That time machine I have been using the last few days has just enough juice to take me back to the present day, in time for my return to the blog. So, I will be relieving the time machine for a bit of a recharge and focus on more recent releases. And there are a few to choose from, so I am just going with the first release of the week – BABYMONSTER’s SHEESH. The new single from the new group follows on from their debut with BATTER UP and the all-English pre-release Stuck In The Middle (which I have yet to review). SHEESH also marks the debut of member Ahyeon, who sat out of BABYMONSTER’s debut and subsequent release due to health reasons.

SHEESH‘s title says it all for me. If I could end the review there (I technically can), I would leave it there and call it a day. No matter how many times I have replayed SHEESH, I cannot get over the strikingly awful hook that makes up the chorus of the song, It was quite grating to listen to each time and I cannot fathom why the producers thought it would be a good statement piece. Granted, I assume the attitude loaded nature of BABYMONSTER’9 delivery was what they were going towards. This chorus disappoints further when I consider the opening verse, which is where I thought YG Entertainment was finally doing something a little different for once thanks to the presence of the spooky piano. Long behold, the company didn’t. They went right for the same overdone formula they have constructed most (if not all) their releases with. The rapping in the second verse was fine, but I wished the backing was a bit more innovative and did not make the members/SHEESH sound like they were (once again) rehashing the same formula. The bridge held some promise thanks to the return of the spooky-esque piano, but this was shortlived with the subsequent sequence/outro. The producers thought they were doing some different with SHEESH. But in between the marching band, the whispery chant and probably the worst anthem outro to date, this all goes back to that predictable formula that YG is so insistent on using. There are times when the formula can be exciting, as demonstrated by TREASURE with JIKJIN. But in SHEESH, it felt tiring and overdone.

While I am usually impressed with the music video that YG Entertainment puts out, SHEESH (the song) puts me into the mindset that we have seen everything before. For the most part, the video doesn’t feel like it does anything new and feels like a rehash of the music videos that YG usually releases, particularly from BLACKPINK. However, I will give points on the fact that the music video sets did conform to the more spooky sounds at the start and bridge, whilst also adopt a modern flavour during the more electronic moments of the song. I also like the set that showed ‘paintings’ of the members during the bridge.

Based on what we could see in the music video for the choreography, I think my comments regarding the showcase of attitude stands here. Throw a bit of a stomp into the mix to really emphasis that the members mean business. If that was the purpose of the routine, then BABYMONSTER succeeded. If not, then it was a decent routine nonetheless.

Song – 4/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 7/10
Overall Rating – 5.5/10