that I watched carefully, since I love quite a few of them. It's still a fun thing to do though. I will break the post/chart in two parts, and in this first part are my favourite films from number 10 to number 6. Without further delay, let's begin.


10 - Big Hero 6

This is the follow-up movie from Walt Disney Animation Studios after the highly successful Frozen released back in 2013. It's pretty hard to match the success of Frozen, don't you think so? It's already January 2015 and people are still talking about Frozen...but not much being said about Big Hero 6. Well, don't let the popularity status of a movie fool you. Eventhough Big Hero 6 had not received as much hype as Frozen, it is still an entertaining movie, one that have an emotional journey of a character that audiences worth tagging along with. Underneath all the colourful visuals and the superheroes vibe, is a movie about a young boy trying to overcome his grief over losing his older brother, and there are quite a few touching moments in the movie, I might add. It has good moral values for children and enjoyable to adults too, an excellent recipe for a good family movie. It raked in more than $370 million in worldwide box office and received critical acclaim as well. I wonder if they would make a sequel out of it?

Image source from Big Hero 6 official website.


9 - The Maze Runner

This film is good! I like the story with its suspense, mysteries and twists in the plot, I like the settings as well as the casts too. It was an enjoyable film which by the end of it, it made me want more. I want to know what will happen to the characters next. Well, it looks like I won't have to wait long as the sequel for the film, The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials, is set to release in September 2015. 20th Century Fox, the studio behind the film, was so confident that the film would become a success (which it did, and started a new franchise for the studio) that they decided to move ahead with the sequel even before this film was released in theaters. It's good that the studio believe in the franchise but at the same time I hope the sequel won't become a rushed product and would be as good (if not better) as its predecessor. Let's hope for the best for this new franchise.

Image source from The Maze Runner official website.

My 2014 Top 20 Songs from K-pop Girl Groups ~ No. 15 - No. 11

Welcome to Part 2 of my chart for top 20 songs of 2014 from K-pop girl groups. If you missed Part 1, you can click right here to start with songs from number 20 to number 16. For this second part, let's count down the songs from number 15 to number 11. Continue to read below to start.


15 ~ Laboum: What About You

Group: Laboum
Track: What About You
Members: Haein, Solbin, Yulhee, Soyeon, ZN, Yujeong
Watch What About You MV here!

There is one song in Part 1 where I mentioned that I fall in love with it because of its simplicity. Well, here's another song that made me fall in love with it with the exact same reason. There is something so simple yet so beautiful with this song that made it soothing to my ears. This is Laboum's second single, they debut in the same year - 2014 - with the song Pit a Pat. I love the music video for What About You too with its music box concept, and their outfits are so adorable. It is very impressive for them to be this good with just two singles, congratulations to their company (or should I say companies; NH Media and Nega Network, this group were formed with members from two different companies) for managing them very well with the right song and the appropriate concept. This song is really great, for those who are yet to be introduced to them, do check them out.


14 ~ Orange Caramel: The Gangnam Avenue

Group: Orange Caramel
Track: The Gangnam Avenue
Members: Raina, Nana, Lizzy
Watch The Gangnam Avenue MV here!

2014 has been a great year for Orange Caramel. This After School sub-unit had released song after song which are so fantastic and catchy complemented with highly creative and inventive music videos that they caught people's attention almost immediately. The Gangnam Avenue seems to be one of the less popular out of all the songs they released in 2014 though, which is a shame since it is such a good song. The concept for this music video is a bit more simple, maybe that's why it didn't get much attention compared to the rest? Or maybe people feel like it wasn't good enough? It does sound more like a J-pop than a K-pop song to be honest. I still personally love this song (well, it made my list), so if you somehow missed it, do yourself a favour and check it out, hopefully you'll like it as much as I do.

My 2014 Top 20 Songs from K-pop Girl Groups ~ No. 20 - No. 16

Happy New Year 2015! I hope everyone get to enjoy their new year celebration, if you went to any. Me? I'm just celebrating my new year at the comfort of my home, counting down my top 20 songs from K-pop girl groups for 2014, which I'm going to share with you right now. This is my second year of doing this chart (third time if you count the group-based chart which I did for 2012), and this time I'm going to separate the chart into 4 different posts/parts. For this first part, I introduce you the songs from number 20 to number 16. Let's begin!


