Halloween week special: Shinee - Married To The Music & Odd

Hello

An nyeoung

Konnichiwa

Ni hao

Google images

Welcome to the first of a weeks special of Halloween posts, I'm not a fan of the colder weather but there's something about Autumn that makes it just as pretty as the Summer months, there's nothing more beautiful then walking down a drive of pretty coloured fallen leaves. I may not like the weather but at heart I really do love this time of year especially when it comes to Halloween and Christmas, in trying to keep with my regular posts I wanted them to have a Halloween theme and kicking it off is Shinee with their 4th Korean album.

May and August saw Shinee release their 4th full length Korean album Odd and it's repackaged counterpart Married To The Music. Minho stated that he was nervous about the concept they had gone with as it was a concept that Shinee hadn't done before and was nervous how their fans would take to the new album.

View the lead single from Odd was written by member Jonghyun and is an upbeat track of the deep house genre and I bow down and say that the track was produced by an English team called LDN Noise, View was met with many good reviews proving that Shinee still have what it takes to be in the industry. In my own opinion as much as I love most of Shinee's heavier tracks like Lucifer it was nice to see a more chilled out Shinee, my only fault was the styling for the comeback which was baggy jeans and oversized t-shirts making me feel like I'd been moved back in time to the era of New Kids On The Block, The Backstreet Boys and N*sync, for me that wasn't a good look for them.

Many fans were against the MV for View as it showed a different side to Shinee, a Shinee that drank and partied but I think the main reasons wasn't because of those it was mainly the girls stripping off that rattled some of the fans. Check out the MV below.

Owned by SM Entertainment 

Odd was released in two versions, version A and version B, you may not be surprised to know I have both versions. There is no difference in the track list for these versions just the photobooks are different, I also got a photocard in each album. Check out a few of the pictures from both versions below.

Version A

Jonghyun photo card

Version B

Lyric booklet

Jonghyun photo card

(yes I got the same member haha)

Now we come to the main reason why I've made this album part of my Halloween Week Special, July saw SM release the teaser for Shinee's repackaged album Married To The Music and from the start fans could tell it had a horror style concept with many saying it reminded them of Rocky Horror Picture Show! Check out the teaser below.

MV teaser

Owned by SM Entertainment 

Like View, lead single Married To The Music was produced by LDN Noise and is described as a funky disco track, Jeff Benjamin of Billboard described the title track as "a journey of different genres, opening with what initially sounds like a beatbox-heavy, hip-hop sound before flipping to a sexy, bouncy electronic beat on the verses until we get to a funk-inspired chorus that mixes in horn blasts, groovy guitar strums and classic boy-band harmonies" also describing the MV he stated The music video is a bit B movie horror film with a little Rocky Horror Picture Show-esque camp thrown in as the guys hit a ghoulish party with radioactive drinks while a faceless woman finds ways to steal the guys' body parts by throwing a knife through Key's neck, stealing Jonghyun's lips through a kiss and such. All the boisterous body-snatching is spliced up with scenes of the guys' slick-as-ever choreography. Check out the MV below.

Owned by SM Entertainment 

There was much confusion with the concept for Married To The Music especially for international fans as they were releasing a Halloween concept in the heat of the Summer, but what was Odd for us was the norm for Koreans. In fact Shinee was embracing South Korean's tradition of flocking to watch horror films in the heat of the Summer, in South Korea it's common knowledge that one's body temperature cools while watching the genre, so to cope with sweltering heat, South Korea's ideal time for a scary movie is in the summer. Shinee embraced the tradition with their own take on a murder-mystery with an added touch of oddness to coincide. 

Married To The Music is set out like Odd in the pictures above, it's a normal CD case with CD and lyric booklet then a separate booklet with all photo's of the group, all kept together in a plastic slipcase with gory style writing. Married To The Music has the same track list as Odd but with 4 extra songs *is to show new tracks.

Track List:

*Married To The Music

*SAVIOR

Odd Eye

Love Sick

View

Romance

Trigger

이별의 길 (Farewell My Love)

너의 노래가 되어 (An Ode To You)

*Hold You

Alive

Woof Woof

*Chocolate

Black Hole

재연 (An Encore)

I love this design

Lyric booklet

Key photo card

(most of my shinee photo cards are of Key)

When I first listened to Odd there were only a few songs that I liked and personally felt underwhelmed from the album after loving their past albums, but on the release Married To The Music I've barely stopped listening to the album (the only 3 albums being religiously played are Married To The Music, Girls Generation's Lion Heart/You Think and Super Junior's 10th anniversary album Magic). There's not a song I don't like listening the whole album is amazing, I'll share a few with you now.

Married To the Music

SAVIOR

Odd Eye

Love Sick

View

Trigger

너의 노래가 되어 (An Ode To You)

Chocolate

Black Hole

Married To The Music Live

(By MBCKpop)

SAVIOR

(By v_key923_v)

Odd Eye Live

(By Mnet K-POP)

Love Sick 

(Owned by SM Entertainment)

baekhyunoronew

View Live

(TV-People)

TV-People)

Trigger

(By heartnets)

너의 노래가 도어 (An Ode To You) Live

(By ACE_Records With SHINee.)

Chocolate 

ET Music

Black Hole

(By OmgSubs!)

You may have noticed that I had a trouble just choosing a few to share with you but it's just an amazing album and I will continue to have high hopes for Shinee and can't wait for more new releases from them and hope that I can one day get the chance to watch them perform live.

Shawols what's your favourite track from these albums?

non-K-pop fans did any of these songs make you want to give Shinee a try?

Comment below to let me know.

See you soon!

An nyeoung 

Sayonara 

Zai Jian 

Bye