Once again, I am travelling back in time to a few weeks back for the next review. Making her comeback on 11 March was Park Bom, with the single Flower. It features Kim Min Seok, who is part of the duo MeloMance, and has been trending recently for his remake single Drunken Confession (originally released by Feel in 2005). This is the first time I am covering Park Bom on the blog since her 2019 release 4:44, which featured Wheein from Mamamoo. However, she has had a few releases since then that I didn’t review, including First Snow (with Sandara Park) and Do Re Mi Fa La Sol (with Changmo).
Following her track record of recent solo singles, it comes as no surprise as Flower opts for for the ballad genre, as well. But while ballads are in huge abundance in the KPOP scene, Flower manages to stand out as a stunning piece that I find quite indulging. It starts off with a simple piano backdrop (with a brief hint of strings). It isn’t anything amazing instrumentally, but the repetitiveness of the piano was rather striking in its own way. The simplicity of the background also allows for Park Bom’s unique vocals and tone to take centre-stage, and she sounds amazing in her solo verse. For the chorus, strings are added to the background and Park Bom’s vocals build in a manner that makes the chorus stilling and gripping. Kim Minseok, the other half of the Flower collaboration, takes over the second verse and chorus, and adds a hint of smoothness to Flower that was missing from Park Bom’s section. Here, Flower‘s instrumental also stands building, developing the simple piano instrumental into an orchestral piece. Despite that, I really liked how Kim Min Seok’s nasally tone pierces through and manages to stay on top of the developments underneath it. The pair comes together for the bridge and final chorus, with Park Bom leading the vocals and Kim Min Seok handling the ad-libs. I quite liked they weren’t forced to harmonise for majority of this section, and were instead allowed to focus on their own strengths and complement each other at the same time. A clear balance was achieved. We did get one line at the very end of the Flower in which the pair does sing together, closing out the song with the expected union of the two. It also felt fitting to keep this moment until the last second, based on the breakup of sections for each singer preceding it. The instrumental became dramatic (in an orchestral sense), peaking alongside the singers and helped really drive momentum in Flower. Overall, a captivating listen that salsifies my personal craving for a rousing ballad.
The music video was also quite striking. The grayscale filter really helped set the serious tone of the video. I also quite liked the location. It felt very different from your usual setting for a ballad, but the producers really knew how to use the space to help emphasise the dramatic side of the song. As for the ‘content’ of the video, Flower‘s music video can be split into two halves. One half of the video features both Park Bom and Kim Min Seok in their closeup shots, singing their sections of the song. Even though they would be consider ‘solo shots’, some of the wide shots showed the pair were in somewhat close proximity with one another, allowing Kim Min Seok to walk over to bring the pair ‘together’ for the song’s final moments. The other half of the video features two interpretative dancers, with the female dancer intertwined with Park Bom’s solo moments and the male dancer intertwined with Kim Min Seok’s solo moments. And like the singers who came together in the final moments, so did the dancers.
Song – 10/10
Music Video – 9/10
Overall Rating – 9.6/10
KPOPREVIEWED 