Red Velvet’s ‘Russian Roulette’ mini album review

By: Fletcher Pike

Red Velvet is a popular K-pop girl group that was formed in 2014 with five girls, Irene, Wendy, Seulgi, Joy, and Yeri. Since then, they have released 3 full albums along with numerous EP’s, or extended plays, which are also called mini albums. One of these mini albums, named ‘Russian Roulette’, was released on September 7th, 2016. This mini album is their third ever mini album and includes 7 songs in total.

Track 1: Russian Roulette

This song is definitely the most popular song from this album, possibly even one of the most popular Red Velvet songs in general, having reached second on billboards. This song features a bright and joyful melody and was a big hit when the album was released. 

The music video that accompanies this song is colorful and bright but holds a bit of a darker meaning, as all the girls in the video are doing dangerous actions hence the name of the song “Russian Roulette”. This is a great song and I would rate it a 10/10.

Track 2: Lucky Girl

“Lucky Girl” is personally one of my favorite songs on this album. It starts off with a catchy brass sample that evolves into a vibrant beat. Sections of this song seem to have different kinds of styles or genres, as some parts are slower while other parts are faster, which was pretty interesting to hear. I think this has to be one of my favorite songs by Red Velvet, so I rate it a 10/10.

Track 3: Bad Dracula

“Bad Dracula” is also a very good song from this album. Like “Lucky Girl”, it starts off with a brass sample that reminds me a lot of old jazz music. It also includes a glitchy electronic melody over that and topped with some great vocals. I really liked this song and I will rate it a 10/10.

Track 4: Sunny Afternoon

“Sunny Afternoon” pretty much lives up to its title when it comes to the instruments included in the song. It’s bright and reminds me a lot of summer. This is a very good song with its stunning vocals. I rate this song a 10/10.

Track 5: Fool

I thought that “Fool” was pretty good, but it seemed a bit out of place on this album. The reason I think it is unique to the other songs on this album is the simplicity of the song. 

Most of the songs have a bit more instruments added but this song does not have that many. It is a cheerful song with a sunny guitar melody accompanied along with a glockenspiel. I will have to give this song an 8/10.

Track 6: Some Love

I’ll be completely honest with my opinion, but this is not my favorite song on this album, but it is still alright. It features an airy and echoey melody paired with a pop style beat. I will have to give this song a 7/10.

Track 7: My Dear

I really enjoyed this song and I think it is a good way to end an album. “My Dear” is upbeat with an electric piano bass along with some brass elements. I liked this song a lot and I would rate it a 10/10.

Overall, this album is an amazing creation made by Red Velvet that includes some of my favorite songs by them. I would have to rate this album a 9.5/10 and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of K-Pop.

How to NOT Bake Cookies

By: Truman Vang

*This article is completely satirical, so do NOT actually follow this guide to bake cookies.

Have you ever been bored with life? From its endless monotonous qualities to its hurtful truths, life is just harsh. If yes, then baking should be the solution to all of your problems; the careful crafting of pastries and delicate touch on these delights always bring a smile to one’s face. Bring out the best in you through baking! Let all of your issues and anger seep out in this guide on how to NOT bake cookies.

Step 1: Gather Your Materials!

The first step to baking cookies is to gather the ingredients. Add whatever you want to these delicious pastries! It’s sometimes common to add flour, sugar or eggs, though let your imagination run rampant. For myself, I like to add the uncommon vanilla bean alongside flour and eggs with a side of crushed CD for some musical flavor! Though it’s your decision what you want in your cookies!

Step 2: Mix the Ingredients

While some may say that the order that you mix the ingredients is important, it really shouldn’t be taken into account when preparing the batter for your cookies. Mix whatever you want first, and just add what just looks right. You could mix it by the increasing or decreasing amounts of each ingredient, or to be fancy, by a color gradient from red to blue. Whatever order you choose to mix your ingredients, you’ll always be left with batter in the end, so it should be fine in the end.

Step 3: Prepare the Dough

One important step to making cookies is to prepare the dough. Once you finished creating the batter, you might have a consistency of play dough. If you don’t, just add flour, as it usually helps to stiffen the dough. Once you’ve got that figured out, roll out the dough with anything cylindrical that you can find around you. It’s not usually recommended to use something made out of wood, but anything works at this point.

Step 4: Cut the Cookies

Create a design that you want to cut your cookies in! You could use a cookie cutter, but those are often already pre made and quite boring in their designs, so choosing a design of your own would help in this aspect. For instance instead of a regular boring old star, you could instead cut the cookie into a dodecahedron, the American flag or a cube! Anything works to your desires as long as you follow your heart’s content.

Step 5: Prepare the Oven

Set the oven to preheat. Often cookies roughly bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit taking 15 minutes to fully cook. In this guide, it’s completely optional to wait. Instead, set the oven to preheat at 5000 degrees Fahrenheit and wait for those cookies to be ready in under a minute!

Step 6: Place Cookies in Oven

Grab some oven mitts to be safe around the hot oven. If you don’t have any, then plastic should suffice for this baking. Place the cookies in the oven, shut the door and prepare yourself. Make sure you always have water to put out electrical fires! Though of course, you should be completely fine following this guide and its safety precautions.

Step 7: Prepare Cookies

Woohoo! Now that the cookies are finally finished, make sure to let them cool down. They may be a little hot, so it’s recommended that you wait about 30 seconds before handling them with your bare hands. Once that time has passed, the honors are in what you end up deciding to do with your cookies!

Optional: Decorate those Cookies!

Using some type of frosting, spread or sprinkles, lather your cookie in those sweet substances. Make sure to drench the whole cookie within the covering and ensure that there are no spots left on the surface of the cookie. Now let your imagination run wild when decorating these pastries!

Cookies are a delicious pastry to make anytime of day. Whether it be morning, day, Mid-day, they’re enjoyed from all sources and labeled as delectable by many.

Now that you know how to make cookies, let yourself run rampant with your decisions in cookie preparation and baking. Good Luck on your endeavors and don’t burn any ovens down!