Meta - DBSK - Love in the Ice (T Live Tour & Soul Power)
Warning: Not very complimentary comments. Not very knowledgeable analysis. Read at your own risk
Personal Notes: I like this song, but I never know why everybody calls this song the best song ever. Some comments may be rather rude. I'm not in a nice mood at the moment.
I will say this right now, my interest in T Live Tour is because they perform with a live band. Tohoshinki live music is awesome, but honestly, I care more about the fact that they perform with a live band.
So I went to listen to Love in the Ice, which is generally considered the best song ever. I disagree with this statement, because Love in the Ice has the potential to be the best song ever, but I don't think it's really cutting it. One glaring flaw, of course, is Jaejoong's inability to hit his high note without climbing through a series of really weird notes that sound well, bad. Another glaring flaw is the glaring flaw in all of their songs, which is the suspicious lack of any dynamics or rubato or well, musicality. The third glaring flaw is the fact that they always perform this song last or near the end, which means they sing it tired. Which sucks.
Starting from the beginning. Their blending on the high notes are good, and the live band really rounds out the song nicely. I like the way the music is shaped differently with the live band. It's much richer, and less static, than the studio ver. It really feels much warmer sound-wise.
Jaejoong starts out, of course, and he's vibratoing like mad. Not bad, because the vibrato serves to emphasize this "sad" feeling. Vibrato is really useful in this song. His phrasing is also rather nice, but it's more of chopping short a note rather than rubato, in my opinion. It's a nice shift from the much more static studio ver. Unfortunately, the first few lines are sang at the exact save volume, a rather mezzo-piano, which really does not bring out the line properly. Changmin's entrance is very remarkable, because he comes in at pretty much the exact same volume, which is really rather impressive. I'm suspecting a microphone adjustment maybe for the DVD edition (since I'm rather cynical). Changmin's musicality actually is a little better than Jaejoong's, I would say, because he has the ending of the phrase, and he trails it off nicely.
Yoochun's entrance is also very good. He crescendos as he comes in, and that builds up the verse as his crescendo is coinciding with a rising line. Yoochun's musicality is probably the best, as he really manages to follow the melody line and add some dynamics to the song. It's a much richer sound compared to Jaejoong's and Changmin's.
Jaejoong's part always aggravates me to no end. His singing is remarkably static dynamics wise. This part is an amazing part to build up, especially since the band is supporting the vocal line, making it possible to build up into a mezzo-forte / forte range. Jaejoong does sing louder, but he fails to build upon the repetition of the melody.
"Daremo ga / dare ka ni / aisare /(ru tameni)
"Kono yo ni / inochi wo / kirame ka/(seru no sa)"
Each section has the exact same rhythm (with the exception of the parts in parenthesis). I am also fairly certain that the notes are the same (but I wouldn't know, my sense of pitch is rather shitty). Additionally, both lines are similar. Very similar. That means that preferably, there is some change. This is the perfect opportunity to crescendo, decrescendo, whatever, just do something. The fact that Jaejoong doesn't do anything makes the lines static, and flat. Which is not bad the way missing notes or singing out of tune is bad, but is simply not good. It's bland. [I would actually prefer crescendos over decrescendos because this section is building up from the melody line, but understandably, there are issues with how far can you crescendo. I would go with mezzo-piano the first line and crescendo into mezzo-forte for the second line to go into forte probably. The sections in parenthesis would be perfect for rubato or even a slight decrescendo which would allow the line to crescendo from mezzo-piano into forte, decrescendo into mezzo-forte, and let the second line start from mezzo-forte and build into forte verging on fortissimo. My personal opinion, feel free to disagree.]
Personally, I dislike Junsu's voice. It rather aggravates me, the same way Changmin's overly nasal voice aggravates me. Clearly, you can see that I'm very nitpicky. It's not bad, but I don't like it. The same way I detest r&b and avoid it as much as possible. However, Junsu and Yunho's harmonization is really, really, beautiful. Harmonization in general is beautiful.
