#VU Review

[lunapaper]

Hana Vu certainly isn’t one to hold back with the gore, first with the cover for her debut album, Public Storage, and now the disturbing new video for her latest single, ‘Care.’

Inspired by the Artemisia Gentileschi paintings Judith Beheading Holofernes and “Judith, Her Maid and Holofernes' Head, it begins with the LA-based singer/songwriter’s rotting severed head, the events leading up to her murder unfolding in reverse as she sings of feeling discarded amid a simmering rock haze. So an episode of Snapped, but make it into a disaffected indie video you’d see on MTV in the 90s...

‘Care’ is from Vu’s upcoming album, Romanticism, which sees the singer/songwriter trying to ‘convey my perspective as boldly as possible — to succinctly crystallize how it feels to be young, but also to be deeply sad.'

Hana Vu’s Romanticism is out May 3 via Ghostly International.

- Bianca B. 

[thehaniverse]

[Han Radio 📻 #1] TXT - Chikai ✨ Album First Listen & Review

Eh hem.

Yes, I am aware this album dropped 2 weeks ago. And yes I am aware that Jimin's <Muse> dropped today, and I still have not written my RM <RPWP> review, but you know what, bite me - life happens!

Anyway, now that I've finally had a second to get my mind straight, and I will likely be hearing all of these songs live in Osaka next weekend, I'm finally ready to give <Chikai> my first listen and share my personal thoughts on the album!

So without further ado, let's jump in!

Track 01. We'll Never Change [Title Track] My Rating: 8/10

One thing I can confidently say about TXT is that their title tracks always hit the mark - and for me, their more ballad/RnB songs always match my taste perfectly - this song being no exception. 😌

The distorted piano rift at the beginning of the track creates an enchanted atmosphere, which I find is reminiscent of the unique fairytale influence that has become characteristic of TXT's concepts and musical message. Then it's complimented by the juxtaposition between the thumping of the bass representing a racing, anxious heart against Beomgyu's ethereal vocals which are instantly soothing.

My favourite part is definitely the pre-chorus with the repeating 'let go let go let go' motif - particularly in the second verse with the transition from Soobin to Beomgyu's voices. I think these two really have soft airy voices that truly compliment this track. And the layering of the other members' voices underneath really adds to the magical and emotive mood of the track.

I think using Yeonjun to build up the tension in the first pre-chorus, and keeping Hueningkai and Taehyun's more powerful vocals until the choruses was a great choice to build the atmosphere. On the flip side, I do have to say this song lost points for me because the chorus just didn't hit as hard as I was expecting for how much it built up the emotion. (It felt like all that build-up with no payoff?! 😭)

Again, Soobin and Beomgyu's voices really complete this song for me, the reprise of 'you you' after the chorus just causes my emotions to swell and both of them have these beautiful forlorn vocals, which goes wonderfully with the message of the song.

Speaking of the lyrics, I think the song is pretty transparent with the meaning from the title alone - it's a beautiful reflection of a promise between two (or more) parties to never forget their relationship regardless of how far apart they are and what else may change around them - they themselves, and the essence of their relationship will never change.

The other gripe I have with this song is the typical 2024 complaint, but the song is just so short 😔 I would have loved just one more chorus at the end, potentially with the more stripped-back audio and distorted piano and then a final crescendo of all the vocals and music... but yeah, streaming so short songs.

Track 02. Deja Vu (Japanese Version) My Rating: 10/10

Okay, as a self-identify 'translated song hater' - I have to say this is one of the best translated tracks I've heard in a long time! I don't know if it's a mental block or what, but in my 17 years of K-Pop, I have always found listening to translated songs SUPER jarring, even if I hear the translated one first, I could just tell.

And that does somewhat apply to this track too, like Hueningkai's rap and the chorus sounds a little staccato but otherwise, it's not a half-bad effort. (Honestly, the only song I can say is flawless is TXT's {Your Light}, but that's probably because they intentionally recorded all 3 language versions at once. I still only listen to the Korean one though! 🤧)

It also doesn't hurt that Deja Vu is just such a bop of a track. I loved it in <Tomorrow> and I love it in <Chikai>, and I love songs with dope fan chants too, and this is just hitting all the marks for me!

//I'm not going to get into the lyrics because I'm far too lazy to check if the translation matches the Korean, but if you want me to review the original <Tomorrow> album or at least {Deja Vu} track, then lemme know.

Track 03. Kitto Zutto My Rating: 7/10

I'm SO happy they kept an upbeat song after {Deja Vu} on this album just like they did on <Tomorrow> because my body was just waiting for {Miracle} to play, so having this album have a truck that's equally high tempo and high tension was great.

