Tuesday saw IRENE from Red Velvet make her solo debut with the mini-album and lead single of the same name, Like A Flower. This is her first release since Red Velvet’s Cosmic and Sweet Dreams, which were released earlier in the year. Fellow member WENDY also made her solo comeback earlier this year.

Like A Flower is another pleasant song. My use of the word ‘pleasant’ in reviews can either be a good or bad thing. But for the first time, I am unsure what side of the spectrum I fall on. Part of me really likes Like A Flower‘s pop-dance instrumental, which has an excellent rhythmic beat. The percussion was soft yet yielded an upbeatness that felt robust and dynamic. The piano melody that peeks through the backing makes it feel pretty and dreamy. There are also some textural vocal chops in the back of the latter parts of the chorus, which I also enjoyed particularly because they help cut the linear nature of the song. The rest of Like A Flower is where my liking of the song weakens. Mostly, the melodies came off as monotonous, and IRENE’s vocals ultimately felt bland. She does a decent job of making herself sound soft, but that comes at the cost of something riveting or captivating. The English lyrics in Like A Flower‘s chorus suffer a similar fate as ATEEZ’s Ice On My Teeth, though not as bad. Overall, Like A Flower is a decent debut track. However, it could have been more enticing.

The following is just my interpretation of the events in the music video. It starts with IRENE recording different sounds in life, including love. It is all shown in a bright and sunny environment, implying her hobby is innocent. I assume that doing this makes her want to experience her love, so she seeks out a guy she met once. She pleads to the internet to help her find the person, going to lengths of using a computer program to find the person and printing out a huge photo of him. But once she does, things turn a little sinister. The mood shifts from innocent to creepy as she chases after him. At one point, he looks up, and she is staring back down at him. This change in the video’s mood shines a different light on the van as she travels in at the start and stores her tapes. It is suspiciously spacious. Scary movie-loving me now thinks IRENE is a serial killer, and the tape recordings represent a victim, with the guy’s tape being titled ‘See The Sun’. I could be very wrong about the dark twist in the story, but that is what I got out of it.

I quite enjoyed the choreography for IRENE’s solo debut. It fully embraces the rhythmic beat I spoke about earlier, and the routine has a contemporary and elegant feel. There were some glitchy-like hand movements in the routine, which I thought was a standout detail.

Song – 7.5/10
Music Video – 9/10
Performance – 9/10
Overall Rating – 8.3/10