[Review] Red Velvet - Dumb Dumb

Red Velvet is somewhat of an anomaly. On one hand, RV's debut was pretty horrendous compared to their company sunbaes, despite all the EXO-esque teaser hype (and even that didn't deliver the same weight of justice). "Happiness" was just bad no matter how you looked at it, the song was not good and video had some controversy. On the other hand, the group had released some excellently smooth slower songs, like the remake of "Be Natural" and "Automatic." With the hilarious theory that they require some S.M. sacrifice before / when things happen to the group, Red Velvet  will kick off the fall reviews with "Dumb Dumb."

"Dumb Dumb" is an addicting dance number. It's as simple as that. The chanting of "dumb dumb" worms into your head very quickly and is a much better hook than the creepy "lalalalala" from "Ice Cream Cake." At least with this one, I don't feel like I'm walking into a fairytale horror mix. The instrumental really drives the song with tacky noises everywhere that don't distract too much, though they do cloud some of the adlibs. Where they improve on the hook compared to ICC, they falter in the chorus department. The range just doesn't sound as comfortable, and they definitely sound like they're reaching for those notes. Even worse is if this was adjusted. This leaves the verses as the main highlight, which is a shame because they're so short and limited in number. Instead we get...

One of the worst rap inclusions of the year. The rap as a whole is extremely questionable, not to mention the distribution. Yeri is about as filler as filler can get, so I understand they probably wanted to give her more lines. But the entirety of the rap sections just don't fit with the song. It's common that having a rap which is slower than the verses or chorus results unfavorably and this is certainly a good example. Not to mention that awful string of English / Michael Jackson songs used in the latter rap part. That was just uncomfortable, especially when what followed was the bridge. Talk about awkward transitions. S.M. continues to show they can still struggle with this kind of stuff. Ack, this song could've gone places they kept with the high-impact verses / chorus.

What the hell is happening in this music video. Like what in the actual fuck. It's not quite seizure-inducing like with T-ARA videos, but there's still so much going on and absolutely none of it makes any sense. By the way I still can't really tell who anyone is that isn't Wendy. At least S.M. was kind enough to not dress them all entirely the same and go back to colour coding. The bizarre scene changes disrupts from watching the choreography, which is brilliant, lively, and powerful. The dance is fun, too, and there's many subtleties with the moves that make the whole routine fun to watch, an example being the "hahaha" part at the chorus with the girls shaking their heads and covering their laugh.

Even though S.M. may have dropped the ball (and that's some serious droppage) with the amount of rapping and non-vocals in this comeback, the choreography is delightful and the MV is artistic, if but a little crazy. Ultimately the song's faults do outweigh the non-faults, and "Dumb Dumb" lands behind "Ice Cream Cake" as Red Velvet's signature tune, but maybe not that far behind.

[ Overall: 80 / 100 ]