20 ~ HelloVenus: Sticky Sticky

Group: HelloVenus
Track: Sticky Sticky
Members: Alice, Nara, Lime, Yooyoung, Seoyoung, Yeoreum
Watch Sticky Sticky MV here!

HelloVenus was formerly a group formed with members from two companies; Fantagio and Pledis Entertainment, but after the latter decided not to continue in this joint venture project anymore, HelloVenus is now under full control of Fantagio. Because of that, Yooara and Yoonjo, which are under Pledis Entertainment are no longer part of the group and Fantagio replacing them with two new members; Seoyoung and Yeoreum. Their comeback with this new song, Sticky Sticky, featured a sexy concept which is totally different and way more edgy than the cute concept that they were popularly known before. Personally, I don't mind with this sexy concept that they are going with (it's not too sexy anyway). What's more important is the song which I find to be quite good. The beat is nice and there are parts that are catchy, the only problem I have are the lyrics which I think might be too sexy? Well, as long as you don't understand the meaning to the song, I think it should be fine. By the way, Alice looks so beautiful in the music video, you should definitely check it out.


19 ~ Kiss&Cry: Domino Game

Group: Kiss&Cry
Track: Domino Game
Members: Bohye, Dia, Soyumi, Haena
Watch Domino Game MV here!

It's an odd name for a group, nevertheless, this group showed so much potential through the song's music video; excellent vocals, fantastic dancing skills and great stage presence. The song itself sounds very good too, which to me have a bit of Latin influence to it. It was the group's debut song, so with such a strong debut, one would think that the group might go far, right? Well, it might not be that smooth sailing for the group. There were rumors saying that the group had disbanded, and I think even one of the members was said to have left the group. The company that managed the group denied the allegations though, but which one is true? Had the group disbanded or are they still together? Let's just hope for the best for this group, in the mean time, enjoy the song for what it is.

My 2014 Fave Solo Songs from K-pop Girl Group's Members

This will be my second year doing a top 20 list of my favourite songs from K-pop girl groups, but while I'm finalizing the chart, I thought maybe I should post something about solo songs from member (or former member) of K-pop girl groups too. There are some pretty impressive songs this year so I would list here two standouts which are my personal favourites, and both songs happen to be their respective solo debut. Who are they? Read on to find out.

Nicole

Nicole was a former member of KARA. I'm not sure what led to her leaving her former agency and, ultimately, her group but one thing I'm sure of is that I like her more being a solo artist than a member of a girl group. Somehow I always felt like she was being overshadowed by the other members of KARA and only now I can truly see her talent. I love her debut song, 'Mama', and she has a nice voice which I never noticed before too. She can also rap and has great dancing skills. I love Nicole and seriously I think she has huge potential to become a successful solo artist, so I wish her all the best with her solo career. She was born and raised in the US so may I suggest she expand to promote her music internationally with English songs?

Watch 'Mama' by Nicole.

My Music Jam ~ Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Alif Satar for October 2014

It's been awhile since I last post about music that I like so let's talk about music now and what music I've been jamming to lately. There's a lot of good stuff out there, so below are some of the music that I keep on repeating on my laptop while working, or dancing to in my car while driving. Just a side note, even though I put 'October' in the title post, it doesn't mean that the songs I'm listed below were released in October. I just want to differentiate this post with my older post about music, hence the month and the year in the title. Make sense? Now let's turn on the music!


Ed Sheeran ~ Don't

Ed Sheeran had released a new music video for a new song a couple of weeks ago called 'Thinking Out Loud' but I'm still enjoying his song 'Don't'. It is such a cool song with interesting lyrics. I've read an article my friend forward to me before that this song is about Ellie Goulding, who he had a fling with (or so he thought) before she hooked up with Niall Horan from One Direction instead. I'm not sure how true is that article though, you could never 100% sure what you read online nowadays. Whatever it is, I hope everything goes well for him and I hope he keeps continuing on making good music.

Check out Don't MV here.


Sheppard ~ Geronimo

When I first listen to 'Geronimo', I thought it was an odd song with strange arrangement. But after awhile, the song grew on me and I thought to myself, "Hey, it is a good song!". It was truly addictive listening to the song and it was not even your typical pop song that usually have that addictive vibe. This indie pop band from Australia had even been signed with music manager, Scooter Braun (the one who discovered Justin Bieber on YouTube), for their US launch. I'm pretty sure we will be hearing a lot from this band in the future. I hope they have great success!

