Geraldine Lau
More than a year after their previous album New Generation, Taiwanese boy band ENERGY returns with an additional member, new dance styles and a striking new attitude. If you are a fan of ENERGY, you’ll find their latest album, Born To Be Bad slightly different from their previous releases, as seen through their new dance choreography and the genre of their material.
5,4,3, then 4 again
ENERGY went through several break-ups. From a 5-man group, they became a team of 4 when Toro left in 2003. Subsequently in 2005, Milk, the strongest dancer and the leader of the group left the 3 remaining members to their own devices. The trio released the album New Generation. When many thought that was the end of their singing career, Xiao Gang, a professional dancer, joined them this year, injecting new blood to the worn-out group.
Groove to the Beat
Being known for their brilliant dance moves, ENERGY didn’t let their fans down and returned with dance styles such as breaking, popping and new jack swing. They had to go through tough trainings every day, which was both physically and mentally taxing. Thankfully, their hard work paid off as they now have astounding choreography and can execute difficult break dance stunts like air freezes (a technique that requires freezing all motion in positions). We can all look forward to a visual treat in their music videos.
When you have remarkable dance choreography, groovy hip hop tunes are a necessity. Tracks in Born To Be Bad like “Temptation” and “Addicted” simply make you want to move to the beat. The songs are a little different from the usual hip hop they dance to in the previous albums, but you certainly can let your dance cells loose.
Rock On
Apart from hip hop, there’re elements of rock music in this album as well. Since their collaboration with Taiwanese rock band MAYDAY in their previous album New Generation, the success of the song “Wiped Out” gave them more reasons to continue with rock music. The album starts off with the title track, a rock piece fused with hip hop , and ends with a heavy metal rock piece “Save Me”.
Tear-Jerker
Of course, apart from their dance moves, ENERGY is also known for their touching love ballads. In this album, numbers like “Steel Wire”, “Starry Night” (the opening song for Taiwan’s version of Project Superstar) and “Fall In Love In A Second” get your tears rolling.
New and Refreshing
Nowadays, the big idea is all that counts. ENERGY really struck UrbanWire with their creativity when the song “Hit The Steets” was played. The entire song is based on their bare vocals – a cappella (singing without instruments) and vocal percussion. Even the intricate skill of beat boxing was used in this song which is something very new and refreshing coming from them.
ENERGY Writes
Although they are not composer-artistes, ENERGY started to pick up bits and pieces of the skill of composing since New Generation. This time, they did most of the harmony themselves. Penny and Edy wrote lyrics for “Fall In Love In A Second” and “Addicted” respectively. Joe, who took over as leader of the group after Milk left, wrote the lyrics for “Starry Night” with Edy. Who knows, they might be moving on to compose their own tunes very soon.
After all that’s said, this album is definitely worth buying, given how the guys have taken a big stride from their previous album, be it musically, psychologically or physically.
Double Version + Collectibles
If you’re an ENERGY fan, prepare extra cash as there are 2 versions of this album, each packaged with a different set of collectible post cards. However you’ve just missed the opportunity to collect their limited edition 2008 calendar, as it is only available when you present both albums at the autograph session, on a first-come-first-serve basis.
ENERGY had an autograph session at Parco Bugis Junction on Nov 4, and a meet, greet and hug session at The Heeren Shops on Nov 5 . UrbanWire had an interview with them , talking about their latest release and their new member.
Both versions of Born To Be Bad are in stores now.