Junsu's voice really suits that part of the song. The emotion is very rich, and Yunho's voice helps build up the entire section into a very nice climax. Junsu's vibrato was a bit too wide for me at "boku nara." It almost felt like an attempt to find pitch (which is not what I expect from Junsu). Still, his decrescendo at "kokoro wo" and crescendo at "Towa no yasashisa de atatameruyo" makes his lines probably the most musical so far. He follows the line of the melody very well, which really helps to boost musicality. (The words also affect musicality, but since I'm far too incomptent at Japanese to attempt to work such out, and translations are never accurate, I shall refrain from attempting to work out such).
The next part starts with Yoochun but quickly leads into Jaejoong in a rising arpeggio. This is actually rather awkward. From the way they're singing, it provides a great disrepency between Yoochun and Jaejoong; Yoochun sings perhaps at a mezzoforte with a decrescendo to mezzopiano by the end of his line, while Jaejoong starts in at forte and crescendos into fortissimo. The crescendo is beautiful, especially since it fits perfectly with the rising arpeggio, but it's not smooth in terms of overall musicality thanks to the jump from mezzopiano into forte. Jaejoong's too enthusiastic at his part. Additionally, Jaejoong's vibrato saves him for this line; he sucessfully vibratos onto the correct note for "kokoro" "wo" and "itametemo" which is to be commended.
"Sono namida no saki ni wa" is beautiful. This is probably because harmonization in general is beautiful, but also because they simply maintain the build-up. In terms of the entire section, this is probably not very good, because Yunho and Changmin sing afterwards, but it serves to encapsulate their part nicely.
Yunho and Changmin's part is similar in structure to Yoochun's and Jaejoong's, with one major difference in how they present it. While Yoochun decrescendoed to mezzopiano by the end of his line, Yunho crescendos slightly so his voice stays in the mezzoforte range for Changmin's enterance. Changmin however, starts more around a mezzopiano (perhaps it's my recording), which doesn't create as much as a dichotomy as the Yoochun-Jaejoong duet created, but instead melds the verse into an overall statement. Changmin's intonation is iffy at "maiorite." I'm guessing that it's due to not enough air or something.
"Bokura wa kizukusa" is vastly different from "Sono namida no saki ni wa" in many ways. One is that the people singing is different which creates a different color. Jaejoong's voice is undeniably less nasal than Changmin's. Additionally, when Jaejoong and Yoochun sang, Yoochun's dynamics and expression served to make their line more of a duet, especially since Yoochun's voice comes through to support the lower reigons whereas Yunho's softer tones and milder singing makes Changmin's voice more audible to create more of a supporting vocal/main vocal feeling, no doubt helped by the fact that he sings higher than Yoochun.
Jaejoong has very unique phrasing in his section. Each breath he sings is full of subtle decrescendos and crescendos. However, his overall musicality leaves much to be desired. The entire phrase is disjointed and fractured, which makes for a broken feeling.
"Kurushii hodo ni tsuyoku () kanjiaeru
()Hito no nukumori" - Studio recorded ver.
"Kurushii () hodo ni / tsuyoku kan/jiaeru
Hito no nukumori" - Soul Power Live ver.
"Kurushii () hodo ni / tsuyoku kan/jiaeru
Hito no / nukumori" - T Live Tour ver.
*() designate brief pauses/breathing or pauses that I'm iffy to label as deliberate pauses to emphisize musicality. "/" designates a deliberate pause.
His studio version is much more flowing, as he sings the entire verse as one verse. It's legato, and very beautiful. In Soul Power, Jaejoong starts with his disjointed singing, and no doubt it's easier to breath this way. Still, he doesn't break as often as he does in T live tour. It's uncertain whether this is musicality or a very bad attempt at it. Still, the fermata on "Kurushii" is good. Cutting short "hodo ni" and then singing tsuyoku as triplets emphisizes that word, as does adding a rest at "kan/jiaeru" (If anybody can work out why this is done that would be nice, since I have no idea about what each word means). "Hito no / nukumori" actually confuses me, since the point is "a person's warmth" To cut it off would be awkward lyric-wise. "A person's" pause "warmth." It seems rather awkward, and almost seems like he's singing staccato instead of tenuto, which would probably be better for a ballad like this.
