Another International Song Review post is here. Last time I covered MISAMO’s Do Not Touch, from20’s Bad Revenge, SEVENTEEN’s Ima – Even If The World Ends Tomorrow – and The Rose’s Back To Me. This time, I am covering Anne Marie and Minnie ((G)I-DLE)’s Expectations, LE SSERAFIM’s Perfect World, ITZY’s Ringo and CHEN’s Light Of My Life.

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Expectations – Anne Marie & Minnie ((G)I-DLE)

Language: English
Release Date: 9 March 2023
Release Type: Expectations (Digital Single)

I start off this post with Anne Marie and Minnie’s collaboration single, which I was promptly reminded of last week when they (and Expectations) were nominated for Best Collaboration at the 2023 MAMA Awards. For me, Expectations is very much on trend with the current sound of pop music in the Western world. I really like the instrumentation, which has an addictive vocal synth in the background, some really refreshing guitar work and the slight punkish pop rock sound in the chorus. Both Anne Marie and Minnie’s vocals are quite good and sound well-rounded. The bridge is probably a really good example of this. As for the chorus, the centrepiece of Expectations feels like an anthem, both easy to follow and easy to commit into our minds. I like how the instrumental makes way for the vocals at certain points within Expectations, allowing the vocals to have moments of impact. Overall a strong showing from the pair, with a song that has an impactful message telling you to go on your own way, rather than following the expectations of everyone around you.

The music video is a miss for me. I think I watched it once when the song was first released, but I definitely have not gone back since then. It is super cheap, and I think the company behind this video (Warner Music Korea) could have done a lot better. It honesty looked like two random rooms were chosen on the fly and the producers just gave a microphone to the pair to sing into. No additional styling or budget was given to give the rooms some life or identity. At least, there was some post production to the video, but even that was pretty ordinary.

Overall Rating – 7.1/10

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Perfect Night – LE SSERAFIM

Language: English
Release Date: 27 October 2023
Release Type: Perfect Night (Digital Single)

Perfect Night is the newest track in this post, dropping only just yesterday. I would describe Perfect Night to be a pretty track, thanks to subdued instrumentation consisting of the twinkling synths, trap beats and the rhythmic guitar. This formula unfortunately doesn’t push any boundaries and doesn’t offer the usual upbeat energy that LE SSERAFIM puts behind their title tracks (which I kind of was hoping for in this collaboration – more on this in a moment). In fact, the instrumentation remains pretty much the same through and through. On the flip side, however, I found that LE SSERAFIM’s smooth and light-on vocals went quite well with the instrumentation subdued nature. Again, this is through and through Perfect Night. I think with that comment, you can probably guess that I found Perfect World to be quite consistent. As usual, I say consistency can be a good thing. But in the case of Perfect Night, I find the consistency to be a problem, where that multiple listens to Perfect Night might wear off the current charm and prettiness that I get from the song. At the moment, I find this new song to be “just nice”, but I don’t know if that is how I would describe the song the more I listen to it.

As mentioned above, this release is actually a collaboration with the game Overwatch 2. Essentially, LE SSERAFIM are celebrities in this virtual world, and the OVERWATCH characters make their way to watch LE SSERAFIM’s performance of Perfect Night. The characters experience some problems, such as bumper to bumper traffic and forgetting the tickets. But having abilities, the characters bypass these issues quite easily. But the video ends happily with the characters enjoying the LE SSERAFIM concert. I also like the slight node to Fearless with the dance studio that LE SSERAFIM started in for this music video. As for the choreography for this release, it looks quite nice and matches up with the prettiness that the song embodies.

Overall Rating – 7.8/10

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RINGO – ITZY

Language: Japanese
Release Date: 18 October 2023
Release Type: RINGO (1st Japanese Studio Album)

RINGO is a fairly new release that I haven’t actually checked out yet. So my thoughts on RINGO here will be my first impression. RINGO is a very in-your-face type of song, kicking off with some bold beats. I like the Latin tinge and the bombastic feel that RINGO brings to the table. The chorus concentrates all of this into a singular strong central piece, which comes off as both memorable and intense. The hooks were fantastic, as is the dance club energy that comes off RINGO‘s centrepiece. However, the disappointment aspect in the chorus, for me, were the vocals. They felt very shouty and was definitely pitched higher than what it needed to be. This approach makes me nervous for the group, because it makes things more difficult for the group and creates a needless form of tension in the song. Yes, the members needed to be heard over the bombastic energy coming off the background, but surely the producers could have been a lot clever about how to approach this. On the other hand, Ryujin’s rapping, particularly, in the second verse, leaves me impressed. Overall, I do like what RINGO has to offer and there is enough in the track for me to enjoy and remember the track by. But I think better execution in terms of production would have made RINGO feel more at ease.

RINGO is about forging one’s story, rather than following a story that is already set out for them, such as in the fairytales. The word RINGO is the Japanese word for ‘apple’, and the music video begins with the infamous fairytale of Snow White (which we all know features an apple). The bitten apple in the story turns into a sword and shield, the very same sword and shield that is later held by Lia. This represents that the members don’t need a prince charming (or another ‘saviour’) to help them out. Instead, we see the members protect themselves when they are under fire and finding their own way out of situations. We also see the members pick their own apple and taking a bite out of it, regardless of if it is forbidden or poison, going against the fairytales to create one’s one story. The choreography for this release is equally as strong and powerful as the song and story behind the music video. I like the many apple biting references and also that power walk that kicks off the final chorus.

Overall Rating – 8.5/10

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Light Of My Life – CHEN (EXO)

Language: Japanese
Release Date: 17 August 2023
Release Type: Polaris (1st Japanese Mini Album)

In the lead up to the release of Polaris, CHEN dropped a single from the mini-album each week. This ended on 17 August 2023, when CHEN dropped the final and lead single Light Of My Life and the full mini-album. Light Of My Life is another beautifully executed and really well-done ballad to add to CHEN’s repertoire of ballads. But what I like about Light Of My Life is that it doesn’t conform to the ballad numbers that CHEN has previously released before in Korea. Instead, he opts for a mid-tempo band instrumentation and some orchestral touches in the instrumental, which is distinct from his previous tracks that were just orchestrally instrumented. The band instrumentation really helps make the track more powerful, in my opinion. It added some punchy moments that we haven’t heard in CHEN’s ballads in the past. The band instrumentation also allows CHEN to really show off his vocals and give Light Of My Life so much more oomph. When the combination of the instrumentation and his vocals peaks in Light Of My Life, you find these to be the most powerful moments in the song, and are truly breath-taking. Overall, a breath-taking number.

The music video features CHEN at two locations – the more memorable location (in my opinion) is on the moon. I thought the moon was a clever concept. The song’s lyrics features a message of finding the light, which implies that someone is in darkness. And the source of light in the night (which is when we commonly find ourselves in the dark) is the moon. So having CHEN sing on the moon, with the light shining of him is a clever way to represent light in the darkness. The second location is the city scenery, which were briefer moments in the video. CHEN doesn’t look sad in these scenes, even if the lyrics do feel emotionally charged. Instead, I think these scenes represents finding one’s way. And the only way to do that is if you get up and move about. For me, this was a super nice video to watch and works perfectly with the song.

Overall Rating – 9.6/10