Kim Sung Gyu - Another Me: First Solo Album

So if you're a fan of INFINITE and you constantly keep up with their activities, then you should probably know that Sung Gyu has recently released a solo album titled "Another Me". I really liked how his album turned out, all the songs sound completely different from what INFINITE usually releases, and it seems to show more of Sung Gyu as an individual and not just as the leader of INFINITE.

60 Seconds MV

So, starting off with the MV. This MV was so incredibly well done that I kept watching it for at least a week. It's really hard to come across a KPOP MV that actually fits the song. This MV did a great job of doing that. If you read the lyrics, you can see that almost every scene in this MV actually follows them. For example, in the beginning, the lyrics are something along the lines of "I was walking and looking around and I saw you" (sorry for the lousy translation, I don't remember the exact words and I'm too lazy to search the lyrics up) and we actually see Myung Soo doing this. And then Sung Gyu sings something along the lines of "widening eyes, slowly separating lips" and we get a few shots of Myung Soo's widened eyes and slightly opened mouth. Another example is when the lyrics are "You said you were in pain, so I let you go", and when Sung Gyu sings those lines, we see Myung Soo obviously unhappy with the idea of breaking up with his gf, but he doesn't stop her as she returns her ring and leaves him.

TL;DR: This MV is awesome.

And did anyone else love how Sung Gyu just seems like he's really into singing the song? It just made me love him even more  (´∀｀)♡ And Myung Soo crying...made me tear up. Ahhhhh.

The album

The album took SO LONG to actually get delivered - it took 2 weeks. I chose the 7 day shipping option and it turned out...it took another 7 days! Wow. I guess this is what I would have to deal with for living in the US, the country of where there is a huge lack of KPOP albums actually selling in a store. Meh.

And although I wasn't really expecting it, I didn't get the limited edition. Aww. Oh well.

Anyway, here's some pictures of what the album and the inside of it looks like, enjoy~  (＾▽＾)

This is the cover
Don't mind the boring physics notes the album is resting on top of

The inside
Ooh 2 stickers!

And on the back of the two stickers, we have the same picture of Sung Gyu on both stickers...
I think i will stick one on my laptop and use the other as a bookmark or something ahhaha

The songs

Okay, so there are a total of 7 tracks in the album, here's the track list:

1) Another Me
2) 60초 (60 Seconds)
3) I Need You
4) 눈물만 (Only Tears) - Acoustic Ver.
5) Shine
6) 41일 (41 Days)
7) Hidden Track - 60초 Acoustic Ver.

And to give a few comments on each track:

Another Me: It's just some majestic piano playing and Gyu's voice. It would've been nice if it was an actual 3 minute song though. Oh well. 

60 Seconds: This is my favorite track in the album. My favorite line in the song is: "60초로 충분한 스토리 내 삶에서 넌 사라졌어" which means "60 seconds is enough for this story, you disappeared from my life".

I Need You: I don't really like this one. :/ Maybe I'll start liking it once Sung Gyu starts follow-up promotions with this song and releases the MV for it, but right now, this isn't my cup of tea.

Only Tears - Acoustic Ver.: Sung Gyu's voice sounds really beautiful in this track. I wonder how nice it would've been to actually see him singing this song himself while playing the piano at the same time during the concert.

Shine: I didn't really like this track when it first came out, but now I'm kind of digging it.

41 Days: This is my second favorite track. I just love the way Sung Gyu sings in this song. I can't really describe it...it just sounds really...unique.

Hidden Track - 60 Seconds Acoustic Ver: I didn't really like this one, because of the longass moment of silence in the beginning that lasted for about 1 minute. Then Sung Gyu only sings for a minute and the track ends. Okayyyy.





To wrap my thoughts up on Sung Gyu's album, I overall really liked it. Although not every single song was my cup of tea, I still liked the fact that all these songs were very different from what we normally hear in KPOP. I'm happy that Sung Gyu was able to show a new side of himself, and I think through his promotions and recent interviews, I've been able to get to know him better. And from what I've heard, being a solo singer was what he originally wanted, but he had to take what Woolim could give to him at the time, i.e. the spot of the leader of INFINITE, an idol group. I'm happy that he worked hard and was able to earn himself the opportunity to release a solo album.

TL;DR: Sung Gyu, you're amazing.

And you've climbed up a lot of spots in my bias list in INFINITE. Be proud of yourself. Haha.

Edit: I just realized I kept referring to Sung Gyu's songs as KPOP...when they're in fact not close to pop at all. Sorry, but I guess I just really wanted to emphasize how different Sung Gyu's songs are from what we would usually hear from Korean idols. And I really appreciate Sung Gyu for doing what he really wanted - singing a song of the genre of modern rock - instead of falling victim to what the public would usually like (i.e. KPOP).