If there's anything to notice about this comeback, it's that Super Junior as a group have aged very well. From their beginnings as Super Junior 05, across the 10 years following of success and shenanigans, they really won't be going anywhere anytime soon. I'll talk about the MV first since it's quite the spotlight. Firstly the video is rated 15+ for...? I never really understood that to be honest. The MV is a hyper blend of various smaller "movies" with their own "plot" compiled together. I phrase those terms quite loosely because they're more like scenes and there's no real connection between them, outside of the woman / devil of interest. However, the acting is well executed and in the end makes for an enjoyable watch despite the excessive guns and the constant tagging of each member, which got a little bothersome, even if the purpose was to introduce members to new fans. There are plenty of minor quirks that are nice to see, like Kyuhyun's completely flabbergasted expression, the hat shenanigans, and some lyrical inputs during the bridge. All in all this is an A+ for video effort.
"Devil" takes a departure from the Super Junior releases we've seen recently. From the loud and sassy"Mamacita" to the excellent dance track "Sorry Sorry," the approach of "Devil" is classy and doesn't try too hard. The vocals are light, but still have character. Though I must admit that as a Yesung fan, I'm kinda upset he didn't have as much spotlight as I'd have liked, considering this is his return song. At the same time, for a song with such a range, especially during the chorus, I'm surprised that Ryeowook had such little impact on the song. He is pretty much the master of this vocal range, kind of a shame this potential was wasted. Also worth a quick mention is that there's no real rap segment, and even then Eunhyuk isn't as focused on as some earlier tracks, which I can applaud. For a song as relaxed as "Devil," the bridge might actually be my favourite part of the song. It's very chill and doesn't really care about anything else. Thankfully though it's just audio because the choreography is quite disappointing. The choreography just doesn't appear innovative, flashy, or interesting. It's quite laid back which is nice in the sense that it matches the song but when you consider that this is the same group who had the breakout dances of 2009 ("Sorry Sorry" and "It's You"), is really not all that impressive. In fact the dance is so lackluster even the performance video (thanks for this by the way) is literally a completely white background / room.
Super Junior's comeback with "Devil" has many highlights. The videography is excellent, the return of Yesung, and the song itself is smooth and charismatic. However, it's a crime that Ryeowook is underutilized, and the choreography just isn't the usual from Super Junior. Perhaps it truly is impossible to recapture the magic from the "Golden Age of Kpop" but this is a commendable effort by the group nonetheless.
[ Overall: 86 / 100 ]
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