Also making her grand comeback is Taeyeon, who returns to the spotlight today via her 3rd studio length album and latest title track, all sharing the name INVU. This comes after she released Can’t Control Myself as a pre-release single ahead of this album release. It is also her first major release since Weekend, which she dropped last year as a digital single and is featured on this latest album, as well, as a side track.

INVU is a pop dance track, with a house based instrumental. While it ultimately is what I would consider to be an atmospheric piece, INVU feels mostly bare and typical on the instrumental front, as well. I was waiting for something to happen in the instrumental, but it never came to. We do get some flute work in the chorus and a funky vibe, but both were subtle or brief and didn’t really add a huge deal to INVU. The benefit of being a fairly empty track is that the focus can be placed elsewhere. And well, the only other thing you could really focus on was Taeyeon’s vocals. And boy, did she come through! INVU definitely showcases Taeyeon in a more mature limelight, and I thought her vocals were quite captivating for the most part. The English in the song really popped out at me, and I thought the INVU title was quite clever (‘I Envy You’). However, I still think INVU could have benefited had something been worked into the background, so that Taeyeon could have reacted alongside it to make INVU more gripping. I guess my takeaway from INVU is that I wanted more in this already decent song.

I think we might already have a contender for the Best Music Video award for the 2022 KPOPREVIEWED Awards. The entire set and post-production of the music video was simply stunning. There is no other word that could describe it. The marble set looked impeccable and flawless, and the cloudy background was so fitting. It has to be one of the best high-budget music video productions I have seen in a long time. Taeyeon herself is also stunningly beautiful throughout the video. I am not entirely sure, but I think Taeyeon plays some sort of goddess (my guess is Artemis, based on her bow/arrow and the moon).

Performance-wise, it was good. I think because the song was literally bare for the most part, there wasn’t much to work with on the choreography front. But from what we did get, I really like the INVU move. The poses that Taeyeon were in felt striking. And if they replicate the same aesthetic on stage in the video, the performance would be fine to watch and not as boring.

Song – 7.5/10
Music Video – 10/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 8.4/10