CHUNG HA is nominated for Best Female Soloist, while BICYCLE is nominated for Best Female Choreography (Solo) and Best Outfits, and Dream On You is nominated for Best International Song by a Korean Artist (Western) for the 2021 KPOPREVIEWED Awards. Support CHUNG HA and her songs by voting for her. Click here to do so now!

CHUNG HA is officially back with a special single titled Killing Me, which dropped yesterday. This is her first release since her first solo studio album, Querencia, and the title track, Bicycle. Since then, CHUNG HA has been relatively quiet, aside from a few collaborations with Colde (My Lips Like Warm Coffee), Rain (Why Don’t We), the I.O.I livestream show reunion, and a few soundtracks.

CHUNG HA kicks off the week with a relatively simple, but effective pop track. Killing Me features a club fitting instrumentation that has brings forth some good momentum that drove the song forward. I also found that it made the song simple and straightforward, working in harmony with the other aspects of the song (which I will talk about in a second). First impression wise, I did think the instrumental felt generic and plain, but additional listens really helped me warm up to the backing of this song. I wished this wasn’t the case initially, since Killing Me is such a good song now. But I can’t really change that first impression after it had occurred. Now, I can’t think of Killing Me with any other backing. I liked the idea of using the synths in the chorus as a metaphor for a long tunnel. It is quite an abstract concept and took me a while to get. But after some lyrics researching and pondering, I find that it actually feels that way, and so the ‘effective’ description. Also adding more to that effective descriptor is CHUNG HA herself. I find her vocals to be quite loaded with emotion, which isn’t really usually the case with pop songs, let alone up-tempo songs like Killing Me. But there is that maturity and experience behind her voice that really makes Killing Me so much more impactful. The simple description applies to both the instrumental (which I also mentioned), but also the melodies. The ‘Killing Me Killing Me‘ hook/melody was so simple but yet so memorable. It really pulled me in for second and third listens right away. It also felt so delicate, which I felt also worked with the journey towards the message of the song (i.e. that whilst what you are going through might ‘killing you’, there is always hope for light at the tunnel that makes things better). Overall, Killing Me stands out for its simplistic approach to such a loaded topic, and CHUNG HA expertly weaves that idea into the song to make it an impactful one.

Here is what I got out of the video. It starts off with CHUNG HA as a innocent child. She looks excited and looks like she is counting the hours down to her birthday. Upon her birthday, she is gifted a Russian doll, which ends up being a representation of her. As she removes the outer layer of the Russian Doll, her innocence is loss and is exposed to the harsh realities of life. We then see her in a tunnel with a much more mature look. From this, I think she has aged, and since has taken off an another layer of the Russian Doll, as we can see on the floor of the bathroom. It shows us that she is more insecure and that there is a struggle within her that breaks her further. The party scenes we do see is the outer layer of the Russian Doll, where we act like everything is okay. In the end, we see CHUNG HA reach the final piece of the Russian Doll. It is scratched beyond repair, and is indicative of the state she is in – broken. But I think she has an epiphany, and she destroys the doll (along with the rest of the room), coming to terms that the doll doesn’t represent herself. I think this is a great story that goes hand-in-hand with the lyrics and compliments the song very well.

Song – 9.5/10
Music Video – 10/10
Overall Rating – 9.8/10