Probably one of the most sought after comebacks for a very long time. It has been over two years since we heard anything from the Wonder Girls, and now they are officially back with a brand new member. I kid. A former member, Sunmi, who we all probably know as the artists who sang 24 Hours and Full Moon. She left the group a while back and has returned as the fourth member. Why fourth? Well, Sunye and Sohee both decided to leave the band officially after a lot of speculation with their departure. Sunye now has a child and Sohee says she wants to focus on an acting career. Fans did get a little Wonder Girl’s feel when Ye-Eun made her solo debut last year with Ain’t Nobody, as HA:TFELT. And beside all of that, I haven’t heard much from the band themselves in the past 2 years. But they are back with a brand new concept and new album for fans to listen to.
This time around, while they were known for their dances, Wonder Girl’s had gone for the band concept. Interesting. Regarding the song, it is totally their style. These girls have retro down as if it was child play and they once again proved to the audience why they are so great at the retro sounds. Honestly, I love this song. It is damn catchy and addictive. The instrumental, while there really isn’t anything that grand within it, managed to blow my mind away. The drum beat and the electro sounding keyboard was a pretty nice combination. The guitars were a little more subtle, but they managed to tie everything together quite well. The vocals, that we know pretty well, was pretty good as well. The rapping fitted into the instrumental/song pretty well. However, the vocals. While they are good, they really feel like they are holding themselves back. While I cannot point to a certain style, I felt this song limited their abilities and failed to show off who they really are. Particularly Lim, she definitely held back the most, as we know her vocal capabilities, but there was none of it here. And I am going to be honest, I might have the slightest belief that this song may be a little too dry, compared to their past releases. But still, great song.
As for the music video, tick for retro. Everything from the stage set and their clothing looks pretty retro. Minus their instruments. They do look a little too modern, particularly the drums. That start though, with Sumni, unzipping her shorts, and then there is a massive zooming in effect, really took the cake for me. Was that seriously necessary? I thought back in the day, they opened doors for that sort of effect, not unzip pants. Also, they looked very bored. They don’t seem to enjoy themselves. One stage and in the video. I am not expecting them to be having the time of their lives, but their facial expressions tell me that they rather be somewhere else. Their instrumental playing, kind of ruined their performances. While I do understand that the performances were not live instrumental performances, at least some effort to give off the illusion would have been nice.
It was a nice retro return for the retro queens with a great song. However the music video, hmmm… Maybe not so much. 8/10 (I am being too nice).
2 thoughts on “I Feel You – Wonder Girls”