[Review] Girl's Day - Expectation

Vocals: 10 / 10

Now, pardon me if I’m wrong, as this is my first experience with Girl’s Day, but isn’t Minah supposed to be the star vocalist of the group? I mean I didn’t expect her to be some powerhouse juggernaut like Hyorin and Sistar, but I found Minah underwhelming. Minah is good, yes, but I’m more impressed by the roster as a whole (Sojin especially). Supports, transitions, belts, all are fantastic and the chorus can get you addicted easily. While the buildup to the final chorus was sloppy as hell, I loved how they reversed the sequence for the last chorus, singing words for the first part and then “Ooh ooh ooh” afterward. Excellent showing.

Appearance: 9 / 10

Sojin is…26? W-why is she hanging out with 19 year olds? Moreover why does she look so young? I drew parallels with her to f(x)’s Victoria merely because of age, but at least Victoria looks her age (or is in the ballpark). Like Victoria though she seems to have trademark eyes which captivated me early. In contrast, Yura looks older than her 1992 birthday would suggest, and while the hairstyle isn’t that great a look, it’s normal enough, and God knows normal is a good thing, especially for girl groups. Hyeri has a little Jiyeon syndrome going on, but thankfully after looking at some more Girl’s Day stuff I found it’s just the makeup for this video specifically. Minah’s a cutie. Didn’t know she had incredible eye smiles until I saw other videos / interviews though. This song is another instance where the outfits of the group and the backup dancers are the same, which gives a nice show of union (particularly since the choreo doesn’t differ between the two).

Dance: 7 / 10

Straps? Really? I know the concept was geared towards the sexy mature side or “change” for Girl’s Day but they’ve got a ways to go before matching the images of their KARA or Sistar sunbaes. Truthfully aside from the straps there’s nothing special about this dance, and that’sk ind of a problem, consdiering how addicitve Kpop choreography can be. If you don’t have the straps you can’t really mimic the dance. Well you can, but it’s not gonna be as interesting (for example, I’d bet most if not all the performances have been with straps).

Rap: 5 / 10

Oh, no. No no no no no. This was not a good first impression for Yura’s rapping. It’s not that she’s bad, more like the rap itself is bad. But, considering Girl’s Day was the typical aegyo cutesy girl group before this release, it doesn’t seem like the other raps are not much different. The English is sloppy, enunciation sounds sloppy, and the messy instrumental background certainly does not help in the slightest. Her rapping voice is decent, which is the only thing saving this score from being worse.

Music Video: 9 / 10

It’s essentially the same idea behind the music video as G.NA in “Oops”. There are blank rooms, elegant solo shots, alternate rooms, and some form of a plot where Yura gets back at the boy of interest. Actually now that you mention it I’m going to give it an extra point because Yura’s the only member acting in the music video and not all the members sharing. Glad to see someone got the idea, sheesh. Having a completely blank room though, seriously?

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Overall: 80 / 100

Given my about zero knowledge about this group before this, I didn’t really know what to expect (heh) from them. Something tells me I wouldn’t have really liked their earlier aegyo stuff, and first impressions always matter, especially in Kpop. I’m glad I was pleasantly surprised with “Expectation”.