Please note these special posts are designed to be long and may require some time to read (if you plan on reading the entire post). To help shorten the length, the music video will be inserted as hyperlinked titles, so feel free to click the title of each section to watch the video.
After multiple requests about LOOΠΔ and reviews for their pre-release singles, it is time to start focusing on what seems to be a very promising girl group. Each Wednesday for the month of May, I will be releasing a special set of reviews for the LOOΠΔ members, which will focus on both their main and side-tracks as well.
LOOΠΔ is a 12-member girl group under Blockberry Creative. While they have yet to officially debut, their pre-debut promotion is extremely unusual. Starting in October 2016, each month a new member of the group is unveiled to the public. This continued until the end of March 2018. And with the completion of this pre-debut promotions, the group will be preparing and gearing up for their official debut which has been rumoured to be October this year.
Once I heard the project, I decided to wait for all the songs to be released (similar to what I did with previous project releases). I just didn’t anticipate for it to be such a long wait, as they also unveiled subunits made up of the already revealed members along the way, which drew the project out even longer. Talking about subunits, this is not the first time I have spoken about LOOΠΔ, as I have taken some time out to review and look closely to their subunit releases, which you can find out below.
LOOΠΔ 1/3 – Love & Live & Sonatine
LOOΠΔ Odd Eye Circle – Girl Front & Sweet Crazy Love
Today’s post will look at the side tracks that were released alongside the main tracks for the first 6 members. I will be focusing on the song and music video standalone, as I am interested in doing another special post focusing on the connections between their music videos.
I’ll Be There – Heejin & Hyunjin
Jumping right at you is the funky and groovy synthesizer-overloaded song. It just creates an uplifting atmosphere that you cannot really avoid. I think a good word to describe the song is ‘crunchy’, as that is what you get with the synths and overall beat. I also really enjoyed the “dum dum” that was present at the start and during the bridge, almost bringing an acapella effect to the song. The lines and vocals don’t really stand out but the instrumental does a good job covering up that aspect. For the music video, I liked the home video concept and the brightness of the video seems to match the song. Likewise, the choreography looked good.
The Carol – Heejin, Hyunjin & Haseul
The Carol coincided with the Christmas season of 2017, so it makes sense for a Christmas styled song. Following I’ll Be There, the song does make you smile, which is definitely a great thing. However, I thought the song was relatively typical for a Christmas song. The vocals did stand out and I really liked the piano in the background of the instrumental. The video also focuses on the Christmas season, with good vibes coming from it. You can’t really go wrong in that department. There was no choreography for this song.
My Sunday – Heejin & Hyunjin
While this is also another bright sounding song, they toned down the energy and atmosphere. Instead, it is a more acoustic sounding and quite different from any of their main tracks, so it was quite nice to hear it. I don’t remember what I expected at first but the chorus sounded quite different to what I thought it would sound like. Despite that, what we got flowed very nicely. The harmonies between the two members were nice and the bridge really gave the song that peak it needed. The video was quite nice, showing the pair throughout the beautiful sites of Taiwan/China. Once again, there was no choreography.
My Melody – Yeojin & Haseul
Interestingly, My Melody is a similar song to My Sunday. The verses were quite similar (by ear), while the choruses felt quite different. This produced a completely different feel, leaning towards a soothing vibe, which I thought was equally as nice as My Sunday. The bridge did showcase some vocals but it sounded like they were pushing themselves. But it sounded quite nice overall. Like the previous video, it shows the pair hanging out on a nice day.
Everyday I Need You – ViVi ft. Jinsoul
Following the same concept as before, the song is a much slower version of the ViVi’s main track, Everyday I Love You (ft. Haeseul). It is interesting because while the two songs are very similar, the difference in tempo offers a completely different feeling. The slower song does point out her weakness in the vocal department but it is a fair effort. Jinsoul’s rap did push the song along, which I felt was needed towards the end. The shots of the music video were much more graceful, fitting in with the slower speed of the song. It also felt like a lover filmed the entire video, with ViVi being the main focus. Jinsoul did ‘appear’ in the video, however as she was not unveiled yet, her face was not captured.
Twilight – Kim Lip
Sadly, there is no music video for Twilight. Knowing how Kim Lip focused a lot on the performance side for her main track’s music video, I don’t know why I was caught off guard by the changeup. It started off as a ballad, with a nice piano instrumental layered on top of a heavy beat. Then it develops into a dance track. But it isn’t over the top. Rather it keeps in line with the verses but it isn’t a ballad-like sound anymore. The entire track does focus on her vocals as you can grasp a beautiful tone from the track. The song definitely becomes interesting with the chorus. And for that, it is probably my most favourite on this list.
Click here for Part 1 of the LOOΠΔ Solo Pre-debut reviews
Click here for Part 2 of the LOOΠΔ Solo Pre-debut reviews
Check back next week for the 4th (and final) part of the LOOΠΔ Solo Pre-debut reviews
KPOPREVIEWED 