July 2019 – Page 4 – KPOPREVIEWED

To me, a missed opportunity with EXO is the lack of solo promotions for the Korean members. It wasn’t until this year, 7 years after their debut, are they finally focusing on solo promotion, given that it will be the main driver for EXO’s immediate future. This is because of impending military enlistment. Xiumin enlisted earlier this year and the next member to follow him (shockingly) is D.O. For those who don’t know, today is actually D.O’s enlistment date. And to coincide with his departure from the public eye for the next 2 years, D.O also released a special single as part of SM Station.

That’s Okay is the title of this special single. And being a solo single, That’s Okay puts D.O’s slightly raspy voice on full display. I like it how the song isn’t sung in a straight forward manner. There are some textural aspects present thanks to the melody and the way he ended some lines, allowing him to showcase some techniques that he never got a chance to show off within EXO releases. The way he harmonises with himself is also beautiful, a very obvious sign of a good ballad. Knowing that is he is one of the main vocalists of the group, it is expected that the single would be a ballad. But it is a good ballad. It is mainly acoustic, with guitars being the only instrument in the instrumental. And I like it this way because it doesn’t sound overly emotional, which could have been a cliche thing to do. The lyrics also don’t go into an emotional overdrive, with D.O telling you that time will heal all wounds, regardless of how deep they are.

The music video for this release is animation. I am not sure if there are any laws that prevent D.O from appearing in the music video (as Xiumin did for his single), given the complexity of military enlistment, as it would have been nice to see him one last time (before he goes away for two years). But the animation was quite nice. A guy finds a sad looking cactus and brings it home. His nurture over time helped heal its limp nature and it regained some flowers. On the flipside, it was revealed that the guy lost his dog and this caused him to stay indoors. And I am certain the flowering cactus ended up nurturing him over time, showing him that no matter what state you are in, there is always a way to get back up. You just got to let time do its thing.

Song – 9/10
Music Video – 9/10
Overall Rating – 9/10

Over the last few years, a group that we cannot forget about in the season of Summer is GFriend. The group has had countless hits in Summer including Me Gusta Tu, Navillera, Love Whisper, Summer Rain and Sunny Summer. 2019 will be no exception for the group, with today’s release of Fever as their next Summer track. We previously saw the group through their promotions of Sunrise at the start of the year and their Flower promotions in Japan.

My review for Fever is going to be harsh but honest. Fever is not like any other GFriend title track. It actually takes a more conventional route, forgoing any sound had we have grown to incorporate with GFriend. But as disappointing as that might sound, it might be time GFriend tried to reinvent their Summer, given the not-so-successful releases of Summer Rain and Sunny Summer over the last two years. Personally, I found this track to be quite lacklustre. Fever takes on moombahton sound, which is still quite new territory for KPOP. And while we heard a few good tracks with this sound, GFriend’s approach didn’t have the energy to make it memorable. In fact, the energy felt quite weighted, preventing it from sparking like how other Summer releases do. While the vocal work was fine, there wasn’t any catchy hooks or melodies to draw my attention in. They placed a fair amount of emphasis on the chorus drop. But with the mentioned weighted nature from the energy, I don’t think they got anywhere. There are some benefits that did arise due to the music but I don’t think their discography was one of them.

I personally want to know what is going on in the video. There seems to be something to the use of the cactus, the way Yerin walked into the set at the start of the video, the girl’s gaze etc. Moving past the potential plotline, I did fail to mention one detail regarding the song that I was impressed with. The group went with a mature sound (which might be the reason why the song ended feeling weighed down) that ended being edgy in a very subtle manner. This isn’t entirely new with the group. But it looks like the girl’s concept and outfit managed to blend in well with the extra matureness you could hear while listening to the song.

One clear benefit from the bland music that I observed was the dancing. I thought the choreography was quite good, given the music that they had to use. While the energy wasn’t there musically, they did well executing the various dance moves. I thought the chorus looked cool and GFriend got to show off more of their dance side through this release.

Song – 6/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 6.7/10