LSS: heartbeat

despite the huge controversy over 2PM leader, Park Jaebeom's early departure from the group, 2PM came back alive and kicking! they released their first album, aptly entitled 1:59PM (signifying that without Jay, they're not 2PM..awww) last Oct and their title track, Heartbeat has been no. 1 in various K-music charts consistently over the past few weeks!

Heartbeat MV

Of course, being a fan of 2PM, i downloaded their album. the first 2 tracks were the ones i listened to, Crazy About You and Tired of Waiting, but it was Heartbeat that they decided to perform for their comeback. And they were right on target! When I first heard the song, it was just so-so to me. I thought Taec and Chansung's weird rap at the start were awkward but then so many people are raving about their comeback performance that I watched their comeback special performance of Intro+Heartbeat... and I was blown away!!! They were the "beastly" idols during the Again & Again phase but now in Heartbeat, they just grew up to a more mature and manlier idols.. All 6 guys are wearing spiffy suits, a little makeup (they're supposed to look like zombies or half-dead people).. and their amazing Zombie dance and overall choreography is just fantastic!

I don't need to understand Korean to know what the song is all about.. well.. it's because the chorus is in english (hehe..).. "Listen to my heartbeat.. it's beating for you.. listen to my heartbeat... it's waiting for you.." so the song kinda says that without the girl, they can't live (hence the zombie-like dance). Oh, and the heatbeat thing that Taecyon does at the start (with his thumping chest and heart-throbbing hands) are so cool.

And how about the long dance break in the middle? I love it! I keep watching every single performance and i usually fast forward to the part where they do the whole dance routine with the pyramid.. and the best part is the finale!!! Every performance has a different finale.. each of the boys have their own "deaths", For Junsu, Junho, Wooyoung and Taecyon, they individually do back flips, cartwheels, somersaults then "dye".

Wooyoung

Junho

Junsu

Chansung

Taecyon's different, he rips his shirt off, showing his ripped abs, to the delight of all the fan girls.

Nichkun can't do the backflips (coz i heard he hurt his back) so in one performance, after they do the pyramid, Nichkun stands up, pushes them all down, grabs Taecyon and "takes his heart" and dumps him on the floor. Cool huh?

In the next performance, Taec got his revenge when they did the same thing except that when Nichkun was about to grab Taecyon, he woke up, pushed Nichkun down and grabbed his heart instead!

Since it's December now and it's year-end awards season, the boys have been performing Heartbeat with Again & Again.. so instead of one of them elaborately dying, they usually end the song with all of them doing their individual deaths simultaneously (did that make sense?).. fall down.. the background music of a heart flatlining... then the heart beats again and the intro for Again & Again starts.

MAMA

Golden Disk Awards (this is where Taec rips his shirt)



However, even with the huge success of 2PM currently, fans (including me) think that there's something missing in their performance... of course I'm talking about Jaebum! It's funny how they're already 6 in the group (and looks crowded in the stage) but I feel like it's not enough. They're giving they're all but I think their performance lacks the star power and aura from Jay. I don't know if Jay will be back... JYP is hinting that if he wants to come back, he'll still be part of 2PM.. but the question is.. does Jay still want to come back? He's now back in Seatlle and looks like he's having a great time there with his bboy crew. Maybe it's enough for him. Maybe next year people will forget about him. Maybe next year the 6 boys will stop mentioning him in all their acceptance speeches. Maybe he'll just be one of those idols who left and never came back. Or maybe he can be like HyunA (quitting Wonder Girls now making it big with 4Minute)... i dont know.. but I think he's a waste of huge talent.. and he needs to come back!

PS - 2pm boys may look beastly, but if you've seen them in variety shows, they're just too dorky and you realise how young they all are.. that these "men" are really still boys (ages 19-21)... Without Jay, my current fave is Taec and Wooyoung.

Here's Wooyoung in some of his infamous ssanti dances! hahaha! enjoy!