Overall, Jaejoong seems to be trying too hard at musicality in terms of phrasing, but doesn't bring much dynamic-wise to the table. Which is a pity, because if he kept the pauses but strung together his dynamics better, the line would be tear-inducing. Though it is to be commended that he starts out soft enough to join his section with the Changmin-Yunho section previous.
Jaejoong sings the chorus next, albeit with different words, this time with Jaejoong and Junsu. Again, they start out at forte, but with the "nukumori" from Jaejoong's line, it's possible, and probably better, to start out more at mezzopiano, since that's how Jaejoong trails it off, and to build it up again. As it is, the entire "Daremo ga motteru kanashimi ya kodoku / Iyashite moraeru basho sagashiteiru" is this giant rush of noise and words, and doesn't do anything. It's two lines that sit there when they could be doing something. Boring.
Likewise, the next lines that Jaejoong sings with Yunho are boring. The entire chorus is sung at a forte-fortissmo range, which means that there are five lines and thirty seconds of the exact same volume. There are thirty seconds of the exact same volume. I counted. It's painful. The way it seems though, is that Jaejoong-Junsu and Jaejoong-Yunho overwhelm the band in the background. The band doesn't rise up to support their mad rush to forte, and seems almost as if they want to pull down the chorus (which is probably better).
Still, singing this in forte is understandable. It's building up the overall song into a climax, and it works. However, thirty seconds of forte with no dynamics is just... painful. I can't say anything about the very nice tenutos and the legato because the dynamics just kill me with their lack of.
[Personally, I would take advantage of the fact that Jaejoong finishes "nukumori" in around mezzopiano to piano range, to start at mezzo piano/mezzoforte, and then build up each section in a gradual crescendo until around a forte/fortissimo range, then drop to mezzoforte/forte range and sing the second line until a crescendo to a fortissimo range. For the parts with Jaejoong and Yunho, the live band seems to be encouraging a louder volume, so I would maintain around a forte, with a fermata on "mamoru"]
As usual, when they sing the "ah" part, they meld well with the live band. I'm reminded of violins whenever they sing that part, and the fact that violins (and string instruments) were made to imitate human voices doesn't help, obviously. This part really makes them less of singers, and more of instrumentalists, I think. The background music really draws this clearly. The fact that they crescendo when they go higher (though that may be simply the fact that higher notes are more clearly heard) is nice because it draws the song towards the climax. The piano solo in the background is nice, but it seems so plain, almost like it's a studio recorded version. The Soul Power pianist clearly was more of a soloist (and probably had jazz training because it sounds like jazz chords at times) compared to the T live tour pianst.
The T live band actually annoys me because I don't think they manage to support the vocal part well. In Soul Power, there are drums building crescendos so the musicality is much stronger, which is not the case in T. And such static live band playing means that there's little difference between a studio recorded version and this live version. Why is there a live band if there is no musicality in the live band's playing?
The next part is Junsu's, and this is the part that always facinates me because Junsu really does have the ability to pull this whole verse together. Unfortunately, he never seems to bother with much musicality, the same way nobody bothers with musicality at chorus' and such. This could be a very beautiful verse if it weren't for the fact it seems like a "who can sing louder" competition.
The point of this section is the call-and-response. Junsu sings a line, and another member responds. It's almost like a fugue, only fugues are cooler and it's not a fugue since there is no real theme that gets repeated, so it's only call-and-response.
Setsunai hodo ([Jaejoong] My heart)
Utsukushii ai dakara ([Yunho] Don't be afraid)
Hakanai hodo ([Changmin] Let you know my love)
Uruwa shii ([Yoochun] You know)
Kono toki wo ([Yoochun] Let you Know my love too)
Jaejoong's "My heart" actually breaks my heart. Since he goes off, again. He clearly can't reach the note he's supposed to reach, and it's uncertain whether he even knows the interval he's supposed to sing since he doesn't nail that note in the studio-recorded version. He does do better than in Soul Power, where he manages to hit that note through a lot of shifting and it's generally painful to listen to. In this case, he slides up to the correct note, but he does manage to hit it (after a while), and then he wavers and it's generally rather upsetting to listen to.
