[ALBUM] FT Island – Cross & Change / ‘I Hope’ MV

These days, with the addition of my weekend fandom round-up posts to the blog, I don’t often dedicate entire blog posts to new releases, but FT Island have changed that with their new music video and album. 바래 from new album, Cross&Change, under the cut.

FT Island are back with their third album, Cross & Change, this time with a supposed change of style from their previous outings. The music video for the title track, I Hope was released today and I’ve been watching it on repeat since I got home. Check it out below.

[MV] FT Island – I Hope

Quick outburst first – I love his hair!

I wouldn’t normally dedicate an entire blog post to an FT Island music video, but this one is just so incredibly good. It’s breaks away from their usual depressing music dramas with lots of crying and meaningful lyrics. This time round, it’s much more fun and the song matches it perfectly.

The video begins with the boys rehearsing in what looks like a small club, when there is a short circuit in their equipment and they’re transported back in time. They just happen to show up in a recording studio where a Battle of the Bands-esque event is going on. They start performing to a lukewarm reception by the judges before starting to win them over. Intermittently, you’re treated to snippets of the FT Island mini me’s watching on TV and dancing around.

As expected, they win the competition and a romance starts to blossom between the girl who gives them the trophy and lead man, 홍기. They go on to perform on TV and have some fame as a group, while the romance continues to blossom. In the end, they decide to hang it all up and go home. Before departing, the leader gives the girl his guitar pick and they step back into the changing rooms before teleporting back to the dark club from the beginning. As they leave, he sees a girl sitting at a table – yup, same one.

Nothing amazing in terms of plot, but I just feel that it captures the charm of the song and displays it in a more fun and interesting way than most. Hmmm. Reading that last sentence back doesn’t really convey how much I enjoy watching this music video. Of course, the song drives the video, but I think the visual media has a great deal of importance and it just works so damn well. Awesome.

FT Island 3rd Album – Cross & Change

To give you more an of an insight into the album, I’m going to answer some simple questions about it and then give me overall feeling.

What are your favorite tracks?

Favorite tracks right now are I Hope and 결혼해줘. They’re just so upbeat and make me want to sing along to them. I think that they’re the sort of track that FT Island can do really well and bring alive when they perform on music shows. 빙빙빙 is a really fun track too.

How do you feel about the balance?

The balance of this album is much better than previous ones in my opinion. It’s much more geared towards happy songs and there are hardly any that make you feel depressed afterwards. Don’t get me wrong, I like a little drama in my music sometimes, but I think their first two albums had enough of that for them to take a breather in this one.

Overall, is the album working for you?

The album does what almost every K-Pop album does, and that’s drop off slightly near the end. That being said, there are no songs on there that I don’t like and there are less ballads than usual. I would have liked a few more high tempo tracks to even it out, but in all, I like it. Not sure how different this is to their usual stuff though. Sure, it’s different, but not as much as they led me to believe it would be. They’re certainly maturing though and their performances are always good.

As I mentioned above, this is just my opinion. If you have something to say or want to pimp your post on the same subject, then go right ahead in the comments.