With my new computer and 144 Hz monitor, my first HD review (this doesn't actually mean anything) will be on CLC and their newest hit "Black Dress." Not to be confused with Super Junior's "Black Suit," but why would it be? Anyway CLC struck gold early last year with their transformation in "Hobgoblin" but followed it up with an extremely lackluster "Where Are You?" Teaser images for this comeback showed they'd likely be returning to the "Hobgoblin" style, or Cube are terrible jerks (save this discussion for another time ha) and did us all dirty.
"Black Dress" is definitely right up the alley of "Hobgoblin" and I welcome this without hesitation. CLC are simply stronger in this element - and so are most girl groups in general - so it's not surprising to see / hear this song do well. I dig that the chorus is heavily zeroed in on the instrumental which while not as strong as the one in "Hobgoblin," it's still lit and gets the job done selling this harder-hitting track. Plus that last chorus has some vocals sprinkled in for that extra punch. As with most of their titles, they're not too focused on the vocal prowess of Elkie, Seunghee, and Sorn but rather the uniformity across all members. Yujin and Eunbin don't sound far off from CLC's primary vocalists and that's probably what they were aiming for. That bridge is also gorgeous and leads back to the chorus with a sizeable assist from Yeeun. It's actually incredibly well done, so props.
However it's not all sunshine and roses. For starters, the English strewn around the song is pretty awkward. The constant spam of "black dress" is understandable and therefore excusable but most (if not all) of the other random spurts of English seem quite forced. I'm unable to explain why, but there are songs where hints of English work and songs where it doesn't, and "Black Dress" falls into the latter category for sure. Elsewhere, while Yeeun did a solid job in the bridge she got a criminally short actual rap break, and on top of that it was also not one of her best showings in her limited title track history. Ironically, I think that her raps from "No Oh Oh" and "Pepe" are the best performances, but that's merely on the individual rather than the whole group. Make no mistake, "Black Dress" is still a solid song and a great listen despite those shortcomings.
I was taken aback by how tame this dance seemed compared to how the song sounded. CLC have some capable dancers (Seungyeon slays) and this choreography barely misses the mark I feel. "Black Dress" made a bigger impact with the song rather than the dance. They did hit a home run with that sick dance break though. Right off the heels of the first chorus, Seungyeon gets up front and center with a solo that is immediately followed up by Yeeun's rap. Unlike some other dance solos (like Yezi in "Apple Pie") the remaining members don't stand awkwardly behind her and instead play a small role cascading out for the next transition. Did I mention Seungyeon is the shit? But yeah as a whole the dance seemed kinda lacking. Only in the final chorus do they really kick it up a notch but even then it's still less exciting than the tamer moments from the "Hobgoblin" dance. It also doesn't seem very difficult but I won't say that with 100% certainty as I've only ever performed boy group dances.
Time to muse on the MV. For a song called "Black Dress" there sure weren't many black dresses at all. I'm not sure if their outfits were selected unironically but c'mon man what the hell. I think at most there were two members wearing dresses / skirts in any given group shot. They better perform in dresses. Despite that, the black aesthetic is on fucking point. The girls look sharp and sleek, and they earn massive bonus points for keeping everyone in black outfits and black hair. Team uniformity always wins in my book. Seungyeon and Elkie look amazing as usual but did anyone notice Seunghee? She looks flawless, why did she ever have bangs before. Yeeun cutting her hair was a cute touch but Bora already did the same in "I Like That," and I'm sure others beat Bora to that as well. That Eunbin pole-dancing section is hella awkward. Why is she - the youngest - the only one doing it and why is everyone else staring at her so seriously? I get that she's an adult now (19 in Korea) but that part seemed really forced and only used to feed something into the MV teaser.
Surprisingly, this song scored higher than "Hobgoblin" despite me thinking that "Black Dress" was the inferior song of the two. But "Black Dress" is more consistent across almost all aspects from the audio to the instrumental. Sure the awkward English, and lackluster choreography hurts it (and the generic MV doesn't help despite how beautiful everyone is) but the predominant aspects of the song - chorus, solo breaks, bridge - are executed very well. And in Kpop, the fundamentals are really all you need. More songs like this please, from CLC and other girl groups!
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