G.NA – Black & White Review

GNA Black and White Cover

Release Date: January 18, 2011

Track Listing

  1. Black & White
  2. Don’t Be Mad Anymore
  3. Nice To Meet You feat. Wheesung
  4. I Miss You Already
  5. At First Sight, At A Glance feat. Verbal Jing
  6. I’ll Back Off So You Can Live Better feat. Junhyung from B3AST
  7. Things I Want to Do When I Have a Lover feat. Rain
  8. Supa Solo
  9. Loving You
  10. There’s A Rumor

Review

Black & White is the follow-up to G.NA’s EP Draw G’s First Breath (released in 2010) and her first official full-length album. Not much has changed since her first EP, and we get another collection of R&B/Pop and Hip-Pop tracks. For this outing, G.NA is again collaborating with producer Kim Dohoon and Wheesung. These pairings worked incredibly well the last time so it seems like the chemistry continues on this album.

Is that a bad thing? Not at all. Why mess with a good thing if it’s still working? If the songs on this album were crap, my opinion would differ. Fortunately, we get more quality songs, such as the self-titled lead single, Don’t Be Mad Anymore and At First Sight, At A Glance.

Where this album derails is when you get to the second half. This part consists of many of the songs from her Draw G’s First Breath EP, so it’s a rip-off getting some old songs when this is supposed to be G.NA’s debut full length. While I appreciate the effort not to fill this album with filler, there must have been something in the recording vault that was worth salvaging instead.

Instead of re-hashing the past, why not cut the last half and just make this another EP instead? Perhaps it’s only me, but these bait & switch tactics feel kind of shady. I don’t necessarily “buy” these albums so who am I to bitch? But if you are one who does, is it worth paying the crazy import price for half an album of new stuff?

Even so, I think Black & White is a great album. It should appeal to those looking for something with more substance than the 1 hit wonder, flavour of the week (not month, since this is K-Pop, after all) material.

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