I find Yunho's part the best. He manages to crescendo, which is nice, especially since he's the only person who manages to do anything instead of join in the mad rush to hit fortississimo.
Yoochun also does well in managing to hit the high note--a full octave higher than the note he sings in the studio ver., I believe (correct me if I'm wrong). But overall, this part is not very good because it's simply a rush to fortissimo/fortississimo. It's full of emotion, but it's not full of musicality. Additionally, the live band doesn't rise up to support this rush to fortissimo/fortississimo. In fact, the live band is so static that it's rather dead. Which is a horrible thought actually, since the beautiful of a live band is that it allows the background to be alive. This makes the background dead.
The final chorus is good because the drums crescendo into that part. Again, there is absolutely no dynamics beyond a mad rush to be the loudest, but the fact that Yoochun comes in at "Kono yo ni" means that the second line sounds richer and thus louder, creating a growth. Again, there is little to no dynamics, but the fact that this chorus is louder than the others (because there are 5 voices as opposed to 2) does create a climax.
The ending again is good. It's solid, and again the live band is dead, similar to peanuts. It's bland and lifeless.
However, the fact thaat all five of them breath together and diminuendo sucessfully is a credit to them. On the other other hand, they fail at fading away together, and they seperate into individual voices. Still, I would call this a pretty good performance.
It's not easy to understand a song well enough to create sucessful dynamics. For the most part, with vocal pieces, there aren't much dynamics. It's understandable, therefore, that Love in the Ice has so little dynamics. What is not understandable is why the live band is so static and soft. I'm guessing that whoever was doing sound balance was really bad, or there was editing later when making the DVD that jacked up the vocal part and jacked down the band part, which is really bad because it doesn't allow the sound to meld well. All the same though, I would say this was a good performance, simply because everybody did manage to pull of musicality to some extent.
End.
tl;dr ver.: Live Band sucked, DBSK sucked, but it wasn't as bad as it could be.
For rambles on microphones and balance, see here, the ramble that led to this meta.
For a brief baffled look at Rising Sun, see here.
(Both links lead to public entries on my friend-locked personal journal.)
Personal Notes: I like this song, but I never know why everybody calls this song the best song ever. Some comments may be rather rude. I'm not in a nice mood at the moment.
I will say this right now, my interest in T Live Tour is because they perform with a live band. Tohoshinki live music is awesome, but honestly, I care more about the fact that they perform with a live band.
So I went to listen to Love in the Ice, which is generally considered the best song ever. I disagree with this statement, because Love in the Ice has the potential to be the best song ever, but I don't think it's really cutting it. One glaring flaw, of course, is Jaejoong's inability to hit his high note without climbing through a series of really weird notes that sound well, bad. Another glaring flaw is the glaring flaw in all of their songs, which is the suspicious lack of any dynamics or rubato or well, musicality. The third glaring flaw is the fact that they always perform this song last or near the end, which means they sing it tired. Which sucks.
Starting from the beginning. Their blending on the high notes are good, and the live band really rounds out the song nicely. I like the way the music is shaped differently with the live band. It's much richer, and less static, than the studio ver. It really feels much warmer sound-wise.
Jaejoong starts out, of course, and he's vibratoing like mad. Not bad, because the vibrato serves to emphasize this "sad" feeling. Vibrato is really useful in this song. His phrasing is also rather nice, but it's more of chopping short a note rather than rubato, in my opinion. It's a nice shift from the much more static studio ver. Unfortunately, the first few lines are sang at the exact save volume, a rather mezzo-piano, which really does not bring out the line properly. Changmin's entrance is very remarkable, because he comes in at pretty much the exact same volume, which is really rather impressive. I'm suspecting a microphone adjustment maybe for the DVD edition (since I'm rather cynical). Changmin's musicality actually is a little better than Jaejoong's, I would say, because he has the ending of the phrase, and he trails it off nicely.
Yoochun's entrance is also very good. He crescendos as he comes in, and that builds up the verse as his crescendo is coinciding with a rising line. Yoochun's musicality is probably the best, as he really manages to follow the melody line and add some dynamics to the song. It's a much richer sound compared to Jaejoong's and Changmin's.
