Making their comeback at the start of the week is OH MY GIRL, who returns for the first time in 16 months with their 9th mini-album Golden Hourglass and the title track Summer Comes. Their last comeback, Real Love, occurred back in March of last year. This comeback also is the first time we see OH MY GIRL as a 6 member female group, following the departure of Jiho, who left the group and WM Entertainment to focus on acting instead.

For me, my main issue with Summer Comes is that it is a bit of a blur. It felt like it was whizzing past to the next section, and this does give the impression is over-stuffed. I don’t necessarily think the latter is the concern in reality. But the impression does play a big part in reducing the song’s appeal, especially when I reflect upon the continuous string that is the second chorus, bridge and final chorus. I did wish there was more opportunity to digest and take in the song, either by making it feel more paced and/or utilizing breaks that are either better placed or more innovatively or creatively used. We did get two brief breaks in the music prior to the first two choruses, but there wasn’t much of a change to the fast tempo and momentum that preceded and followed these breaks, so they didn’t make much of a difference for Summer Comes. This causes a bit of a ripple effect on other parts of the song, which I will touch on in just a small moment. Some good news such that, the song brightly upbeat and felt appropriately summery. I really liked how Mimi had more opportunities in Summer Comes to show off their rapping, and the vocals were decent. Again, I felt the speed and momentum of the song does causes some issues with the vocals and instrumental. There were moments where the vocals felt almost chipmunk-like and the instrumental had a shrilly type of effect. Had Summer Comes been a bit more paced, I think this potential issues would not have existed and Summer Comes would have been more appreciable.

The music video looks like the members are in some sort of video game against some ghosts, zombies and scary clowns. For majority of the video, the members do struggle in their battle. But they do prevail in the end. While I am not entirely sure what the connection with the song is (taken from SOOMPI – the song “convey the joys of hearing the voice of a loved one, which feels like the heart-fluttering excitement of summer arriving”), my best guess is that the members are seeking the voice of a loved one to help them through their battle. And for the video, it looks like Yubin is that voice given the heaven-like scenes during the bridge, where she grants Mimi a second chance at the battle. But aside from that, I like the brightness that stems from the colourful nature of the video, and the summery/beachy-like setting the green screen brings to the video.

The fast-paced nature of the song does lend well towards a great performance, which I find to be evident in the chorus sequences of the song. I also liked how the bubbly and upbeat the performance is, which does make it fit very neatly in the range of performance we have seen stem from the summer season.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 8/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 7.5/10