Enjoy Geronimo MV here.


Colbie Caillat ~ Try

This is truly an inspirational song, and it's accompanied by an inspirational music video too. Although the lyrics and music video suits more to girls and women, I don't see why boys and men can't learn something from this song too. Boys and men do face peer pressure to 'fit in' too sometimes but I have to say in these days and age, girls and women face tougher challenges and pressures amidst all these unrealistic ideas on what beauty is. Yes, we all can learn a thing or two from this song. Let our inner beauty shine everyone.

Watch Try MV here.

Salam Aidilfitri 1435!

It's Eid ul-Fitr today, so I would like to take this opportunity to wish Eid Mubarak to all Muslims. May all our deeds that we did in Ramadhan would be accepted by God and may we all have a blessing year ahead of us.

And for non-Muslims in countries that observe this festive season as national holiday, happy holidays to you! Go visit your Muslims friends and let us celebrate together and tighten the bond between us.

Taqabbalallahu minna wa minkum! (which means "May God accept from us and you our fasts and deeds").

Salam Ramadhan 1435!

Happy fasting to all Muslims! It's Ramadhan again and it's time to multiple our effort in giving our hearts and souls to the God Almighty. May all your hard work and dedication in this holy month will be rewarded by Allah. Have a blessing month everyone!

Pray for Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane MH370

After two weeks now, we have still no clue on the whereabouts of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370 which was bound to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. My heart and prayers go to all the crew members and passengers who are still lost, and to all the family members of the victims, all I could hope for is for them to be strong and to keep on praying. It is easy to play the blaming games in this hard and challenging situation but it will do no good to anyone. Instead I think it is important to be positive and keep the negative energy away from you as it would only consumed you in sadness.

Believe that the authorities are doing all they can to find this plane and pray for the best. May Allah help us all. Amin.

My 2013 Top 10 Films ~ No. 5 - No. 1

Welcome to the second part of my top 10 favourite movies of 2013. If you missed part 1, you can click here. For those who already read that, let's continue with the remaining five movies in my list. Hope you enjoy the post.

5) The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

This second film in a planned trilogy is doing very well at the box office and most probably do as well as its predecessor, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey which raked in more than $1 billion at the box office. Personally, I feel The Desolation of Smaug is a much better film than An Unexpected Journey in terms of its plot, pace, action, and emotion that it gives to audiences. All the casts did great in the movie but I'm particularly very impressed with the dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) which made a very convincing and intimidating appearance in the film. And it has a great cliffhanger ending too which make me even more excited for the third film, The Hobbit: There and Back Again.

4) The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Even before the film was released, I already predicted that this film would be in my top 10 list because I love the first film so much that it would seem impossible that I wouldn't love this one. I was right, I love Catching Fire, it was an amazing experience watching this movie at the cinema. But I realized that eventhough the film grossed more than $830 million at the box office, a lot of people actually didn't like this film based on some comments I read online with people saying they wasted their money seeing this movie at the cinema. Of course those commentators who said that they hate the movie might be just a portion of the whole audiences but still it kept me thinking; did the movie made so much money because there are people who watch it not because they like the franchise but because they are curious about the movie due to its aggressive advertising and also out of curiosity? If this is true, I wonder how Mockingjay Part 1 (the next sequel in the film series) would perform at the box office?

My 2013 Top 10 Films ~ No. 10 - No. 6

I know it's a bit late but, Happy New Year 2014!!! It is time once again to list my top 10 favourite movies of 2013. You would find a lot of lists from a lot of different people out there, so this is my list that you are about to read based on my own personal preference. I would split the list into two parts and for this first part, I've listed my favourite movies from number 10 to number 6. Let's begin.

10) 47 Ronin

There's no secret that this $175 million film is not doing well at the box office. It seems that it's not registering very well with the general audiences at the cinemas but personally I like 47 Ronin very much. It gives me fantasy, action and emotion with its telling of 47 ronin (it's what samurai without master is called) who seek their own version of justice after their master had been killed. Although I feel that the film would be much better in Japanese language, I am still very satisfied with the film; good plot, great overall performances by the film's cast and good visuals as well. It's a shame the film is considered a commercial failure because I personally think the film is good in so many ways.

