[Review] Chi Mat Ba Ram – Brave Girls

Brave Girl’s comeback this week has to be the most anticipated comeback of 2021. Earlier this year, Brave Girls experienced a resurgence on the Korean music charts with their 2017 now-hit Rollin’ after a performance went viral. Similarly, their 2020 release of We Ride also experienced a similar resurgence on the charts. What makes this resurgence remarkable is that Brave Girls went from no schedules to many full weeks of schedules, and the group revealed that they were considering disbandment in the weeks ahead of this unexpected event. Now all eyes are on their latest comeback, which officially dropped on Thursday this week. Chi Mat Ba Ram, which translates to Swishing of My Skirt, is the title track off the group’s fifth mini-album, Summer Queens.

There is a lot of unload with Chi Mat Ba Ram. And while that potentially sounds like a bad thing, don’t worry! I am totally digging the new track from Brave Girls. The first aspect that I noticed about the song is its summery energy. It is pretty much undeniable with all the saxophone and tropical house that the producers of the song employ to drive the song forward. Like a lot of songs nowadays, this mix isn’t the most innovative combination in music at the moment. But it doesn’t mean the song doesn’t come off as refreshing and upbeat. And I really like how the energy feels even more than that. In a way, it is in your face (but in a more positive manner). The second aspect of Chi Mat Ba Ram that gets me excited is its catchiness and addictiveness. Even though I have been off the blog for the last few days, once the song dropped, I was (madly) repeating the song because I just couldn’t get enough to it. The hooks are fantastic, and I noticed even the smallest of details within the hook and melodies were what I was looking forward to. I do agree with a lot of people who say that this doesn’t have the same level of catchiness as Rollin’ did. I felt the hooks were probably a step below Brave Girl’s biggest hit. But that doesn’t mean that Chi Mat Ba Ram is a weaker song. The third aspect has to be the vocals. This bleeds into the performance aspect of my review slightly. But I feel that Chi Mat Ba Ram showcases more of what the group has to offer when it comes to the vocals department. I don’t think any of the members were shortchanged into this song and each had their chance to perform, which is what you would want in any song. Overall Chi Mat Ba Ram is a solid effort from both Brave Girls and Brave Brothers (the team behind the group). It may have its differences from Rollin’. But as mentioned before, I am really into their song and look forward to replaying it even more in the future.

It is also undeniable that this is a Summer themed comeback with a music video like this. While it shot at a beach, there were some post-production applied to the video to show us various skies in the background and some additional props throughout the video such as the mini-plane with the Brave Girls banner and the massive airplane at the start of the video. Elsewhere, it looked liked the video was shot in a studio. I wished they kept to the outdoors for the video, as I think that would have been a better image for their comeback, given it is a Summer concept. Though, I guess anything is better than the dark stormy skies that got as part of the Rollin’ comeback. Visually, I think the group looks fantastic and their smiles bring a fresh colour to the video.

I really liked how this performance had a lot more going on, than compared to Rollin’. It might seem much, but it was always refreshing to see something different than the same key moves repeated over and over. It might have worked for Rollin’, but it would not for every song out there. I really like the skirt pinch move they do. It is sexy and looks really refreshing, but not over the top where it would cause a lot of criticism. I think the only thing I would have liked to be different in the performance was their ending pose. It looks a bit meh to me.

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

3 thoughts on “[Review] Chi Mat Ba Ram – Brave Girls

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