[Review] T-ARA - Sugar Free

With the recent collapse of Girls’ Generation, T-Ara find themselves as a group of the previous guard with the original roster in tact. Despite the additions and removals of a few members, T-Ara returned with “Sugar Free,” which at a glance seemed like some promotional campaign for healthy lifestyles or something, and I keep hearing soda cans being opened.

The song is quite bland. Soyeon has the bulk of the work but not only does she carry the chorus but she shows up in the verses, too. The chorus itself is pretty bland, and the verses a mixture of rap-singing from Hyomin and Qri. Based on that, I guess the prechorus is the best part of the song, though the intro is strong, too, thanks to the instrumental. Speaking of which, this is what saves the song. The instrumental is killer and really generates energy and power for this otherwise mediocre song.

I’d like to see more vocal diversity in future T-Ara. Eunjung, Hyomin, and Jiyeon aren’t spectacular but they also aren’t pushovers. Qri and Boram are somewhat filler material but aren’t awful, either. A medium-paced dance track with more evenly distributed lines would probably hook me, honestly.

The video is a complete clusterfuck of seizure-inducing eye candy. That’s the simplest way I can describe it. I remember the first time I watched the MV for “I Go Crazy Because Of You” and I thought that was ridiculous, but this is probably worse. And when you consider there are multiple versions of the MV for some reason, the effect is compounded. Oh and don’t worry, all variants are just as crazy colourful and switch perspectives more often than you’d like. The choreography seems particularly lazy, but when your eyes hurt so much from the constant scene changing, you don’t get to see the dance too much. Again, the intro was pleasant but everything else looked very basic and unimpressive all around. This is a shame, since the instrumental is so damn good that I expected more out of the dance.

T-Ara stock will continue to rise as the aftermath of Girls’ Generation, combined with the death of Wonder Girls, restructure of KARA, etc. They are one of the 2 relatively unscathed flagship girl groups of the previous era (the other being 2NE1).

[ Score: 82 / 100 ]