Trouble Maker, released on 12.01.11, is Trouble Maker’s (consisting of B2ST’s Hyunseung and 4minute’s HyunA) first mini-album.
「Trouble Maker」, the album’s namesake, starts off with whistling, grunting, and snapping. It has this somewhat classy mood to the song coupled with a snobby edge to it. The song is very easy to get into to but the song itself is relatively short and goes by really quickly. I wish there was no rap; while it does fit into the song, the way HyunA is “rapping” does not fit into the song at all. Love all of Hyunseung’s lines, though. At first this song gave me a Michael Jackson vibe, but after listening to it again, I agree with a comment I saw that it gives off that Justin Timberlake-like feel to it.
「듣기 싫은 말 (The Words I Don’t Want to Hear)」 starts with some ad-libs done by Hyunseung in a soft acoustic guitar instrumental combined with some garage drums. When HyunA comes in, some supporting vocals back her vocals. The song has a nice mood to it, matching nicely to its title as a melancholic song.
Next is 「Time (feat. 라도)」, which is a ballad-like song with a soft electronica instrumental. I’m assuming that this is a HyunA solo with Rado as the male vocals instead of Hyunseung.
Ending the mini-album is 「아무렇지 않니 (Don’t You Mind?)」, which also follows the last song with an R&B ballad that has an electronica/synthesizer instrumental. Also assuming this is Hyunseung’s solo song. I kinda wish that his vocals were more pronounced instead of being background vocals when he emphasizes his lines in the chorus. Also wish the instrumental was a little different. Besides that, the song itself is nicely done and is pretty a basic within kpop imho.
I honestly really liked Trouble Maker the first time I listened to it. It was classy and well executed with the exception of the rap. Though the MV I could do without, mainly because of how fail the sexy was (imo, Cube tries to sell HyunA’s “sex” concept way too much to the point where she’s starting to be trying too hard to be sexy now to me). HyunA’s vocals still leave much to be desired, but for the songs they did, I have nothing to complain about quite yet.
