Tag: SF9

SF9 has made their retro return with their latest comeback single, Mamma Mia. This comeback also features their fourth mini-album, which shares the same name as the title track. We last saw them with their Latin-inspired O Sole Mio comeback in October last year.

SF9’s last few comebacks have impressed me. Unfortunately, Mamma Mia is disappointing for my taste and doesn’t follow this trend. While it isn’t necessarily a bad song, it is quite boring and doesn’t really keep me interested. There are a few aspects of the song that seem to contribute directly to this boredom feeling. The first is the instrumentation. There is literally nothing for me to rave about this retro instrumental. For the most part, I don’t think it has enough to be considered retro. Instead, it felt like a simple beat with a few added details (such as the guitars) to give it that retro vibe. They honestly could have gone with something retro (some electric guitars to make the chorus more memorable) and powerful, which would have been in line with their previous works. The main focus seems to be shifted towards the vocals and raps. And the vocals were okay at best but the raps were quite good. If only the song had the instrumentation to back up the raps and give hype to the song. The song wasn’t that catchy, falling right into a ‘standard’ predicament. The only part which I thought was a decent hook was the ‘Clap Clap Clap yo‘. But it seemed underused in the song. Overall, it was a weak song that just left me disappointed.

The music video also leaves me disappointed. There just seems to be a lot going on in this music video. Some of the members were involved in the fighting over stolen goods, keeping their car clean, window shopping in an excessive manner, hockey playing, dancing in the public and painting lips on a statue. While together they tried to go down the comedic route, these scenes do not go cohesively together. The only scene which I thought could have complimented the retro sounds of the song was at the start when they were standing on the portable moving stairs. Also, we need to sit down and talk about the mullet and dreadlocks. Even in history, the mullet should never have occurred. As for the dreadlocks, he just doesn’t rock it. Sorry, I had to say that but I had to get it off my chest.

[Updated] It was a fun performance to watch. The members looked like they were genuinely having fun on stage. It wasn’t that cringe-worthy and complicated as the music video. Though, I did think they underused the chairs during the performance, which could have made for a better performance.

Song – 4/10
Music Video – 4/10
Performance – 7/10 [Updated]
Overall Rating – 4.6/10 [Updated]

Joining the mass comeback lineup for this week is SF9 with their latest track O Sole Mio.  The boys previously made their comeback with Easy Love a few months back, which has become one of my favourites of this year.

O Sole Mio is a Latin-infused dance track that manages to captures the listener’s attention. As Latin isn’t a much of an influence in KPOP, the idea of it and its overall sound was very fresh. And they didn’t mess around with the infusion, going straight to the point with its instrumental. The mix of dance electronic seems to give it a more modern and keeps grounded as a KPOP dance track. It actually took a few listens to actually become comfortable but it got there in end nonetheless. The vocals were solid but I think the winner in this song has to be the rapping. I don’t know why but I associate a rough and deep voice when it comes to songs like this and the rappers delivered with that. The most disappointing moment in the song would have to the “Oh ya ya ya” part midway into the chorus, which felt like it cut into the chorus a little too much. Overall, it is a solid song from the group, adding to their list this year.

The music video is a little confusing. One moment they are in the desert, the next inside a church, the next inside a pretty nice looking hallway, next minute they are in a plane graveyard. I don’t know if they were going down the apocalyptic route with the video, it felt like that. But besides that, everything else in the video looked decent. The filter that was placed on top of the video kind of made things hazier, which I think indicated the presence of heat. And as stereotypical as it sounds, the Latn sounds go well with the heat and desert imagery throughout the video. Once again, not entirely sure what is going on in the video, but it was a nice one to watch.

The choreography for this comeback was pretty good. It wasn’t as amazing as expected, but it had the aesthetics appropriate for the song. There use of their outfit throughout the performance is commendable. It looked cool in the music video due to the wind, so I am wondering how they are going to replicate that same effect if they can’t use fans.

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

SF9 has returned with their second comeback this year. They previously made their return to the stage with Roar. This time they are promoting Easy Love, from their second mini-album, Breaking Sensation.

Easy Love is probably their most solid song to date. I didn’t mind the group’s past title track, but they were dominated by synth sounds that I sadly never got to connect with. I hate to say that the instrumental was more ‘traditional’ sounding, but the group opted for a less synth dominated instrumental, which made it easier to get into the track. The song also had a cleaner melody, which I enjoyed. It sadly did sound generic at times, but I liked it for its cleaner sound. The chorus was probably the best part. It was catchy and definitely was the kick the song needed. The verses didn’t captivate me. But once the chorus kicked in, it gave me nostalgic feels, as it made the song sound something that could have been released back in the 2009 or 2010. The raps were quite good here, which is similar to my comments in their other reviews. However, the vocals have been parts that I was never fond of. But this time around, the vocals sounded a lot better. Both the raps and vocals style here give the group a more mature side and both showed me the level of improvement of the group since debut so far. The start of the song probably left the biggest impression for me, which made it quite memorable. And in combination with the chorus, it makes it hard to not go back.

The video is full of anger and angst, which matches the lyrics of the song quite well (the song is all about how cruel love can be). Hence the video is made up of closeup shots of the members stuck in the moment and can’t get over their breakup. So, there isn’t much going on in the video. The choreography shots are probably the only thing that has me coming back (more on that later).

The choreography is really good. It is fitting for the song. There really isn’t much to talk about, but it looks good. The dance may not be sharp or extremely powerful. Instead, the anger I mentioned before is subtly there and it goes a long way, making the performance look cool.

Song – 8/10
Music Video – 6/10
Performance – 7/10
Overall Rating – 7/10

Another male rookie that I missed out this year. SF9 made their debut in October of this year. They are the first dance group to debut under FNC Entertainment, which also houses CN Blue, FT Island, N.Flying and AOA. The group consist of 9 members and the lineup includes: Youngbin, Inseong, Jaeyoon, Dawon, Rowoon, Zuho, Taeyang, Hwiyoung, Chani.

Fanfare is the title track of their debut release. The song is okay. Overall, it doesn’t really stand out from other debuts. It just doesn’t make me go wow or make me feel interested in the band (I say this but I will continue looking out for them for reviews). Closely inspecting the track for this review, I noticed that for the first time in a very long, I think the rapping in the song sounds a lot better than the vocal work.  The vocals just seemed a little flat. That being said, the song does have its moments. The “Lalalala Fare Fare FanFare~” is quite catchy and the instrumental stands out in the crowd. It is a nice mix between dance and hip-hop. To me, it is quite an intense instrumental, which makes the song is quite strong. I personally think it is a song that did show off particular sides to their band. If only the vocals were a little more defined and shown off a little more, I think the song would have been better.

Honestly, the video is a little bland for my taste. But from what I see, the video matches the song quite nicely. The combination of those scenes with not much going on (surprisingly), the choreography scenes and camera work makes the video seem quite intense, matching the same intensity I mentioned above, in the song. I hope there isn’t a plot to the video. Because from what I see, it is just them gathering each up to tag a wall. It also looks like they took the piece of the wall back to a warehouse. Yeah, not going to ask questions over there.

The choreography shares that level of intensity and actually, I think it looks really cool. It is quite impressive as well.

Rating – 6/10