On May 25^th, 2008 SHINee made their debut under SM Entertainment on SBS’s “Popular Song” with their song “Noona is so Pretty” and they became an instant hit. Nine days after their debut they recieved the “Rookie of the Month” award on Cyworld and the “Hot New Star” award on Mnet 20’s Choice Award 2008.

The members include:

Onew (Lee Jin Ki) – Leader, Vocals

JongHyun – Lead vocals

Key (Kim Ki Bum) – Vocals, Rap

MinHo – Vocals, Rap

TaeMin – Lead dancer, Vocals, Rap

I kept this review short and sweet for those of you who find long reviews to be too tedious to read the entire way through.

Track 1 – The SHINee World (doo-bop)

The album starts off in a bang with this upbeat dance song. I felt this whole DBSK vibe while listening to it and I also noticed that it carries a some sort of resemblance to BoA’s “Girls on Top” and “Moto.” Even at the end I immediately thought of SS501’s “Deja Vu” but just to establish the fact that they are “SHINee” they even mention their group name a couple of times in the song.

Track 2 - 사랑의 길 | Love’s Way (Recommended)

Love love love this song. I was honestly hoping for more hip hop/R&B songs from SHINee and they definately delivered. Although this style of music has already been done before, SHINee made it their own by singing it wonderfully. The rap in the middle of the song reminded me of Big Bang’s rap style. Good song.

Track 3 - 산소 같은 너 | Love like Oxygen (Recommended)

I believe that this is SHINee’s 2^nd single? I didn’t think that they could come out with a song as addicting as “Noona Is so Pretty” but I guess I was wrong. With it’s “up-temponess” and Michael Jackson influence it makes a worthy second single, but it doesn’t exactly reflect the entire vibe of the album.

The boys show off the more sensual side of themselves in this MV. TaeMin’s spikey hair and androgynous appearance is probably the highlight of the video to most fangirls.

Track 4 - 너 아니면 안되는 걸 | Romantic

If you liked track 2, you’ll probably like this song as well. It follows up on the R&B style that SHINee is known for from “Noona is so Pretty” but this song is slower paced and more laidback relative to Eru’s songs.

Track 5 - 그녀가 헤어졌다 | One for Me

This song has a good start and the rest of the song flows and carries on pretty well. It’s a step up from the previous track and still follows a smiliar style to tracks 2 and 4. There’s a rap thrown towards the end of the song that I don’t really care much for though.

Track 6 - 화장을 하고 | Graze

An acoustic guitar opens this song and compared to the previous tracks, “Graze” is more of a ballad/acoustic style and is more loose on the R&B beats. It has a pretty generic arrangement and although it’s a nice song, it doesn’t stand out to the others.

Track 7 - 마지막 선물 | Last Gift (In my room-Prelude)

This song is similar in ballad-style as the previous track except that the vocals have more clarity and demand over the music and a piano replaces the presense of a guitar. Because of the arrangement of these similar tracks, I end up pairing the two tracks together rather than seeing them as each song on their own.

Track 8 - 내 곁에만 있어 | Best Place

I don’t really understand the arrangement of the beats in this song in contrast to the vocals but it sounds okay. This song breaks away into a mid-tempo R&B song (again) with calm vocals and a lot of ablibs. It reminds me of some of the boyband R&B songs that came out in the early millenium.

Track 9 - 혜야 (Y Si Fuera Ella)

As the title may hint, this song is going towards a Spanish influence. It kind of does, and kind of doesn’t fit in with the rest of the album, but what it does do is stand out by itself because of it’s musical style and it’s call for dramatic vocals.

Track 10 - 눈을 감아보면 | Four Seasons

I’ve already lost some of my interest in the album since the 5^th track. I’m hoping for a more upbeat and intense track like the intro song, but they throw another R&B song at the end. This song is slightly different from the others because of the electronica beats that accompany SHINee’s vocals.

Track 11 - In My Room (Unplugged Remix)

I never really took much interest in this song on their first single, and the remix doesn’t capture my attention here either. It’s another ballad style song just with fewer background instrumentals.

Track 12 - 누난 너무 예뻐 (Replay)

They almost lost me entirely at the end until this song came up. It’s SHINee’s infamous debut song that nabbed the hearts of various “noona’s” all over the world. The song’s composition is good, and the vocals are very suitable and arranged well. Not to mention the super-catchy chorus that replays in your head.

The first half of the album was great but I lost interest while listening to the second half because of the lack of powerful songs. Track 9 is a strong song, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Nevertheless, SHINee’s first album does have some pretty good songs.