Another week has come and we have a new set of comebacks this week. First up is Brave Girls, who rose to fame via their 2017 release Rollin’ earlier this year. A lot of attention and pressure was placed upon their comeback, Chi Mat Ba Ram and the mini-album Summer Queen, which dropped in June. And today, the group returned with the repackaged version of Summer Queen, which has been retitled After ‘We Ride’. The title track from the repackaged mini-album shares the same name, After ‘We Ride’. Summer Queen and After ‘We Ride’ will be fast-tracked this weekend for an album review. In the meanwhile, here is my review for Brave Girl’s new song.
Fans of Brave Girls may already recognise the ‘We Ride‘ part of the title, as it was the title of the group’s main promotional track in 2020 (the potentially last single from Brave Girls had Rollin’ not blown up earlier this year). That song talks about a relationship that has become boring. After ‘We Ride’ seems to portray the aftermath of that story, with that relationship going from boring to conflicts and the inevitable breakup of the couple. After ‘We Ride’ has a notable 80s retro influence, similar to We Ride‘s retro influences but different from the earlier song’s city-pop sound. What I like a lot about After ‘We Ride’ is how they infused that retro influence with rock. While this might not be exactly new, I did really enjoy the refreshing the combination was and how suitable it felt for the Summer season. The combination also showcased a lot of passion and emotions, which was also highly suitable for the story told by the lyrics that I mentioned above. This same passion and emotion was showcased in the members’ vocals throughout the song, making this even more captivating to listen to. As the song takes on a more mature topic and profile, After ‘We Ride’ sacrifices the catchy hooks and addictiveness that their most popular songs had. And I do admit that I miss that element in this song. But that doesn’t stop After ‘We Ride’ from being a charming song to listen to. The ‘Ooh‘s and the harmonies at the start of the song was helpful in easing us into the song’s meatier bits. The slightly autotuned repetition of the title as the After ‘We Ride’ main hook wasn’t as strong as previous hooks (as previous mentioned), but it worked well with the song’s tone. Overall a captivating listen nonetheless.
The music video is one of many that you probably need to watch only once and you would get the gist of it, so there isn’t really a need to revisit the video. Throughout the video, we see the members come to terms with their breakup. It takes them a while to get there. After all, the video needed to be the length of the song at the very least). However, I kind of wished we got to see them to converge together as a group at the very end. That would have been nice and touching (and it would also complement the theories that I am reading about the song in the YouTube comments).
Song – 8/10
Music Video – 7/10
Overall Rating – 7.6/10
KPOPREVIEWED 
You said it! The song really is captivating.
Your score is valid! It’s definitely not as catchy as “Chi Mat Ba Ram”, so this song can definitely be underwhelming, especially on the first listen. The one thing that stood out to me was the chorus (especially that final chorus because wow that sounds so heavenly).
Though, if I can offer a penny for my thoughts: whilst it is nice to get upbeat, energetic tracks this year (Not complaining though haha. Keep them coming 2021!), it’s refreshing to see a more sentimental track once in a while. Or more precisely, a sentimental dance track. Songs like Pentagon’s “Cosmo” and “Like This”, B1A4’s “A lie”, or “Never” from Produce season 2 are a ‘yes’ for me. I didn’t think too much of it on my initial listen but after a few days, the song is already growing on me. I dare say it’s one of my favourite tracks. It’s no “Chi Mat Ba Ram”, but “After ‘We Ride'” feels like a perfect sequel to the upbeat summer track.
Also, according to The Seoul Story on Twitter, Brave Girls are not promoting this time around. It’s a shame, but I think the ladies can still do well (plus we got more music from them!). Plus they get to rest after all the variety shows they went on since the success of “Rollin'”.
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Definitely agree that sentimental songs are much needed to balance out the rest of the music we get nowadays. They definitely perfect songs on some days where you just need that bit of emotion (or is this just me?),
Definitely a pity to hear that they won’t be promoting this track. But completely agree that they are deserving of a break with such a busy first half of the year.
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