Jaejoong's part always aggravates me to no end. His singing is remarkably static dynamics wise. This part is an amazing part to build up, especially since the band is supporting the vocal line, making it possible to build up into a mezzo-forte / forte range. Jaejoong does sing louder, but he fails to build upon the repetition of the melody.
"Daremo ga / dare ka ni / aisare /(ru tameni)
"Kono yo ni / inochi wo / kirame ka/(seru no sa)"
Each section has the exact same rhythm (with the exception of the parts in parenthesis). I am also fairly certain that the notes are the same (but I wouldn't know, my sense of pitch is rather shitty). Additionally, both lines are similar. Very similar. That means that preferably, there is some change. This is the perfect opportunity to crescendo, decrescendo, whatever, just do something. The fact that Jaejoong doesn't do anything makes the lines static, and flat. Which is not bad the way missing notes or singing out of tune is bad, but is simply not good. It's bland. [I would actually prefer crescendos over decrescendos because this section is building up from the melody line, but understandably, there are issues with how far can you crescendo. I would go with mezzo-piano the first line and crescendo into mezzo-forte for the second line to go into forte probably. The sections in parenthesis would be perfect for rubato or even a slight decrescendo which would allow the line to crescendo from mezzo-piano into forte, decrescendo into mezzo-forte, and let the second line start from mezzo-forte and build into forte verging on fortissimo. My personal opinion, feel free to disagree.]
Personally, I dislike Junsu's voice. It rather aggravates me, the same way Changmin's overly nasal voice aggravates me. Clearly, you can see that I'm very nitpicky. It's not bad, but I don't like it. The same way I detest r&b and avoid it as much as possible. However, Junsu and Yunho's harmonization is really, really, beautiful. Harmonization in general is beautiful.
Junsu's voice really suits that part of the song. The emotion is very rich, and Yunho's voice helps build up the entire section into a very nice climax. Junsu's vibrato was a bit too wide for me at "boku nara." It almost felt like an attempt to find pitch (which is not what I expect from Junsu). Still, his decrescendo at "kokoro wo" and crescendo at "Towa no yasashisa de atatameruyo" makes his lines probably the most musical so far. He follows the line of the melody very well, which really helps to boost musicality. (The words also affect musicality, but since I'm far too incomptent at Japanese to attempt to work such out, and translations are never accurate, I shall refrain from attempting to work out such).
The next part starts with Yoochun but quickly leads into Jaejoong in a rising arpeggio. This is actually rather awkward. From the way they're singing, it provides a great disrepency between Yoochun and Jaejoong; Yoochun sings perhaps at a mezzoforte with a decrescendo to mezzopiano by the end of his line, while Jaejoong starts in at forte and crescendos into fortissimo. The crescendo is beautiful, especially since it fits perfectly with the rising arpeggio, but it's not smooth in terms of overall musicality thanks to the jump from mezzopiano into forte. Jaejoong's too enthusiastic at his part. Additionally, Jaejoong's vibrato saves him for this line; he sucessfully vibratos onto the correct note for "kokoro" "wo" and "itametemo" which is to be commended.
"Sono namida no saki ni wa" is beautiful. This is probably because harmonization in general is beautiful, but also because they simply maintain the build-up. In terms of the entire section, this is probably not very good, because Yunho and Changmin sing afterwards, but it serves to encapsulate their part nicely.
Yunho and Changmin's part is similar in structure to Yoochun's and Jaejoong's, with one major difference in how they present it. While Yoochun decrescendoed to mezzopiano by the end of his line, Yunho crescendos slightly so his voice stays in the mezzoforte range for Changmin's enterance. Changmin however, starts more around a mezzopiano (perhaps it's my recording), which doesn't create as much as a dichotomy as the Yoochun-Jaejoong duet created, but instead melds the verse into an overall statement. Changmin's intonation is iffy at "maiorite." I'm guessing that it's due to not enough air or something.
