When I heard my OG K-pop group Monsta X was releasing their first all English album, I was mixed with quite a few feelings. Wonho had just yeeted himself from the group over rumors that he owed money and smoked marijuana in the past. I was so scarred from this abomination that I stopped anticipating anything from the group, including their fall comeback, Follow: Find You, which was released amidst all this madness.
But before I get into this refreshing calmness this album was in the midst of a wild storm, let’s discuss my brief history with this band.
I had been stanning them actively since February of last year. While struck with the flu, I sat in my room for four days and binged Andrew Wommack, chicken noodle soup, ravioli, tea, BTS in American Hustle Life and Monsta X’s at the time newly released single, Alligator. I wanted to desperately check them out since I heard they were coming to Houston. Plus, my second K-pop friend had been seeing them live for the past two years and she gave them a good name.
Come up to July, and I’m totally floored. My hopes and expectations are high for this group. Then, Wonho bounces, possibly forcefully. And then I cry internal tears and write many diary posts about how pissed I am. Then, grudgingly, I move on. Because Monsta X will never be the same without Wonho. I hurt deeply for Wonho and his removal from the group and the remaining members. Still do.
I focus my attentions on non-K-pop affairs. I try to discuss my feelings with fellow friends online and the two I have in real life. I get nowhere. I take matters into my own hands and shun Monsta X. I demean the group, because in my mind, I need something to take the pain out on. “I have no desire to listen to that new album,” I tell both fellow K-pop friends. But deep down, I want to discover and explore it. It took me some months. But today, I managed to do it, while relaxing after a long, excruciatingly painful week.
So, fast forward to now. Listening to this album was like opening up a dusty, old chest full of pictures of you when you were with your ex who ended up breaking it off out of mutual respect, but you still had good times with him and cared for him deeply. I felt embarrassed, nostalgic, uncomfortable, satisfied, and a bunch of other unnamed emotions. But the most important one I felt, was the one that accompanies the sentence: “Wow. I miss you.”
Listening to this album felt like seeing a long lost relative I’ve been missing for a long time. I was happy to realize that the talent of the group was not at all fully lost or misplaced. Yes, Wonho was missing from the music videos and I assume some vocals (it was hard to determine their voices in English as they all kind of sound the same, and we have two new singing voices (that being Jooheon and I.M who are usually rappers)) but as I explain in this piece my opinion on the 11 songs, I wish to do a good job giving the other 6 members their due credit, as they are as much as talented as he was
“This album [ALL ABOUT LUV] is the album for ‘Love’ as its title is, and it is a work like a Valentine’s Day gift to fans,” Starship Entertainment states on their website about the album, released on February 14th. I greatly appreciated it for not being so deep. It was simple general R&B- styled beats mixed with lovey-dovey lyrics about boys in love. To me, quite resembled early One Direction albums, simple and danceworthy. But don’t get me wrong; they and this album were complete bops. This album completely served its purposes; distracting Monbebes from the struggles of not seeing Wonho after his sudden and terrible departure, and reminding us that their love for us was not at all lost.
The album starts with hitter Who Do U Love. There is nothing terrible about this track. Nothing. This song is pure bliss, perfection in the highest form. I heard this last year before their concert (it was released as a single) and I was floored. I was blessed when they surprised us by performing it when it wasn’t even on the set-list. The Michael Jackson-ness, compared with the good and modern English from each member (Minhyuk and Jooheon using American slang—”ain’t” and “tryna say”—just hit different for some reason), and if you’ve seen the music video—which gave me some You Are Not Alone teas—it’s a perfectly packaged single to get you into the band. Of course, Wonho was on the track. *Sighs*. That was painful re-listen after months of not listening to them.
Love U was well…clearly about that. I was pretty surprised with their straightforwardness, I’ve heard some Monsta X albums in the past and never really came across such brashness. I guess because they were singing in English, and due to the uniformity of this album (all of the songs sound the same), I’m guessing there wasn’t really much say from the band about what they really wanted to write about. I’m not sure. That’s just a speculation. I did enjoy I.M’s singing. Can never get enough of that.