9) Star Trek: Into Darkness

I would say that I'm not a Star Trek fan before which franchise consists of TV series, a string of films, novels, comics and many more. I didn't even watch the reboot movie, Star Trek, which was released in 2009. But I did watch Star Trek: Into Darkness, the sequel to the 2009 reboot film, and I love it. I always love science fiction movies but I wasn't into Star Trek before because I felt I was too left behind with the series. Luckily Star Trek: Into Darkness wasn't too confusing and new fans like me can still understand it even if we do not have any idea what the series was about before. It's a fun movie that anybody can enjoy which is a great factor to bring in new audiences. The film performed very well at the box office and managed to gross more than $460 million worlwide. I hope a sequel is in plan as I am excited to find out where would their space exploration mission would take the crew next.

K-pop Girl groups ~ My Top 20 Songs for 2013 (No. 6 - No. 1)

This is the final part for my 2013 favourite K-pop songs from female groups in which you will finally find out the Top 6 songs in the chart. If you missed the first part where I listed number 20 until number 14, you can click here. For part 2 (number 13 until number 7), please click here. Ready to find out which song hold the top spot?

6) Nine Muses ~ Wild

To be honest, I'm not really interested in this group before. The group which currently consists of 9 members; Hyuna, Minha, Lee Sem, Sera, Kyungri, Hyemi, Sungah, Eunji and Euaerin; finally caught my attention with the release of Wild, a fast-paced and energetic song about love and sexual desires. I love Wild, I think the vocal performance was good and overall I really like the song especially the rap parts. The group is very active with several other songs released in 2013. I'm a new fan of the group and I hope they will gain more recognition in the future as I feel they are a very talented bunch.

Wild MV

5) Jewelry ~ Hot & Cold

Despite currently being the longest running Korean girl group with more than two members ever, I'm still unfamiliar with the group's past songs. I think I did heard some of them before but I'm totally clueless or didn't noticed the rest of them. However, Hot & Cold managed to surprise me with its great tune and great vocal performance by the current members; Eunjung, Baby J, Semi and Yewon. I like its funny music video too which featured label mate Hyung Sik, one of the member from ZE:A. I think I should pay more attention to Jewelry after this.

Hot & Cold MV

4) Sistar19 ~ Gone Not Around Any Longer

Sistar19 is a sub-unit of Sistar with members Hyolyn and Bora headlining the group. Gone Not Around Any Longer was released early in 2013 but I must say, the song is still fresh in my mind. It is a well-written song with strong melody and powerful vocal performance and just absolutely a great song. The voice of Hyolyn in the song blew my mind away. How come I didn't noticed her powerful voice before? But I bet a lot of people already know this since I always read comments praising her voice before. I have to admit though that this song sounded more like a Hyolyn song rather than a Sistar19 song. I feel Bora should be more involed in the song as well since this is a sub-group of two and not a solo project.

Gone Not Around Any Longer MV

K-pop Girl groups ~ My Top 20 Songs for 2013 (No. 13 - No. 7)

Welcome to part two of my K-pop chart featuring my 2013 top 20 songs from K-pop girl groups. In part one, I've already listed out songs from number 20 until 14. If you missed it, you can find it by clicking here. For this second part, I have listed the songs from number 13 until number 7. What songs would they be? Scroll down to find out. Hope you enjoy it!

13) AOA Black ~ Moya

As I mentioned in my first part for the chart, AOA has an idol division and a band division. At number 13 is the song Moya from the band division, AOA Black. Comprised of Choa, Jimin, Yuna, Mina and Youkyoung, the group performed the song while playing musical instruments. Although Moya doesn't have catchy lyrics or addictive beat that usually associated with K-pop music, I still like it very much as I found it simple and unique, and I'm also impressed with the vocal performance from the group, especially from the member Choa. It's very rare for K-pop female groups to have their members playing musical instuments and performed as a band rather than a normal dance group, that is why I'm impressed with the concept that the company is doing for this group. Vey impressive indeed.

Moya MV

12) 4Minute ~ What's Your Name?

