Vocals: 9 / 10
Secret is one of those (girl) groups that have always been decent in terms of vocals but happen to house a power vocalist so impressive it just strengthens them by so much. In this case, it’s obviously Ji Eun carrying the others on her back. Sunhwa and Hyosung (Zinger?) are by no means poor singers and they fit the verse sections quite well, both girls have soft voices which are out of place in the loud and emphatic choruses. Thankfully, Ji Eun saves the day, and completely dominates the last 45 seconds of the song with expressive belts ranging from low and powerful to high and shrill / emotional. Ji Eun’s vocals match this song so perfectly that I have to rate the vocals a 9, instead of a 5 if not for her presence and excellent performance.
Appearance: 9 / 10
Wow, they have undergone a complete 180 turnaround from the last time we saw them! The cutesy, aegyo, and pretty Secret have gone, and in place are four extremely beautiful women. Secret is a group which isn’t too skinny to the level where it can freak people out (thank you, Hyosung). This music video gives the girls the flashy old-school appearance and each of them look great. Hyosung and Sunhwa are their usual selves, with the side note that there aren’t enough eye smiles from Sunhwa (understandable, due to this song’s more serious nature) and Hyosung looks like Gain with her short cut. Ji Eun stands out a little odd, the hairstyle not really complimenting her face very well, she was much more flattering with her hair dropped and / or in bangs. I honestly think Zinger is the highlight here though, with the long hair and streaks looks, give amazing compliment to match the fierce raps. The outfits for the plot MV were very nice and flashy.
Dance: 8 / 10
<This information has been removed by the Korean Commission Of Youth Protection> Yeah, have you seen live performances of this song yet? You don’t really see any shots of anything lower than the waist. Now to my knowledge, the original choreography has not been altered, but definitely focusing cameras up there to avoid…yeah. The risqué movements / touching are definitely pushing it and the camerawork of the music video certainly didn’t help. KARA and Sistar have signature butt choreographies but this blows those out of the water. It’s honestly uncomfortable to talk about the dance. Let me put it this way, if Secret wore long pants for the dance, I’d still find the dance too provocative.
Rap: 8 / 10
Zinger shows a fair amount of presence in this video, much more so than “Love Is Move.” Also contrary to “Love Is Move”, Zinger brings a fierce and powerful set of raps, which is her specialty, compared to the cutesy rhymes of the group’s previous release. While I absolutely love and enjoy seeing more variety in Secret’s songs: where Zinger gets some more of the spotlight than what is considered “the usual” (for a rapper, anyway), a problem I have with the rap is that none of the segments really have a solid conclusion to them. Sure, Zinger comes in, spits some sick lyrics but then it just kinda abruptly ends and goes right into singing. If anything, the powerful “What” at the end of her final segment is…really awkward sounding. Oh well, some solid rapping and powerful charisma nonetheless.
Music Video: 8 / 10
Perhaps this is the first review I’ve done where the music video has some sort of noticeable plot to it. That said, I’d like to just ignore the other half of the video, you know, the stereotypical sets and attractive outfits / design, the dancing with backups in various rooms, the cars, the lights, all that. Hyosung’s bout with the detective(?) is traced through the girls’ work at locating / infiltrating a safe, and use cheeky predictable methods to do so, but they seem to stand around awkwardly when they actually reach their destination and get ambushed (poor Sunhwa). Hyosung shows up to rescue everyone with some rather hesitant shooting (did you see how long it took for her to shoot the second guy?) and they all grab the goodies and peace. A little bit confusing and open if you ask me. Perhaps I wasn’t paying too much attention to the Hyosung / detective parts, but that’s not a good thing for me to say regarding a music video. In the end though, the fact that this isn’t a boring as hell room video is good enough for me.
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Overall: 84 / 100
“Saranghae move move, saranghae move move~” Oh wait. Wrong song. That’s how I feel about “Poison”. It’s a great song, but it’s not particularly memorable, save for maybe drooling over Hyosung, unlike “Madonna” or “Love Is Move”. Additionally, the song is much too repetitive which really turns me off. I’ll find myself often starting the song and just skipping to the end to hear Ji Eun’s glorious vocals.
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