Black

 

The color of my heart is black. It was burnt to black, just like that 

If you ask me what happiness is 

When this life is done, maybe when this love is gone 

If you ask me what happiness is 

You'll smile out under the sun, but I'm always on the run

-- "Black" by G-Dragon ft. Sky Ferreira

My ex-roommate was a huge fan of G-Dragon, but I've never jumped on that bandwagon. I suppose it's a combination of several factors. For one, the androgynous image has never particularly appealed to me. My biases have always been towards the more masculine, particularly with voices. I still don't really like G-Dragon's voice--it's too whiny for my tastes. Moreover, we've already established that I may be drawn to "bad" images, but deep down, I like the nice guys. The Badass One, with his shyness and good manners, fits this to a tee. Conversely, I've spent the last few years watching G-Dragon getting in all sorts of trouble, from his lame excuses about "accidentally" smoking weed to posting a black-face photo on the Internet.

I'll give him credit for being a prolific producer and composer. Obviously, there was a reason why I started listening to Big Bang in the first place. But I have to admit that I think most of my favorites are from their older albums. I tried giving G-Dragon's new album "Coup d'Etat" a try, since I've been hankering for some new music recently. The title track ("Coup d'Etat") didn't worm its way into me--partly because I got irrationally irritated by the way he pronounced his French. "Crooked" had a rock n roll feel, and yet I still didn't like it. I think I listened to "Michi-GO" once and never bothered with it again. Don't bother asking me to explain why I didn't like these songs--music is such a intuitive thing that I don't think I can really dissect why I end up liking or disliking a song. I was totally unmoved by G-Dragon's comeback singles, but I was totally hooked on Seungri's "Gotta Talk to U" from first listen. Unlike everyone else in the world, it seemed.

Then, about a week ago, I saw a video of his live performance of "R.O.D" with CL (whose "Baddest Female" single, in my opinion, was devastatingly disappointing), and I thought, Hey! I like this song way better than the other songs he released as singles. So I decided to look up the other songs and found myself sticking to "Black." I particularly like Sky Ferreira's version--something about her voice just strikes an emotional chord for me more than Jennie Kim's. I just kind of wish this song had a deeper male voice instead... oh you know, just a certain someone...

You called, Sophelia?