I also think this song is really tailored to the tastes of the Japanese audience, it would fit right in as the OP/EP of an anime or game - however, I do think that could hurt its marketability elsewhere. (However, it's no secret that K-pop idols' Japanese songs really do well outside of Japan, so maybe they just don't care at this point.)

For me personally, I do think the transition between the verses and choruses could have been a little smoother, the sudden change in the tempo of the vocals from the subdued verse to the upbeat chorus is a tiny bit jarring. In their defense, they do build up a little, which lets you know the speed change is coming, but it's just not my style and this is my review so... (It's also just a lot on my sound-sensitive ADHD ears.)

Nyangnyangs are taking it vocals-wise for me in this song, but Hueningkai starting the bridge was an absolutely artful choice, his voice is just perfect for those moments, especially in Japanese songs.

All in all, while it is a good song, it's definitely going to be one of those I enjoy when it comes up on shuffle, but isn't necessarily a track that I will search for, that's why I capped it out at 7 points.

Bonus: We'll Never Change [Choreography] My Rating: 10/10

WOW. Just WOW.

Honestly, my heart hurts so much for Beomgyu because I can only imagine how much they all practiced for a routine this artistically stunning.

When I talk to others about TXT, I often comment on how absolutely breathtaking their live performances always are, and this song is no exception at all.

The incorporation of their stage outfits into the dance, and the way the harp-like movement actually compliments the piano motif in the music is just... URGH, I LOVE IT.

I really hope Beomgyu's condition has improved by Osaka as it would be an absolute honor to see the first complete version of this stage in all its glory - but if not at our show, then I hope he is able to perform before the end of the Japanese leg of the tour.

While I know I said Japanese songs usually aren't that popular overseas, I do wish that K-pop idols would perform one or two of their Japanese tracks throughout the whole tour - especially artists with such amazing Japanese tracks like TXT.

If I'm completley honest, seeing {Ring} live is one of the major reasons I even wanted to go and see them in Japan so badly. It is undoubtedly my fave of their Japanese songs, and arguably one of my fave TXT tracks in general (the cute lyrics and Taehyun's vocals just blow me away every time) - so yeah, anyway, please show some love to your fave J-tracks and maybe we can set a new president.

-

Anyway, my final rating for this entire single album is a solid 8/10. While it's not perfect marks, with so few songs (one of which is a remake), I think it's a fair score for what we were given.

TXT never fails to impress me with their ability to add their own color to everything that touch, and the magic truly is never lost. <Chikai> is a fantastic way to round off this chapter and I'm excited to see what they bring us next once Act: Promise has ended.

One thing we can be sure of is that their unique musical identity will never change~!

//Okay, cheesy ending aside - I'd love to hear what you all think of the album, and if you agree or disagree with my review. This is genuinely my first listen so my mind may change in the future, but that's the beauty of first impressions.

Till the next one! Thanks for tuning in to Han Radio! 📻✨☺️

[married-2-the-music]

TXT: The 'Tomorrow' Of K-pop?

Here are my credentials: yeah…none. I think the amount of TXT songs I know can be counted on one hand, and besides one, they’re all singles. But like with BTS, I’ve been a K-pop fan for four years and I figured that it was about time I make an effort to give them a try. It’s funny; I feel like with every girl group I cover I’m like “well obviously it was July 2017 because Joy had red hair” and with every boy group I’m like “um…are there seven or eight of them again?”

But I digress. TXT was formed in 2019, by Big Hit Entertainment, with five members (and yes, it’s five, I googled it, I promise)...Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Soobin, Kai, and Taehyun...

[averagekpoppermideko87]

TXT 'Deja Vu' | Short K-Pop Review

TXT Deja Vu is the third track from their sixth mini album, Minisode 3: TOMORROW, and serves as the title track. Both the track and mini album came out in April. 

[knackfandomarchive]

TIL that transitional cutscenes keep your collection of relics as well as your health

Both of these are full health, but in the first, I was a little lazier and didn't grab relics from one of the closets.

Maybe this is a 'well, duh' but I usually scrounge for any relics I can find, and didn't notice this. And I did notice a player in the second game mysteriously lose several inches after cutscenes.

I'm also realizing now the importance of recording in 4K. It doesn't particularly matter when you display the full screen, but I'm wondering if zooming in is where it becomes important. Welp. I don't have the space for all that, so.

And finally, when you die, you respawn with the same amount of relics/the same size health bar, as you had when crossing the checkpoint, but in full health.

