The Three Best B-Sides From "The Velvet"

Many people either love or hate Red Velvet's "Velvet" concept and only stan the "Red" part, which is understanding. But seeing as I've enjoyed "Be Natural", "Automatic" and "One of These Nights" (but love their more upbeat stuff) I can come to it with an open mind in the hopes of some nicely constructed more "velvety" songs and not just a bunch of melancholy boring ballads. So here are the three b-sides I enjoyed the most from the album.

"Cool Hot Sweet Love"

I like "One of These Nights" and all but "Cool Hot Sweet Love" seems more title-track friendly. It has mainstream appeal, upbeat nature, a very killer chorus, pretty bridge and is more dance-heavy while still matching their "Velvet" concept although it is definitely sexier than all their Red concepts so far (sans "Ice Cream Cake" which we all know is sexual innuendo after sexual innuendo.) I mean, I guess if they did go with this as the title then it would seem like a cheat since this more like Red+Velvet mixed together rather than one over the other. "Cool Hot Sweet Love" has managed to make waves with fans which is a good thing because it needs love. 

"Rose Scent Breeze"

The problem I have with most Korean ballads is that they are either piano or acoustic guitar driven that never pick up and lack any interesting melody and the vocals are always over-powering the instrumental. However one will occasionally stand out to me, and this is one of them. "Rose Scent Breeze" has piano, violins and acoustic guitar however instead of being one-note for over-four minutes it gradually builds and adds to itself while also adding other instruments like electric guitar and drums. And while this does features Red Velvet's three best singers (Wendy, Seulgi, and Joy), and there is some vocal heights reached, they're reached at appropriate moments (like when the instrumental reaches it's climax) and they never drag it out past its welcome which I greatly appreciate. "Rose Sent Breeze" might not be everyone's cup of tea since it does take a while for it to pick up, but when it does pick up it doesn't let down.

"One Of These Nights" (De-Capo Version)

I like all three versions of OOTN, however people have been either liking the Joy Millionaire version of this one, De-Capo. De-Capo is my personal favorite version of OOTN. It has a spacey and creepy vibe that I dig. It's just an overall pleasant listen. I do recommend the Joy Millionaire version too however this has a bit more to it.

Those were my favorite b-sides from "The Velvet." The only song that I just could not get into no matter what was "First Time." That song literally does nothing for me as I'm just purely bored by it. Overall I'd say this was a decent release, it's not as good as the "Ice Cream Cake" mini nor will it ever come close to "The Red" AKA 2015's best album, but it's still pleasant enough and if all else fails and you just can't get into the ballads, we still have "Cool Hot Sweet Love."