Album review: Super Junior - Sorry, sorry

Whilst boy bands seem to be out of fashion in the West, over in Korea: they're all the rage. And in particular, 13 piece boy group Super Junior. They've attracted a lot of flak, criticism and scepticism over the course of their 5 year career. But their third album is surprising turn of affairs, because they've managed to go and do what I thought was unthinkable. 

Sorry, sorry is divided between sickly sweet pop numbers and more R&B tinged songs. The sickly sweet pop songs aren't terrible. Some of them are pretty good. But it's the R&B flavoured songs which are the highlights and really do showcase Super Junior the best. It's a direction the boys should definitely continue to go in with their future albums.

"Sorry, sorry" is addictive. A good beat and a catchy hook. It's miles from anything the boys have released before, but is one of their best singles because of it. Every boy band has got to have that one ridiculously catchy pop record, and "Sorry, sorry" is Super Junior's. The sound is nothing new under the sun, and as with more than half the songs out there right now, it features the dreaded auto-tune. But there's no getting away from how good this song is. Just try and listen to it with out bopping your head or working a shoulder. FISSION MAILED. The song is misleading though. Because despite the uptempo, happy go-lucky vibe of the song, the rest of the album is pretty down-tempo and sombre. "Why I like you" is a song that I have played constantly. It’s very reminiscent of Ne-Yo's "Closer", only not as house heavy. Super Junior's vocals are well showcased on this song; although Kyuhyun and Yesung outshine the other guys completely, as they often do. Best track on the album without a shadow of a doubt. I was taken aback when I first heard it, because I was not expecting anything on the album to sound this good. The boys also cover girl group Monrose's song "Just like that", re-worked into "Monster". Just based on that you'd think the song wouldn't work, but it does. Shitting all over the original in the process. It's a wonderfully dark song, with a very Timbaland-esque vibe to it. Super Junior's version captures the mysteriousness that Olive's "You're not alone" had (the song which "Just like that" originally sampled). Not all of the uptempo songs welcome praise though. "Club no.1" sounds like a reject from a BoA album. The boys just don't work the sexy that a song like this needs. The beat has a cool vibe, but the vocals just don't do much to lift the song out of sheer mediocrity.

Despite the huge success and departure in sound of the album's title track, Sorry, sorry is a mid-tempo album on the whole, punctuated with the odd ballad; which is fine. But the track order kills the flow. The first ballad "Let's not" comes after 2 club songs, which feels like the album pulling an emergency stop. Once the album hits track 7 things begin to get generic. The slower songs also feel like the album is being tethered to Super Junior's former efforts, in a bid to not completely cash in on their new style, when the album needed all chips to be in and would have been better for it.

Putting 13 voices on a track isn't easy. But I feel more of an effort should have been made to exploit all 13 of the Super Junior's. The vocal arrangements and harmonies should have been taken all the way, to give the songs that edge and air about them that they couldn't be sung by a group with any less than 13 members. When I think what Boys II Men managed to pull of with just 4 guys, and what solo artists like Joe and Justin Timberlake are able to do in a studio on their own; I find it lazy that the producers didn't take more advantage of what they had to work with. Super Junior have never been touted as the best vocal group, or even made a name for themselves on the merit of their vocals. Ryeowook, Yesung and Kyuhyun clearly have the stronger voices in the group, and I get why they get the most prominent parts. But Super Junior are a group of 13 guys who can all at the very least carry a song in a bucket, and I think sometimes the producers forget what could be done with that.

Sorry, sorry is a pretty solid album. It runs out of steam as it reaches the end, which isn't helped by the album opening with the best songs. But the sound is consistent and solid enough that you can take Super Junior's music seriously. It's a shame that the music will forever play every fiddle except first to the group's image - because the music on Sorry, sorry is good enough to carry the group considerably. If this is an indication of what Super Junior are capable of, then they have greater music potential than I thought. If they continue to hone their new sound and really explore it, they could definitely deliver future albums of solid quality.

RATING: DIGGY-DIBBY DANCE

Album highlights:
■ Sorry, sorry
■ Why I like you ★ J's fave
■ Let's not
■ Angela
■ Reset
■ Monster
■ Happy together