Artist: KARA
Album: “Day & Night”
Label: DSP Media
Year: 2014

Intro

This marks the first album from KARA as a four member unit consisting of Gyuri, Hara, Seungyeon, and newcomer, Youngji. Youngji makes her debut as a member of KARA after winning a reality show for this album. It also marks the first time KARA has released an album without Nicole and Jiyoung. As a KARA fan, I felt that there would be a void as the former members were valuable members to the group.

Good
The good thing is that most of the songs were upbeat and very pleasant. “Mamma Mia” was a decent single for the EP. For all those Kamilia that don’t accept Youngji as part of the group, we aren’t over exposed to her as she doesn’t have too many lines. Most of the lines go to the more familiar faces of the group.

Bad
Well, for those that strictly only supported the five member version of KARA, the sad news is that the voids of Nicole and Jiyoung are heavily felt. “Day & Night” is void of the soft spoken voice of Jiyoung and the only person that could do the lines in English in Nicole.

Towards the latter part of the album, the songs become less up beat and more along the lines of ballads. It makes us really miss the two former members.

We also don’t feel the synergy between producer and artist. In this album, they made the switch from long time producer, Sweet Tune to Duble Sidekick. What made it feel different is the sound quality as Sweet Tune was able to get the most out of KARA while Duble Sidekick has been known to work with multiple artists in the KPop genre which means the songs from many groups may sound similar.

Overview
As a huge Kamilia, I felt this album was a shell of their former selves. It’s not the KARA we all grew up with. It was the best they could do with the three mainstays already forging a long time relationship while trying to integrate a new member into the fold.

This album was also released as a Japanese EP with all songs being translated to the Japanese crowd. No new songs were recorded for the Japanese release.

Overall rating: 3/5
Reviewed by: Mr. Timtastic