So I think it’s well established that Kihyun, the group’s least singer, is a beast. I was expecting him to simmer down a bit in this album, being aware of his incredible vocal skills. But no. He reined on each song, strong and powerfully. Part of me thinks this is because of his growing English skills. Jooheon was also quite popular on the album, which I think can attribute to his English as well. The next three songs, Happy without Me, Got My Number, and Someone’s Someone bring to mind Kihyun and his cute little lisp and the fact that the song was too short. It was such a huge bop that I couldn’t let it go. And the video? *sweats*
Middle of the Night was calm and soothing, and the video was oh so beautiful! It was wonderful seeing those beautiful boys again, shabby and snazzy. I actually clasped my mouth when I realized that was Wonho singing, but I didn’t see him. I felt immediately distraught. I would have loved to see him looking handsome in his suit like the rest of the boys did.
She’s the One and You Can’t Hold My Heart are all just adorable. I am here for Minhyuk’s English singing voice. After seeing them preform the latter song on The Kelly Clarkson Show, I grew more fond on it, although I didn’t really like it at first. But listening to it with headphones greatly improved my experience. So now I like it. It kind of gave me One Direction and early Justin Bieber teas, while Misbehave was as sexual as sexual can get. But I didn’t think it would do me good listening to seven fine dudes sing about something like that, especially being alone in my room, so I took it at face value and called it a day.Beside U is that type of song that can drive a crazy obsessed fan girl into thinking she’s really gonna marry her a K-pop idol. I knew when Kihyun said “One-way trip to Paris” that this was probably written by some American who was white, making hundreds of young adults millionaires by writing their music. I could smell it through the song. How many times have we heard this from cutesy boy-bands, ladies?! But nevertheless, it was cute.
Also, Pitbull’s rapping was OK. It was catchy, and I think it fit well with the song beat. Not really much to say about it. But I.M’s rapping was pretty impressive. I enjoy his rapping in Korean, and in English he’s OK. I would like to hear more of him doing that in the future, please. Lastly, Who Do U Love remix was…well, a remix. Didn’t really listen to it because I couldn’t make it past the first ten seconds. The original was already God-sent.
Overall, I think the album was a nice risk from them. It was—unexpectedly for me—a nice breath of fresh air in the chaos going on in the band and in the world. I enjoyed it, and I would definitely give it another listen. I hope they invest time in making more full-English albums in the future, as they are very good at it. I would totally purchase it as well. And when I do, I’ll make sure I add a picture in to show my excitement.
It’s clear that the album was recorded long before Wonho’s untimely departure. But seeing this band promote the album as a five-let (Jooheon is also on hiatus for heath reasons), I can’t help but feel like I’m listening to something posthumous. You can tell each member has something going on; I’d hate to see them perform live, because I feel they won’t be able to handle it well at all. Or maybe, they can. Either way, I always have this burning question in my head wondering if they are alright through all the success and failures going on, and personal things behind closed doors.
To quote my top bias, Minhyuk, in his letter he wrote to Monbebes on his birthday last year about the whole Wonho situation; “I want to tell every Monbebe what happened.” Hopefully, after all the wind blows and this group gets a nice break whether through military service or future endeavors, I’ll find Minhyuk myself, somewhere nestled in South Korea, and remind him of those words and hope to get a few words out of him (in a nom-threatening kind of way, of course.) Or, maybe the other members will speak their feelings truthfully with us Monbebes via the Internet in the future, when they’ve moved on from Monsta X and go on to other things like marrying, staying out of the limelight, and having kids.
As for now, I am glad I decided to give this album a peek. Although the circumstances between this album and its release were messy, no one in the group is useless or underdeveloped. They can all hold their own and it’s wonderful to see. I hope they can charge through this season and through their future projects with or without Wonho, (as he might be going solo now, since he’s been cleared of any criminal activity, which makes me so happy!) the best way they—and only they—can.
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