[Review] Girls' Generation - Party

It's time to party with Girls' Generation. While they sort of had a return earlier this year with "Catch Me If You Can," this "Party" marks their official comeback (along with more songs / MVs on the way). With Jessicagate and the general mediocrity of CMIYC, the queens have a lot of work ahead of them if they want to prove they can still hold that title.

In terms of the MV start this opening is so bad, I almost died of laughter already. Don't at least half the girls have experience in acting and dramas? Why are their expressions here so forced and cheesy? Also Hyoyeon, who plays with toy planes anymore, you're not 7 anymore dear. I can appreciate the summer beat and general sound of the song. However, the constant barrage of English just doesn't sound very good and the aegyo / child noises do not help the song at all. Those could have all been omitted for a better result. Also there's that one part in the prechorus going "yayayayaya" and that's worth cringing over. Like with "Catch Me If You Can," line distribution is quite impressive this time around too. Surprising what removing a single member can do. Tiffany and Sunny carry the group in this song, with Tiffany's consistently strong voice backed by fluent English and Sunny just matches the song very well. Taeyeon is (almost) always fabulous and that isn't an exception here. Her work at the end is quite nice, to be expected from the group's main vocalist.

The SNSD visuals are still spot-on. The hair colour formula is still very strong, what with Sunny, Tiffany, and Yoona joining the cause. Hyoyeon doesn't count because she has been blonde for what I assume to be forever. Yuri, Sooyoung, and Seohyun comprise the "disappointment trio" as they got screwed over by the stylists here. It's also extremely questionable what the stylists made them wear for that club scene or whatever. Jesus Christ those were some hideous 2NE1-level styled outfits. I was planning on marking this MV as your general "play in the pool and look pretty" summer video but then the end came around and they're chilling on jetskis and shit. Impressive. There's also a tricky attempt at surfing but that isn't actually shown in the video so it doesn't count, nice try.

At the end of the day this is a Girls' Generation summer song, and it's a good song. The energy and instrumental is nice, and the vocals from Tiffany, Taeyeon, and Sunny are no joke. However, if Girl's Day's "Ring My Bell" MV was ruined from an unnecessary cameo, the fault of "Party" is in the unnecessary aegyo and English. The difference here is that one is just a video, the other is an entire song. I will admit upon seeing the teasers this was going to be the weakest release, and I look forward to seeing what the other songs have to offer.

[ Overall: 78 / 100 ]