[Review] Stellar - Sting

In 2016 we're onto our 3rd review and the 3rd new group (to be reviewed). It's all about exploring new territory I suppose. Anyway we're here with Stellar and "Sting." Stellar's path from debut hasn't been exactly smooth, with criticisms left, right, up, down, front, and back about their constant skin-revealing and hip-gyrating visuals. They did finally (at least in my eyes) release a somewhat decent song last year in "Vibrato," and are back to try their luck with "Sting."

Unfortunately, "Sting" can't live up to Dal Shabet's "Someone Like U" or even their own "Vibrato" for that matter. The song is definitely different in that it incorporates plenty of changes, whether it's the inflections in the chorus or bursts of rap here and there, but the former isn't easy on the ears and the latter generally never works for any song, no matter how good the rap / rapper (think 9MUSES "Koong Chit Dak Chit"). Nobody in the group has a particularly strong voice, so they need to rely on having catchy tunes to make things interesting. "Sting" lacks that punch compared to "Vibrato" in every category, even the rapping (which has usually been short anyway). Unlike songs such as "Hot Pink" or "Like Ooh-Ahh," there isn't any focal point of the song that I can keep coming back to.

Another thing that's not working for Stellar here is the MV. Everything about it is just reminiscent of FIESTAR's "One More." The borders, bright shirts, creepy male accentuated in some way, etc. I can pretty much find similarities for almost every aspect of the video except for the pointers and bugs, which at least are related to the title / lyrics. Also what are those short leotard hybrids or whatever at the end of the video. They don't look very good haha. Minhee is supposed to be the viual superstar and she is fabulous but the rest of the members look odd to me. I can at least appreciate that even though all Stellar are doing in this video is posing as eye candy, they have staff taking pictures as if it were a simple photoshoot. If you're going to play the visual game you might as well play it to the full extent. We don't get to see much of the dance at the very end with the weird outfits but I'm sure it's the stereotypical Stellar formula. Enough to be pleasing to the eyes and enough to anger obnoxious fangirls everywhere.

In the end, a combination of a mediocre track coupled with a forgettable video leaves Stellar in the dust. They had already been struggling to maintain relevancy even amidst the sexy concept focus, and now in 2016 they fall further behind as some of the other C tier girl groups start gaining traction.

[ Overall: 65 / 100 ]