Music video: SHINee’s Onew releases a cover of Kazumasa Oda’s “Kira Kira”

SHINee member Onew is getting the quiet release treatment from SM entertainment. Dude put out his first solo release 2 months ago. That came and went. And now Onew has a Japanese covers EP, which is releasing on the down low on June 1st.

I often forget that Onew is the leader of SHINee, because he’s the member I pay the least attention to. Jonghyun, Minho, Taemin and Key always drew more of my attention. I guess it was the same for SM too. Because they always seem to have more time for every other member of SHINee. Particularly Taemin, who has become the golden child of SM over the years.

I may have paid Onew no mind in every SHINee video, but his voice was always the one in the group that I liked the most. And a Kazumasa Oda song is a great cover choice for Onew, due to his tone and his voice having a similar sense of sincerity that Kazumasa’s also has. Onew’s cover barely veers from the original at all. Some may call it lazy, but I honestly don’t mind it. I think it was smart to keep the arrangement identical to the original, because it keeps the song recognisable to Kazumasa Oda fans, whilst also creating intrigue as to who is singing the song and singing it well.

Unfortunately Kazumasa Oda’s full catalog is not available on streaming globally, which is shitty. The man is an ICON. But there is a big ol’ compilation album which is available, which “Kira Kira” itself features on. No “Masshiro” though. But at least we get “Love Story wa Totsuzen ni” and “Kotoba ni Dekinai”.

It’s a shame that the music video wasn’t better though. But I know Japan lives for these types of music videos. Still, I think it woulda been a nice touch to have had a SHINee member act in the video, so there is SOME form of connection between what we see and the artist of the song.

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