As AOA's popularity has seen a large increase after January's "Miniskirt", AOA have released their first mini album. The album has 7 tracks: 5 original songs and 2 are instrumentals.
"Fantasy" is the opening track and is really just an intro to the album, standing at only 1 minute 18 seconds. It's mainly just Choa, Yuna and Hyejeong but as it's only an intro it doesn't matter really. Many intros either just flow into the title track or in some cases don't sound like the rest of the album at all, but this does neither and instead sets the mood for the whole mini album.
"Short Hair" is the title track and you can read the full review in my previous post, but basically I'd say it's their best single as it manages to combine "Miniskirt" and fan favourite "Moya" into one thoroughly enjoyable song. It's bright, upbeat and just as catchy as the aforementioned songs and is bound to be a hit and I hope they'll get a win or two before the onslaught of big groups in July.
Next up is "Joa Yo!", a cute and happy song that's unfortunately quite predictable and generic, though I do like the piano melody and the instrumentation. It's basically a typical cutesy girl group song, but it's still pretty good and quite catchy. Whilst there are tons of kpop songs just like it, "Joa Yo!" is still a pleasant and charming track.
"Soulmate" is a bit slower than the other songs. It does a good job of showing off the group's vocals and Choa sounds great but it's pretty...eh. It's nice, yes, but nothing about it is particularly engaging or interesting. Maybe if it was a bit slower and stripped down slightly to let their vocals really stand out it would be better, but "Soulmate" is a pretty average song and the weakest in this mini album.
By this point I was worried all the other songs except "Short Hair" would be average to good but fortunately "You Know That" proved me wrong. It's jazzy with a good beat and a prominent drum beat provides the song with some backbone. The instruments really strengthen the song and there's enough going on without being too busy. I really liked this song and it was a nice surprise at the end of the album, sounding very different to the rest of the songs.
Finally are the two instrumentals for "Short Hair" and "Joa Yo!". I'd argue the latter's instrumental version is better but no one really cares about instrumentals anyway since they just add to the album's size and that's pretty much it.
Whilst it has been inflated by an intro and instrumental tracks, "Short Hair" is still a pretty good mini album. There's nothing particularly outstanding except for the brilliant title track but it's a bright and breezy package that at least deserves a listen.
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