It's Monday! You know what that means~
[Review] G-Dragon - One Of A Kind
I also included a short preview of a bonus writing, a vocal ranking of SNSD.
[collapse=Preview]Girls’ Generation. Perhaps one of the most stacked (also including underrepresented) lineups in terms of vocal talent. However, in any group, there are some that shine stronger than others. I’ll be writing up some thoughts on each member and why they stand where they are. Included with each rank are some songs I selected which highlight a glimpse of each member.
1. Taeyeon
- Glorious Taeyeon comes in at #1 and as such is one of the strongest female group vocalists ever. Powerful emotion, shivering falsetto, solid range, and near-flawless English are some of her qualities. Taeyeon also has amazing utility in singing multiple genres: bubblegum pop, ballad, rock, country; you name it, she can sing it, and well. Compared to Seohyun and Jessica though, her comfort range is low and while she can perfectly hit every high note you throw at her, there’s a very noticeable difference in power between her belts in Twinkle and Gee to those in Genie and Mistake.
Highlights: Genie; Devil’s Cry; I Love You; Mistake; O Holy Night
2. Tiffany
- If Taeyeon’s voice is “ying”, then Tiffany’s voice is definitely “yang”. Words cannot describe how perfectly the combination of TaeNy’s voices compliment each other. Taeyeon has high emotion and falsetto, and Tiffany brings low power and huskiness. Tiffany is really the only member who can provide those long powerful belts, and while she excels at that, she can still hit those high notes quite beautifully, too. With such a wide range, it’s almost inevitable that Tiffany can easily sing various genres. Being a Korean American, English is as easy as knowing how to breathe which gives her increased utility expanding her covers (the recent Rolling In The Deep comes to mind).
Highlights: Lady Marmalade; Rolling In The Deep; Hoot; Diamond;
6. Sunny
- Sunny has a very noticeable voice, tinted with the cutest of aegyo that becomes so recognizable after a few listens. In many ways, she follows Jessica with their unique sound that is easy to listen to at times, but seems out of place at others. While Jessica excels at high ballads and slow melodies, Sunny’s forte is typically bubblegum pop and faster songs. However, because she’s got that unique voice, it still sounds out of place in certain pop songs (Three) and sometimes just awkward overall (Paparazzi). It seems earlier (like way back), Sunny was able to sort of overcome her aegyo voice in releases like Girls’ Generation and Into The New World, which still sounded unique, but without the cutesy sound that may sort of “restrict” her in some of the songs I listed above.
Highlights: I Love You, I Love You; Time Machine; Genie
9. Yoona
- Unfortunately, someone has to come in last. Yoona is like Hyoyeon, where they both possess less expansive comfort zones and aren’t given much time to showcase their ability but there are a few key differences. Yoona sounds stronger in the lower ranges and doesn’t have a distinct sound to her voice, which pretty much delegates her to a support vocal in any instance, as pretty much all the other members outshine her in other aspects. Yoona is kind of like the reverse version of 2NE1’s Dara. Whereas Dara is a very strong support singer with high range, Yoona works on lower range support. This low voice also lends her some rapping capability as seen in The Boys, so perhaps we’ll see some more of that in the future.
Highlights: Introduce Me A Good Man; 4 Minutes; Girls’ Generation[/collapse]