"Bokura wa kizukusa" is vastly different from "Sono namida no saki ni wa" in many ways. One is that the people singing is different which creates a different color. Jaejoong's voice is undeniably less nasal than Changmin's. Additionally, when Jaejoong and Yoochun sang, Yoochun's dynamics and expression served to make their line more of a duet, especially since Yoochun's voice comes through to support the lower reigons whereas Yunho's softer tones and milder singing makes Changmin's voice more audible to create more of a supporting vocal/main vocal feeling, no doubt helped by the fact that he sings higher than Yoochun.
Jaejoong has very unique phrasing in his section. Each breath he sings is full of subtle decrescendos and crescendos. However, his overall musicality leaves much to be desired. The entire phrase is disjointed and fractured, which makes for a broken feeling.
"Kurushii hodo ni tsuyoku () kanjiaeru
()Hito no nukumori" - Studio recorded ver.
"Kurushii () hodo ni / tsuyoku kan/jiaeru
Hito no nukumori" - Soul Power Live ver.
"Kurushii () hodo ni / tsuyoku kan/jiaeru
Hito no / nukumori" - T Live Tour ver.
*() designate brief pauses/breathing or pauses that I'm iffy to label as deliberate pauses to emphisize musicality. "/" designates a deliberate pause.
His studio version is much more flowing, as he sings the entire verse as one verse. It's legato, and very beautiful. In Soul Power, Jaejoong starts with his disjointed singing, and no doubt it's easier to breath this way. Still, he doesn't break as often as he does in T live tour. It's uncertain whether this is musicality or a very bad attempt at it. Still, the fermata on "Kurushii" is good. Cutting short "hodo ni" and then singing tsuyoku as triplets emphisizes that word, as does adding a rest at "kan/jiaeru" (If anybody can work out why this is done that would be nice, since I have no idea about what each word means). "Hito no / nukumori" actually confuses me, since the point is "a person's warmth" To cut it off would be awkward lyric-wise. "A person's" pause "warmth." It seems rather awkward, and almost seems like he's singing staccato instead of tenuto, which would probably be better for a ballad like this.
Overall, Jaejoong seems to be trying too hard at musicality in terms of phrasing, but doesn't bring much dynamic-wise to the table. Which is a pity, because if he kept the pauses but strung together his dynamics better, the line would be tear-inducing. Though it is to be commended that he starts out soft enough to join his section with the Changmin-Yunho section previous.
Jaejoong sings the chorus next, albeit with different words, this time with Jaejoong and Junsu. Again, they start out at forte, but with the "nukumori" from Jaejoong's line, it's possible, and probably better, to start out more at mezzopiano, since that's how Jaejoong trails it off, and to build it up again. As it is, the entire "Daremo ga motteru kanashimi ya kodoku / Iyashite moraeru basho sagashiteiru" is this giant rush of noise and words, and doesn't do anything. It's two lines that sit there when they could be doing something. Boring.
Likewise, the next lines that Jaejoong sings with Yunho are boring. The entire chorus is sung at a forte-fortissmo range, which means that there are five lines and thirty seconds of the exact same volume. There are thirty seconds of the exact same volume. I counted. It's painful. The way it seems though, is that Jaejoong-Junsu and Jaejoong-Yunho overwhelm the band in the background. The band doesn't rise up to support their mad rush to forte, and seems almost as if they want to pull down the chorus (which is probably better).
Still, singing this in forte is understandable. It's building up the overall song into a climax, and it works. However, thirty seconds of forte with no dynamics is just... painful. I can't say anything about the very nice tenutos and the legato because the dynamics just kill me with their lack of.
[Personally, I would take advantage of the fact that Jaejoong finishes "nukumori" in around mezzopiano to piano range, to start at mezzo piano/mezzoforte, and then build up each section in a gradual crescendo until around a forte/fortissimo range, then drop to mezzoforte/forte range and sing the second line until a crescendo to a fortissimo range. For the parts with Jaejoong and Yunho, the live band seems to be encouraging a louder volume, so I would maintain around a forte, with a fermata on "mamoru"]
As usual, when they sing the "ah" part, they meld well with the live band. I'm reminded of violins whenever they sing that part, and the fact that violins (and string instruments) were made to imitate human voices doesn't help, obviously. This part really makes them less of singers, and more of instrumentalists, I think. The background music really draws this clearly. The fact that they crescendo when they go higher (though that may be simply the fact that higher notes are more clearly heard) is nice because it draws the song towards the climax. The piano solo in the background is nice, but it seems so plain, almost like it's a studio recorded version. The Soul Power pianist clearly was more of a soloist (and probably had jazz training because it sounds like jazz chords at times) compared to the T live tour pianst.
