Album Review: (JS & HyunA) Trouble Maker - Trouble Maker

Buy Trouble Maker - "Trouble Maker" [EP] - HERE

Cube Entertainment has paired up BEAST's Hyunseung (also known as JS) and 4Minute's HyunA's together to make the electro, funk, pop duo named Trouble Maker. They released their mini-album titled "Trouble Maker" December 1, 2011. Seeing a co-ed unit, meaning a k-pop band with male and female members very rare. Both of them have a big following with their respective groups, I'm sure some of you are familiar with HyunA. She is more well-known that her mate because of the solo work she's done before her very own mini-album "Bubble Pop".

The theme for this mini-album is sexy, playful, and flirty. The combination of these brings a different side of Hip-Hop/R&B. When the two teasers for music video premiered, you automatically saw the steamy chemistry between the two. Check out the album review, after the jump.

Vocal Delivery: (4/5)

Lyrical Content: (4/5)

Production: (3.9/5)

Trouble Maker
The title track, "Trouble Maker" starts off with flirtatious whistles. The pairing of Hyuna and Hyunseung is a very sexy combination.  HyunA aka The Sex Kitten gave a very sexy spin with her singing and rapping. However, Hyunseung was the one I had on mind thought out the whole song. He pretty much stole the show on this one. The whole vibe that I got from this was Michael Jackson mixed with Justin Timberlake. I've seen most of the performances for song and their were great. (4/5)

듣기 싫은 말 The Words I Don't Want to Hear
In "The Words I Don't Want to Hear" Hyunseung sounds remarkable. Its a lot more soulful compared to the title track "Trouble Maker". The soft acoustic guitar gives off a romantic feeling. Even with HyunA solo music and the stuff that she's done in the group, I was so use to her singing and rapping fun pop songs. Its good to see the ballad side of her. (4/5)

Time (Feat. Rado 라도) [HyunA's solo]
"Time" is another slow song. I assume this is HyunA solo, because you hear Rado on the male vocals not Hyunseung. The repeating echo of the title "Time" sounds effortless. I'm liking Rado's voice, he sings similar to Hyunseung, so I got a bit confused at first. If listen closely he does provide some sexy falsetto vocals. HyunA voice is really good here, she sounds so comfortable and more confident on this than the last ballad. Instead giving a hot uptempo dance track, I guessing Cube wanted to try something different. HyunA is not a strong singer, but a damn good rapper. Either way I'm happy with it. (5/5)



아무렇치 않니Don't You Mind [Hyunseung's solo]
And their you have it folks, the fourth and last song is another ballad. The beat sound pretty laid back and R&B, love R&B so that's a major plus. I guess this is Hyunseung solo track, judging by the fact that HyunA is heard at all. "Don't You Mind" is very good, but its nothing really that special about going with it. (4.5/5)





Verdict
Overall, this is a good album but my expectations for this was way higher than expected. When you hear the name "Troublemaker", you think mischievous, naughty, teasing and etc. The only song that defines that was the first track also called "Trouble Maker". I thought it was going to be more balanced, meaning an even amount of uptempo's and ballads. We have about three ballads on here and one uptempo.

I would have never guessed that Cube Entertainment would pick Hyunseung and Hyuna to be a co-ed unit. Matter of fact, I didn't know their were actually coming out together until couple of days before the album was released. I hope to see more of them as a duo in the future

Overall Rating: (4/5)