Lovelyz is next on the catchup reviews, having released "Destiny" about two weeks ago. They've had a successful start to their career, with a pair of energetic pop songs in "Candy Jelly Love" and "Ah-Choo," backed by complimentary ballads like "Goodnight Like Yesterday" and "Shooting Star," the latter half are what I believe are their best works. Will they go down the ballad path this time, or continue with what they've been known for and drop another bubblegum track on us?
Well, that was an unexpected start. Dramatic strings and loud voices off the bat were unexpected. Certainly caught me off guard, but with that kind of start, Lovelyz shows their serious side. There should be a term for this class of songs. You know that type, where a bright pop group releases a more serene and delicate song to show how they've got a more mature side to them as well. A-Pink had "Luv," GFriend had "Rough," and now Lovelyz has "Destiny." There's no coincidence, then, that these songs are the best-sounding (to me). It's easy to make a bubblegum pop song sound good, but not so easy for a ballad-esque song to sound great. And this sounds great, so Lovelyz deserve all the props for this release. Oh, and coming off the heels of my Twice review, it's good to see (hear) they didn't butcher the Englishe.
As they transition towards a more mature sound, the vocal disparity starts to become more clear. While it's true nobody in the group is a weak link, it's evident that the more capable vocalists separate themselves from the rest of the pack. Kei, Baby Soul, and Jin are more consistent and powerful than the others, but again this isn't to say the rest sound bad. It's more likely to sound poor in a ballad compared to a pop or dance track, but they don't. Kei still has a lovely voice, and I have yet to pinpoint who she reminds me of. Even though the strings are ideal for this type of song, there are instances where the instrumental is quite jarring and makes the overall audio sound messy. Thankfully this doesn't interfere during the beautiful bridge, which has become a staple in Lovelyz releases bar "Candy Jelly Love." I'm not sure how I feel about that part at 2:51 though. The combination of voices there sound muffled, creepy, and awkward.
Last time when I reviewed "Ah-Choo" I lamented on how the dance was not to the level of GFriend, who have set the gold standard in terms of choreography. While this still remains the case, as the dancing in "Destiny" is not impressive based on the difficulty of the moves, it may be this year's best dance showing simply because of how elegant the set looks. So clean and tasteful, to the point where in my notes for this review I simply wrote "graceful as fuck." This has a good style to match the lyrics and theme. In particular, there is a plethora of spinning movements and I'm entranced by the falling motion during the "gravity" part of the chorus. By the way, this is another instance of awkward title choices, because the Korean title is more like "My Earth," which supports the spinning and orbiting moves. It's something that will be overlooked for non-Korean speakers. For as much as I enjoy the song of "Destiny," I find myself getting more and more attracted to the choreography than anything else.
Lovelyz continue to excel in "Destiny" with a fantastic music video. It's not great in the sense that the MV is interesting or has some plot, but great in that the videography is top-notch. With the planetary theme still in motion, almost every shot in this video is moving, with a few dance shots the rare exception. The constant moving camera is awesome and usually rotates around a Lovelyz member, pretty marbles that represent planets, or other assorted objects like lights, keeping with the theme. The multitude of spinning shots does get a little out of hand towards the end, where the quick changes catch T-ARA syndrome level of shenanigans but I think they figured since the song picks up at the end so must the video.
Admittedly I still haven't recognized everyone yet as after like 40+ groups keeping track of members gets difficult but it's a work in progress. Kei is my favorite member so it's easy for her to standout, but I've also noticed Yein, Jisoo, and Jin. Jisoo in particular has striking visuals. She's got a powerful gaze which rivals that of Hello Venus' Lime (who possesses perhaps the fiercest gaze I've ever seen). On this topic of gazes and staring, I love how much the video focused or emphasized eyes. I really really like eyes, so this MV catered to me quite a fair amount haha. The color palette was soft and like most other things, matched the rest of the song's aspects. Very well done overall.
This is everything I wanted out of Lovelyz ever since I saw what they were capable of from a slower front. They have the voices to rock these types of songs and could definitely become a premier ballad group if they really wanted to, even if not every member is a vocal star. The video is extremely well-produced, the choreography is intriguing and graceful, and everything just flows together so well. Now don't get me wrong, "Goodnight Like Yesterday" is still the group's best song and I don't think we'll see something like that for a while, but Lovelyz in "Destiny" is firing on all cylinders and you can see that. More of this in the future please!
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