Hueyyyy, So Cool! I’ve been wanting to do a brief collective review of their older albums to lead up to their new, fifth release due out today (which I just got !! but haven’t listened to yet haha), but I don’t know where to start… The group has been around since 2004, successfully releasing an album every year since their debut. While I’m not exactly 100% sure of So Cool’s past and their recent decisions, as I’m still a newbie So Cool fan, I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume they were another group, like Potato, whom GMM Grammy decided to give a “makeover,” giving them a new member; the second vocals Golf, and changing their sound to the more harder, “opera”-esque rock (for lack of a better description) much like the styles of Finnish metal band Nightwish or Japanese group Onmyouza.
If this is what happened to them, I’m annoyed when production companies try to alter groups and switch them around and whatnot, so I hope the boys had some say in the decisions and like the new changes. Though I must admit, I really like the latest sound, and I honestly don’t think I would have gotten as into them as I had if I wasn’t so entranced by their first single from the new release, Pai Loom Lom. I love the original vocal’s, Joke’s, voice so much, and he and Golf make a good duet.
So Cool was always one of those groups I’d heard OF, heard them a couple times in passing on the radio and whatnot, but never really taking the time to pay attention to them, but, now that I have, I gotta say I kinda like the older stuff too. It’s different, it’s almost like…look-toong rock. Joke does have a voice for look-toong if he wanted to go down that path, and I do have so much respect for those groups who can play kick-ass modern music and still have that little Thai twist, much like legendary pop trio Bazoo. Thailand represent, yo!
Here’s just a few songs to get a taste of their past.
From their self-titled debut, “คนเจียมตัว / Kon Jiam Dtua / Humble Person.” (Seems kind of contradictory with a name like So Cool, right? Haha)
เจียมตัว - So Cool
From their second album “So Hot,” their song “ขอเบอร์ / Kor Bur / I Want Your Number”
khor ber - So Cool - ขอเบอร์ - So Cool
From their third album, “Soda,” my personal favorite, and I think their most successful so far (Again, isn’t that usually the case? Luck of the third album?), their big single “ย้อมใจ / Yorm Jai / Comfort.” I remember when this music video was big too, haha. It’s a nice video, really funny, from all the girls jeering and laughing at them to the overdramatized tears pouring from behind their glasses, going along with the lyrics of “Drinking tears for comfort to make [my heart] red (alive) again, make it good like before, so it can forget you. I must comfort the pain that you sadistically want me to suffer, hurting me with a heart that seemed good but returns to black.” ** I guess I should at least put in a note here, that, while I personally loove the song and love singing along with it and think the MV goes fine with it, a couple of my friends think this is horrible for a first impression of So Cool. I guess you can make up your own mind if you want, here’s the video~
From their fourth album “Never Die My Love”, though, this music video for their single “Out ใจ / Out Jai / Out of my Heart” takes the cake. While the video’s got little to do with the lyrics of breaking up with a cheating lover, it’s soooo funny, making fun of all the current trends in pop culture, with fans swarming Joke in his limousine and him blowing conceited kisses at them all, continuously winking cheesily at the screaming, crying girls, doing the whole “heart” motion Korean pop stars seem to have made popular, then even the girls punching out the security guards and Joke hopping on the back of a kwai (buffalo), trying to ride it away from the rabid chasing fans hahaha.
แอบเขาเอาไว้ สวมให้เมื่อไหร่.. ก็ไม่รู้
aeb kao ao wai, suam hai meua rai… gor mai roo
keeping him with you, when will he be replaced… I don’t know
ชู้ใช่ไหม ชู้ปีดู ชู้ปีดู โว้วว
choo chai mai, choo-bee-doo choo-bee-doo-woah
he’s your lover, right? choo-bee-doo choo-bee-doo-woah
หลงงมงายไม่เคยได้เห็นตา
long ngom-ngai mai koei dai hen dtah
I’ve never seen someone so infatuated like you
โง่จนเขางอกขึ้นมาให้ปวดร้าว
ngoh jon kao ngork keun mah hai bpuad rao
Being foolish until you become heartbroken
*Out ใจ ใกล้ตัวแสนไกล
out jai, glai dtua saeng glai
out of my heart, so close yet so far
หัวใจ… โง่งมเหมือนควาย
hua jai… ngoh-ngom meuan kwaai
my heart… as stupid as a buffalo’s
แอบมีความลับกัน
aeb mee kwaam lub gun
sneaking around together
เขานั้นกระชากเธอออกไป โว้วว…
kao nun gra-chark ter ork bpai, woah…
making you go out, woah
พาเธอออกนอกใจ…
pah ter ork nork-jai…
leading you to become unfaithful
เธอมีแต่เขา หายใจเข้าออกก็เป็นเขา
ter mee dtae kao, hai jai kao ork gor bpen kao
you only have him, sighing out about him
มีแต่เขา มีแต่เขา เขาอยู่บนนี้..
mee dtae kao, mee dtae kao, kao yoo bon nee
just have him, just have him, here’s right here
**เขาเริ่มงอกทุกทีที่ปวดร้าว
kao rerm ngork took tee tee bpuad rao
he starts to always hurt you
และมีเขาคอยทิ่มแทงให้เจ็บช้ำ
laee mee kao koei team taeng hai jeb chum
and keeps hurting you
* Chorus repeat
** Second chorus repeat
* Chorus repeat
out ใจ.. out ใจ..
out jai.. out jai
out of my heart, out of my heart
Mmm, I can’t wait to listen to the new album! I’m crossing my fingers and hoping the rest of the b-sides are as good as Pai Loom Lom. They’ve also released a second single, “Baht Dtah,” which doesn’t sound too bad either. The songs they played at Malang Rock Day III, though, were all really good, so, I’m hoping and assuming the whole album will be another winner 
We’ll see, we’ll see~ Review on the new release, “Five,” to come shortly!
