An Album a Day

An Album a Day is my exploration into the Korean music scene. This podcast will cover mainstream, indie and some underground artists within the scene and provide both factual and opinionated commentary. The biggest benefit to sharing my thoughts this way is that it will hopefully expose you to more great music and exploration of your own.

A.C.E. A.C.E. Revolution is solidly established for me with today’s album. Dance music is where they have fun, yes, but “Adventures in Wonderland” is where listeners will get their first taste of the individual colors of the group. Dare I say it this early on, but I believe we are about to journey into an idol group that is about gearing up for a major moment in the industry. Today’s album in more detail, right after the drop.

You’re tuned into An Album a Day. Show start.

Hey y’all, today we’re getting down with A.C.E.’s June 7, 2018 release, “A.C.E. Adventures in Wonderland,” and I sincerely hope they are pleased with what they did with this album. Clocking in at roughly 33 minutes, the time is chalked up mostly to adding three instrumentals -- their 2017 single releases and the refreshing “5TAR (Incompletion).” The album starts with their first two singles, drops into a pulsing track entitled “Black and Blue,” and then hops off the party bus and into three radio hits. I was excited! These gentlemen have wonderful vocals and the arrangements were playful yet controlled. And even though I mistakenly heard “WTF” in the song “Take Me Higher” at one point, even that blunder sounded great! “Take Me Higher” rocks with harmonies and several live instruments and R&B loop features. It’s groovy and appealed to my tastes, but the magical song on this album is “5TAR (Incompletion).”

Originally released as a single on March 16, 2018, Jun’s voice is absolutely wonderful in this song, let me get that bias out of the way immediately. The entire vocal line has impressive chops and shined brightly; and the context of the song, pleading with someone to let down their guard and see the love standing in front of them, allowed these young men to deliver an emotional experience. The music compliments the group well, resting a simple drum pattern over live piano and other string instruments. It’s not distinctly special in its formula, but A.C.E. delivered a memorable song that made its way onto one of my personal playlists.

K-pop fans on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being essential listening and 1 not worth mentioning, the A3Day rating for these two singles is a 5 because even though this album was used to squeeze the last few drops out of their debut songs, it was strong on its own anyway. I wouldn’t run from a ballad album from A.C.E. and longtime listeners of this show know that I’d stab a ballad album with a spork without a second thought! I am impressed and somewhat smitten with their sound. Hopefully, you’ll check out the #A3Day Highlights Playlist on Spotify, as it features tracks from today’s albums and past episode’s artists, so please enjoy their music. Until the next episode, bye y’all.

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Special shout out to my Patreon patrons -- the Student Body, the Scholars, and the Staff -- who keep my vision of becoming your favorite foreign Korean music historian, exploring all the industry from A to Z a real thing. If you’re interested in supporting the growth of this content, please visit patreon.com/multifacetedacg and for as little as $1.00 a month, you can get in on the magic.

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