4Minute, which consists of Jihyun, Gayoon, Jiyoon, Hyuna and Sohyun, has lots of great, ear-pleasing hits under their belt. "Muzik", "HuH", "I My Me Mine" and "Volume Up" are all great songs from the group. And for 2013, What's Your Name? would definitely be added to the list as one of the group's best effort. Topping various music charts when it was released, the hip hop influenced song became one of the most well-received song for the group. The music would definitely makes you want to dance to the tune, and I also love the fact that the song suited the fun and funky image of the group as well. Bravo 4Minute!

What's Your Name? MV

11) T-ara N4 ~ Jeon Won Diary

T-ara N4 is a sub-unit for T-ara with Eunjung, Hyomin, Jiyeon and Areum as the members (Areum had officially left the group and a new member, Dani, will replaced her but only in the sub-unit T-ara N4 and not for T-ara). Jeon Won Diary is such an energetic and fun song but judging from the lyrics, it seems that the song was the group's response to haters regarding the controversies that had been clouded T-ara since 2012. Although I think there is no statement to back that up and it might all be just a coincidence, when you study the lyrics it does seems possible that the song is their response to all that had happened to them. Controversy aside, I still think Jeon Won Diary is a great song and no one can argue that T-ara continuously delivers when it comes to great music.

Jeon Won Diary MV

K-pop Girl groups ~ My Top 20 Songs for 2013 (No. 20 - No. 14)

This end of the year would be all about K-pop music (or Korean pop music for those who are unfamiliar with the term) as I would count down my favourite K-pop songs from female group for 2013. I started this K-pop chart last year when I listed down my favourite K-pop female group for 2012 based on the songs they had released.  But for this year, I would do the chart a little bit different as I would list down my top 20 favourite K-pop songs from female groups instead of counting down the groups themselves. Originally I only want to do Top 13 (as I thought Top 13 of 2013 sounds cool) but there are so many songs that I like that I feel I need to do Top 20 instead. The chart would be separated in 3 parts and for this first part, let's start with number 20 until number 14. Let's begin!

20) AOA ~ Confused

This group which debuted in 2012 is kind of unique because 7 of the members (Choa, Jimin, Yuna, Mina, Hyejeong, Seolhyun and Chanmi) are in the idol group while at the same time 4 of them (Choa, Jimin, Yuna and Mina) including one additional member (Youkyoung) also formed the band division (there are all 8 members altogether). The song Confused are performed by the idol division and was released back in October 2013. I like the song's tune especially the chorus which was quite catchy. The music video has a sexy concept and seductive feel to it and eventhough I don't have any problem with the music video, I feel that it might not be too good for the younger viewers.

Confused MV

19) Tahiti ~ Love Sick

Another group who debuted in 2012 is the six-member group Tahiti, which consists of members Jungbin, Minjae, Miso, Jisoo, Ari and Jin. For the song Love Sick though, Jin was taken out from promotioning the song as the concept for this album was deemed unfit for her age. Love Sick is a good song, however it sounds too similar to Potential Breakup Song from Aly and AJ which makes me guessing that their company purchased the copyright for the song and made a cover version of it. I'm not sure about it since I didn't find anything that state this but considering they hadn't had any trouble like so many Korean artists in the past who were accused of plagiarism before, so I guess they did made the copyright purchased after all. Anyway, it's still a great song and I'm looking forward for more music from the group.

Love Sick MV

18) BESTie ~ Love Options

Eventhough the four-member group BESTie debuted in 2013, three of its members were originally from the group EXID, so it's safe to say that the group are not entirely new to the industry. Consists of UJi, Hyeyeon, Haeryung and Dahye, Love Options was only their second single. It's an energetic song with upbeat tempo and great vocals which hooked me immediately after my first time hearing the song. Although Love Options is a pop commercial song, it does showcased the group's strong vocals and presence (in the music video) which I feel will help them garnered more fans.

Love Options MV

17) Tiny-G ~ Minimanimo

I had post about this group before which you can find it here. I'm such in love with this song that it got stuck in my head for weeks. Released in the beginning of the year, Minimanimo is a cute and catchy song which I think would catch people's attention even without seeing the cheerful and coulourful music video that comes with it. Members J.Min, Mint, Do Hee and Myeong Ji definitely have strong stage presence even being physically small. I feel Tiny-G is one of the new group which has such a huge potential to be big and hopefully that's where they are heading.

Minimanimo MV