“Disturbance”: Another Predictably Wonderful BoA Single

As BoA’s music career slows down, the K-pop Queen has started to transition from an albums artist to a singles one. Sales for her last album, Only One, were significantly lower than her previous effort, Hurricane Venus, but the title track performed well on the digital charts, closing out 2012 as the 33rd biggest song of the year. Considering that all SM Entertainment artists other than Girls’ Generation usually tank on the digital charts, BoA’s ranking was solid, if not impressive.
Her new single, “Disturbance,” doesn’t appear to be a full-fledged comeback for the songstress, and instead looks like a one-off to coincide with her current Korean concert tour and to put her back on the charts before she takes the rest of 2013 to pursue acting projects. For that reason, it’s not an instant knockout like “Only One” was. It’s not hugely hook-driven, with most of the focus saved for the emotional lyrics about a once happy couple that have drifted so far apart that a reconciliation seems impossible. Like “Only One,” it’s an urban-pop midtempo, but more bleak and contemporary as opposed to the throwback bubblegum vibe of “Only One.”
The music video is really beautiful, and when I say beautiful, I specifically mean TAEMIN. SM has finally let the poor guy ditch the girly wigs look like a fucking man — something he’s been requesting for a long time. Given how handsome he looks now, it’s not hard to see why he desperately wanted to do away with his cute maknae image. Now before y’all get it twisted, Jonghyun is still my husband for all eternity, but I think Taemin just replaced Key as my No. 2 SHINee bias.
Taemin’s breathtaking beauty aside, the video as a whole is a smash. BoA and Tae really bring the lyrics to life, and there’s even a Choose Your Own Adventure ending where you can decide the couple’s fate. I split them up and left Taemin miserable and depressed so I could fantasize about taking advantage of his vulnerable state in a variety of sick and depraved ways.
Yup.
For the TL;DR crowd: BoA is back, her new song isn’t catchy but it’s still super awesome, Taemin is sexy.