photo credit by Starship Entertainment

Album Review: MONSTA X – ALL ABOUT LUV

Monsta X, our loveable babies just released their first full-length English album ‘ALL ABOUT LUV’. The title of the album perfectly reflects the content, because it’s literally all about love. Each and every song talks about some sort of relationship. 

Some of the songs were released previously, so you might already be familiar with them. 

Let’s dive in!

‘ALL ABOUT LUV’

The first track is ‘WHO DO U LOVE?’ featuring French Montana. 

The song is still a bop, despite having my doubts about the collab and the rather disastrous performance on Jimmy Kimmel.

LOVE U’ is next. It was released as a single in September. 

HAPPY WITHOUT ME’ is the first new song on the album. It’s a beautiful song with Kihyun’s vocals taking the stage. 

With some solid harmonies and layered voices we slide into ‘GOT MY NUMBER’. The rap section came through with some soft rap that elevated the song. 

Then we finally get ‘SOMEONE’S SOMEONE’. I got a little bit obsessed with this song when it first came out, because everything about it is just so SOFT. It’s also the last music video where Wonho is still part of the group, so prepare for some tears.

The next song is ‘MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT’, another pre-release. 

I literally felt attacked when this MV came out, because the vocals, the visuals and the lyrics. Also that extra mic stand, I see you. Wonho might not have been there in person, but he was there in spirit (and his vocals are on the track as well, thank god).

‘SHE’S THE ONE’ is another new track that we hadn’t heard. It’s just the sweetest love song about harbouring a crush. I love the chanting and the little ‘oh oh oh’s. Also Jooheon, honey, you’re doing amazing. VOCAL KINGS

After that cute love song, we get some electric guitar action. With a pretty cool riff we get introduced to ‘YOU CAN’T HOLD MY HEART’, a break-up story where love slips through your fingers, no matter how hard we try to hold on. 

MISBEHAVE’ feels like a love song for a relationship that might not be the healthiest, to be honest. Though the line ‘we only break up, just so we can make up and I can hear you call my name’ is going into the history books. Together with Shownu’s line: ‘ Mess me up good, you’re my bad girl, bad girl’ Because that is SEXY. 

Pitbull, aka Mr.Worldwide is also in this album. He’s on the collab ‘BESIDE U’. This song has two versions on the album. There’s this one and then there’s one that’s called ‘I.M. RAP VER’. which is the same song just with an added verse by I.M.

Then the last track is the will.i.am remix of ‘WHO DO U LOVE’ ft. French Montana. A really cool remix, that adds a bit more spice to the original track.

Overall

It’s a really solid, coherent album and I like it. It’s the perfect album to play during a long car ride. Though I do have to say that I miss MONSTA X’s original style. I’m missing a hard hitting bop like ‘Follow’ or something like ‘Dramarama’ that’s a complete earworm.

Here’s the Spotify link.


Ilse Van Den Heede
A writer with a slight coffee addiction and a tendency to find K-Indie gems in the YouTube rabbit hole.