[spookytuesdaypod]

spooky tuesday is a (now not so new!) podcast where we’re breaking down all of our favorite slashers, thrillers, monster movies and black comedies on the new scariest day of the week.

when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. and when the universe gives you a second birthday episode, you make it a double feature. luckily, chelsea knows just the right flicks to pick — and they happen to be on theme. birthday-time-loop-slasher stories happy death day (2017) and happy death day 2u (2019) are best viewed back-to-back, and they're both a hell of a lot of fun. perfectly straddling genre lines, these horror-rom-comedies (hocoros?) will have you feeling the full spectrum of human emotion. they also feature all kinds of creative death scenes, and with jessica rothe as the face of the franchise, you'll be on the edge of your seat for each and every one. on our latest spooky tuesday, we're talking about our favorite kills, our college crushes, and shouting out these movies' most iconic lines.

want to join the celebrations? you can buy yourself a spooky little present! we've got an exciting new merch design available on shirts, sweatshirts, and tote bags(!!!!), and we've also got spooky tuesday logo beanies ready to keep your head warm all the way 'til spring. our shop is open for presale starting september 10 at 12:00 a.m. pst, and you’ve got until tuesday, september 24 at 11:59 p.m. to get your order in. happy spooky season!

give spooky tuesday a listen on apple podcasts, spotify, iheart radio, or stitcher

[akhilsu12]

VU TV 55" in India on Amazon : Review & Buying Guide

VU TV 55″ in India on Amazon : Review & Buying Guide मित्रों, आज पुनः होम एण्ड किचन एप्लायंसेस पर आपका हार्दिक स्वागत है। आजकल प्रत्येक घर में Smart TV है। आप भी चाहत होगें कि एक अच्छे ब्रांड का smart TV आपके पास हो? इस क्षेत्र में अनेको कम्पनियां है। उनमें आपके लिये चुनाव कठिन हो जाता है। मित्रों, आप पढ़ रहे हैं। लेख, VU TV 55″ in India on Amazon : Review & Buying Guide. वह भी तब जब आपको…

[mogwai-movie-house]

Deja Vu (2006)

Patchy but always-watchable time travel flick that doesn't quite pull it off. Denzel Washington is, as always, excellent in the lead, but all the other parts are underwritten and have no substance, most noticeably Jim Caviezel as the bad guy, whose thoughts, intentions and backstory remain a complete mystery throughout. Some of the time travel stuff is made more wildly implausible than it need be, and some of the middle period of the film, in which events are all being merely watched on TV screens, feels stagnant and uninvolving.

You get the impression that the makers were trying for some kind of 12 Monkeys-meets-Se7en kinda story, and while you can glimpse elements of both, it never even approaches the emotional power and satisfaction of those masterpieces, but as a more dumbed-down popcorn flick that isn't anywhere near as intelligent or masterful as it hopes to be, it's still an entertaining and enjoyable watch the whole way through.

6.7/10

[readerviews]

"Poems for Princesses with Peas Under Their Mattresses" by Maithy Vu

What did those fables and fairy tales lie about? #books #bookreview #reading #readerviews

Poems for Princesses with Peas Under Their Mattresses Maithy Vured betta publications (2024)ISBN:  978-0996382274Reviewed by Jennifer Bisbing for Reader Views (05/2024) Is “Poems for Princesses with Peas Under Their Mattresses” for those in the pursuit of being a princess, or is it a cautionary reimagining of the fairy tale misnomers and myths of being a princess? I kissed a frog and never…

[stenoodie]

Pho Anh Vu in Richmond Hill

Pho Anh Vu in Richmond Hill. #vietnamesefood #ricepaperwraps #fishsaucechickenwings

Pho Anh Vu located at 420 Hwy 7, unit 34 in Richmond Hill Authentic Vietnamese cuisine in the GTA!  My friend V brought me to this location of Pho Anh Vu in Richmond Hill for dinner last week and I loved it so much that I immediately knew I wanted to come back to try more items with my family.  Continue reading Pho Anh Vu in Richmond Hill

[djstormpresents]

'The Gentlemen' - Review.

