The countdown to INFINITE’s long awaited comeback is officially underway. But prior to the group’s comeback, INFINITE’s leader (Kim Sung Kyu) has managed to slide in a solo comeback with his latest single Small Talk and his fifth mini-album, 2023 S/S Collection. Last week, Kim Sung Kyu and Small Talk topped my Weekly KPOP Chart for the 1st Week of July 2023. And in that post, I promised to review Small Talk during the week – so, here we are! We last heard from Kim Sung Kyu through his Savior comeback from mid-2022.

If I am being honest, I personally do not have much to say about Small Talk. This shouldn’t be taken as a criticism, however. To me, Small Talk is straight forward song with some groovy and fun appeal. The mid-tempo upbeat nature of Small Talk does make it stand out in Kim Sung Kyu’s discography, given that Kim Sung Kyu hasn’t really venture down the more upbeat nature of music with his solo work. Even though this is new territory for himself, Kim Sung Kyu does keep true to his roots in Small Talk by having band instrumentation make up the entirety of the song’s background. The guitar work was charming and made the song likeable. I particularly really enjoyed how they were utilised in the instrumental break, bringing a funkier groove to the song and consolidating the already mentioned funky and fun appeal that the song had consistently going on. Small Talk also serves as a nice refresher for Kim Sung Kyu’s vocals, as it has been a while since we heard from the artist. And the melodies and hooks in Small Talk were catchy and had a nice ring to them. Overall, Small Talk is a really nice yet different addition to his solo repertoire. And given how it is lined up right before INFINITE’s comeback, it serves as a nice way to ease back into my Inspirit (INFINITE’s fanclub name) mindset.

The music video sees Kim Sung Kyu’s desire to communicate with the people around him (even if it is just some small talk), despite being in a society where people are more isolated due to technology, social norms and the active decision to not participate in conversations (me, every time I find myself in some sort of training at work). The video captures all of this in a slight comedic manner, with the people around Kim Sung Kyu refusing to acknowledge him even as he is pushed around or as he has a breakdown (i.e. the train scenes), actively seeking ways to avoid communicating with him (i.e. the office scenes), or just decide to film him whilst he is doing something wild (i.e. him sitting on an utility pole, and everyone just filming him instead of trying to get him down or talk him out of the dangerous stunt). At one point, someone does listen to him, but ends up bleeding from the ear. Yikes! Apart from the concept, the video features a nice pastel brightness that fits in with the song and a small amount of choreography that adds a bit of more fun to the video (but not enough to warrant a separate section for this review).

Song – 8/10
Music Video – 8/10
Overall Rating – 8/10