The T live band actually annoys me because I don't think they manage to support the vocal part well. In Soul Power, there are drums building crescendos so the musicality is much stronger, which is not the case in T. And such static live band playing means that there's little difference between a studio recorded version and this live version. Why is there a live band if there is no musicality in the live band's playing?
The next part is Junsu's, and this is the part that always facinates me because Junsu really does have the ability to pull this whole verse together. Unfortunately, he never seems to bother with much musicality, the same way nobody bothers with musicality at chorus' and such. This could be a very beautiful verse if it weren't for the fact it seems like a "who can sing louder" competition.
The point of this section is the call-and-response. Junsu sings a line, and another member responds. It's almost like a fugue, only fugues are cooler and it's not a fugue since there is no real theme that gets repeated, so it's only call-and-response.
Setsunai hodo ([Jaejoong] My heart)
Utsukushii ai dakara ([Yunho] Don't be afraid)
Hakanai hodo ([Changmin] Let you know my love)
Uruwa shii ([Yoochun] You know)
Kono toki wo ([Yoochun] Let you Know my love too)
Jaejoong's "My heart" actually breaks my heart. Since he goes off, again. He clearly can't reach the note he's supposed to reach, and it's uncertain whether he even knows the interval he's supposed to sing since he doesn't nail that note in the studio-recorded version. He does do better than in Soul Power, where he manages to hit that note through a lot of shifting and it's generally painful to listen to. In this case, he slides up to the correct note, but he does manage to hit it (after a while), and then he wavers and it's generally rather upsetting to listen to.
I find Yunho's part the best. He manages to crescendo, which is nice, especially since he's the only person who manages to do anything instead of join in the mad rush to hit fortississimo.
Yoochun also does well in managing to hit the high note--a full octave higher than the note he sings in the studio ver., I believe (correct me if I'm wrong). But overall, this part is not very good because it's simply a rush to fortissimo/fortississimo. It's full of emotion, but it's not full of musicality. Additionally, the live band doesn't rise up to support this rush to fortissimo/fortississimo. In fact, the live band is so static that it's rather dead. Which is a horrible thought actually, since the beautiful of a live band is that it allows the background to be alive. This makes the background dead.
The final chorus is good because the drums crescendo into that part. Again, there is absolutely no dynamics beyond a mad rush to be the loudest, but the fact that Yoochun comes in at "Kono yo ni" means that the second line sounds richer and thus louder, creating a growth. Again, there is little to no dynamics, but the fact that this chorus is louder than the others (because there are 5 voices as opposed to 2) does create a climax.
The ending again is good. It's solid, and again the live band is dead, similar to peanuts. It's bland and lifeless.
However, the fact thaat all five of them breath together and diminuendo sucessfully is a credit to them. On the other other hand, they fail at fading away together, and they seperate into individual voices. Still, I would call this a pretty good performance.
It's not easy to understand a song well enough to create sucessful dynamics. For the most part, with vocal pieces, there aren't much dynamics. It's understandable, therefore, that Love in the Ice has so little dynamics. What is not understandable is why the live band is so static and soft. I'm guessing that whoever was doing sound balance was really bad, or there was editing later when making the DVD that jacked up the vocal part and jacked down the band part, which is really bad because it doesn't allow the sound to meld well. All the same though, I would say this was a good performance, simply because everybody did manage to pull of musicality to some extent.
End.
tl;dr ver.: Live Band sucked, DBSK sucked, but it wasn't as bad as it could be.
For rambles on microphones and balance, see here, the ramble that led to this meta.
For a brief baffled look at Rising Sun, see here.
(Both links lead to public entries on my friend-locked personal journal.)