‘The Gentlemen’ is simply put, a sight to behold, NOT to be confused with the film. Within the realm of each of its eight captivating episodes, The Gentlemen unfolds with a seamless blend of cinematic finesse and narrative intricacy, where the passage of time becomes almost imperceptible. Director Guy Ritchie’s signature knack for storytelling shines brightly throughout, as he deftly navigates…

[emiliemaria]

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[thewordisbond]

PANTōNE VU - 'The Pink Series' [Album review]

Posted on https://www.thewordisbond.com/pantone-vu-the-pink-series-album-review/

PANTōNE VU - 'The Pink Series' [Album review]

Canada-based alternative lofi duo PANTōNE VU share with us their new project The Pink Series, which is the fourth entry in their colour-themed EPs. The 6-track body of work truly shows how far producers can push sonic boundaries beyond the norm and give listeners a taste of something new and

[married-2-the-music]

TXT Deep Dive: The "Tomorrow" Of K-pop

Here are my credentials: yeah…none. I think the amount of TXT songs I know can be counted on one hand, and besides one, they’re all singles. But like with BTS, I’ve been a K-pop fan for four years and I figured that it was about time I make an effort to give them a try. It’s funny; I feel like with every girl group I cover I’m like “well obviously it was July 2017 because Joy had red hair” and with every boy group I’m like “um…are there seven or eight of them again?”

But I digress. TXT was formed in 2019, by Big Hit Entertainment, with five members (and yes, it’s five, I googled it, I promise), Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Heuning Kai, Soobin, and Taehyun, and they’ve been pretty popular since then, which is an achievement in and of itself, coming from an agency best known for the biggest boy group of all time.

(Edit 6/1/24): “Are there seven or eight of them” lmao. I wrote this almost a year ago and…well, guess who’s seeing TXT in concert in 10 hours? This idiot.

[35gofbeansprouts]

💭.

[anyways-wonderwall]

Album of the Week #57

3

(2019)

by Ngọt

Overall Rating: 9.5/10 TL;DR: Why can’t all pop rock be this good.

(Cool cover, I'd have it as a poster. 10/10)

Finally, I have a chance to talk about how much I love the band Ngọt. Get ready, because this is one of my favorite albums of all time.

Overall Thoughts When this album came out, it was all I listened to for weeks, and for the past four years I have listened to it countless times. As I was listening to the album for this review, each song felt like an old friend that welcomed me. I know all the parts of each of these songs, but I never really analyzed what makes them so good until now. To start off, everyone in this band is incredibly talented. The drummer is doing an amazing job at everything and kills it in “HẾT THỜI,” the guitar player is so in control of every song that I was mesmerized by this whole album and the singer? Oh, we’ll get to him later. I want to first focus on how amazing the guitar parts of these songs are. Besides most of these having absolutely incredible riffs (“MẾU MÁO (T.T)” is perfectly lazy, “CHUÔNG BÁO THỨC (sáng rồi)” fills in all the gaps and keeps you interested, not to mention all my favorite songs off the album), it is very clear that he is playing the songs and not the other way around. You know when you go to play a tab of a song and you’re like “this is not the melody or a harmony wtf is this”? That’s what this guy is doing for all these songs. It adds a complexity that is just spectacular and combine that with an adequate love of guitar solos you have an amazing album. Ugh and the lead singer? He just released a solo album and it just shows off even more how talented he is. So many songs do the “ahhhh” sound that I love that all of the background singing is clearly his voice. It adds a low-budget element that makes all of the songs much more endearing. From what I know the singer also writes most of the songs, and it is absolutely insane to me that he keeps the tones from the language in the melody of the songs. That is such a level of poetry that does not get enough attention and just makes me love each song even more. I would say that all of the songs on this album are pretty good, but my favorites are “MẾU MÁO (T.T)” (an absolutely delectable chorus with a perfect level of laziness), “GIẢ VỜ” (a choppy fun and chill one with more ahhhhhs), “CHUÔNG BÁO THỨC (sáng rồi)” (a fast one with a magical riff), “CHUYỂN KÊNH (sản phẩm này không phải là thuốc)” (a creative masterpiece complete with ragtime piano and video game sounds), “HẾT THỜI” (perfect chorus and another great riff), and “VÉ ĐI THIÊN ĐƯỜNG (một chiều)” (a perfectly heartfelt piano song without the melodrama). Oops that’s just half the album. I will tell you though I’m not a big fan of the single “LẦN CUỐI (đi bên em xót xa người ơi)” which has become their most popular song. It's just melodramatic stadium rock and really not what I want them to be remembered by. The rest of this album though? A great legacy (I say as if they didn’t make an album after this one).

Final Thoughts As Ngọt is only really known in their home country of Vietnam it’s hard for me to gauge how popular they really are (their most popular song on Spotify has 11 million listens for what it's worth), but however much that is it needs to triple. Listen to Ngọt, listen to 3, and I promise you’ll enjoy the experience.