Oh My Girl have made their return to the stage with Secret Garden, which also shares the same name as their latest (and 5th) mini-album. This is Oh My Girl’s first comeback after the departure of JinE, who was still included in the lineup prior to this comeback despite not participating in the promotions.

Secret Garden is actually a pleasing song to listen to. With just a few listens already, the song has managed to grow on me quite a bit. When I first heard a snippet of the song, I was wondering what happened to the aesthetic or energy filled song that we are used to hearing from Oh My Girl. But I guess I was too quick to judge. Secret Garden is orchestral influenced with its dreamy instrumental. With Oh My Girl’s twist, they added a slight presence of a band to make it more upbeat, suitable to incorporate a dance into their stages. The use of electric guitar during their dance break is quite nice, giving the song some variety rather than just the classical instrumentation. The instrumental particularly evokes nostalgia within me, but I cannot pinpoint where this nostalgia is coming from. Their vocals were extremely clear with this song, which makes the song feel so crisp. I liked their chorus but felt like they could have added harmonies to give it a grander effect. Overall, Secret Garden definitely adds to the group’s portfolio as another standout track, in my point of view.

If it weren’t for a particular YouTube comment on the video, I would have completely missed a major detail regarding the music video. It seems like the music video for Secret Garden includes various details that link the past music videos by Oh My Girl to the present video, which ties in nicely with the lyrics of the song. Essentially, what the song is about is one’s ‘Secret Garden‘, which is a reference to one’s imagination. And the entire portfolio of Oh My Girl music videos have been based largely on imagination. Hence we can see different items shared between the videos. The presence of the deer is a reference to Closer and the clouds outside the window reference Coloring Book, to just name a few. If it is the true intention of the imagery, the videos are clearly thought out and interestingly intertwined. I like the video for that fact.

Fitting nicely with the song is the graceful nature of the choreography. I like how some of the moves are fast and sharp, while others were quite slow and fluid. The best part would have to be the dance break, which like the song, gives the choreography a nice kick.

Song – 8/10
Music Video – 9/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 8.3/10