Vocals: 8 / 10
Not a fan of the autotune. Let me get that off my chest right away. It distorts Sohee and Hye Lim’s already only mediocre / soft voices, and in the latter’s case it almost makes it sound like she’s straining for some medium range notes which she shouldn’t be. Thankfully, Yenny and Sunye do quite the job of bailing them out with their high notes and fancy adlibs at the end. After seeing them live in Hong Kong this summer, Yenny really stands out as a strong vocalist who has solid versatility in belting out those power notes to sounding soft but sincere. Sunye on the other end has moving emotional vocals, as her parts at the end of the song are pleading and her voice reflects that. Akon also sings a chorus, and again the prevalent autotune decreases the appeal, oh well.
Appearance: 8 / 10
Most of the looks seem reminiscent of some sort of “Nobody” meets TRON mashup, a little futuristic and retro at the same time. It’s not awkward enough to be creepy but the use of outfits and heavy makeup in order to match the scenery seems a little reaching. The girls are plenty attractive without too much makeup (see “Like This”) and the futuristic setting in the music video doesn’t need to involve high amounts of makeup. For that though, Yubin and Yenny stand apart from the others, mainly because of their hair, ahaha.
Dance: 8 / 10
For some reason I found the movements (positional movement, not the dance motions themselves) similar to “Nobody” which makes the dance seem more simpler, and by definition that is more welcoming to outside listeners, since the Wonder Girls are not known for their high power choreography to begin with. There’s also some solo flashy silhouette (oxymoron much) dancing when Akon is singing which helped ease the switches between him and all the girls dancing. Overall it’s a little flashy, a little sassy, and a little sexy, and so it earns a solid score.
Rap: 8 / 10
I think if Yubin’s English was a little more refined in terms of pronunciation this would have been scored higher. As it is, there are some awkward words which make her / the rap sound funny. Akon is technically (or at least by sound) rap singing but he does a pretty good job of it, which I wasn’t really expecting. Then again I don’t listen to Akon so I have no idea what his comfort range is in terms of his music. I do like the exchange between Yubin and Akon at the end of her sequence, a pleasant mixture of singing and rapping. Some good execution / presentation marred by a little mispronunciation.
Music Video: 7 / 10
I cannot wait until JYP starts shoving his face into 2PM music videos, that is if they ever recover from the shame that is Nichkhun’s drunk driving shenanigans. Anyways! This music video is an unfortunate deviation from the nice “Like This” MV but I guess I couldn’t deny that it wouldn’t happen. I paid no attention to the first minute (or however long the intro is) because I quite frankly didn’t care, only noting JYP’s appearance at which I exuded pure unbridled rage. The previously mentioned mix of “Nobody” and TRON gives the scenery a nice touch of colour, but the various showing of random body parts floating around on an operating table countered that bizarrely. Upon rewatching the music video I noticed (some of) the girls don’t actually get a lot of close-ups, either, which shifts more emphasis to (a) the dancing and (b) the weird robotic surgery going on. By the end of the video though the intro surgery stuff fades away and it’s more or less focused on the choreography. When Akon shows up half of the camera is on him and the other half of the girls dancing, which had to have been odd considering they weren’t singing but I guess I’d have preferred showing them dancing as opposed to more creepy surgery so I guess that’s a plus?
~
Overall: 78 / 100
The release of “Like Money” marks the return of the Wonder Girls to the American market. While it is not the shining standout “Nobody” was, the song certainly has its own unique appeal with a strong showing of vocals, catchy choruses, and appearances by Akon. Throw in a neatly coloured music video and overall it’s got a nice vibe to it. The Wonder Girls have grown by leaps and bounds since the days of wanting “nobody, nobody but you” and I’ll be anticipating future releases from the girls.
No comments:
Post a Comment