Vocals: 9 / 10
Has T-Ara always been this synchronized in sound? Perhaps it was the melody of the verses and such, but every member’s voice flows pretty well into the next, making it really enjoyable to listen to. Jiyeon’s high notes during the bridge were also not strained. It was interesting that Soyeon didn’t take some of those high notes but I guess having Soyeon sing the chorus makes more sense. Speaking of, all the high notes and belts were well executed overall. Maybe it’s just me but it has been quite some time since I’ve heard a good belt that not only sounded good but meshed with the chorus, and the work at the end of this song is excellent. The bridge also adds a nice crescendo and Soyeon doesn’t disappoint. What does, however, is the unnecessary use of the prechorus’ half-muffled half-robotic “Number nine”, which should’ve been omitted completely.
Appearance: 8 / 10
Hyomin and Eunjung continue to be flawless. Boram and Soyeon look good, but I don’t think the hairstyles they had did enough for them. As far as Qri goes, that shade of red doesn’t work well for her, and makes her look weird and stand out amongst the other members who have darker colours. Speaking of colours, the outfits during the red box were probably the best. Eunjung and Jiyeon look amazing, but in their solo shots with the zebra stripes? Questionable. Outside of the red box clothes and zebra clothes though they looked great all around.
Dance: 8 / 10
The dance also was equally as appealing as the girls’ looks for the most part. The mixture between individual moves and synchronized choreography was of a good balance, and while they were no dance breaks or such, Jiyeon’s parts during the prechorus almost gave the feeling of a dance solo anyway. While having said all that about the dance being good, I felt there could have been some more energy and or power, given the heavy instrumentals of the song.
Rap: 3 / 10
No, no, no, no. There is anything and everything wrong with this rap. What is Hyomin saying? “I’m addict”? “I’m adding”? “I’m headache”? Even ignoring the terrible English, the rap was mediocre at best, with the weird muffled background voices backing Hyomin up. As far as songs like this go, I feel this could’ve been fine without a rap segment (similar to f(x)’s “Electric Shock”) but they just had to add this one in, and definitely a regrettable decision. Considering just how good the vocals were in this song, the rap is a serious letdown and disappointment.
Music Video: 6 / 10
From now on, any stereotypical boring box MV will get a score of 4, and then I’ll add or subtract additional points from there based on various things like eye candy, additional versions, etc. So with that said, this score gets a 6 because of the extra eye candy in both the regular music video and then the second music video, which was shot in Mongolia. Since there was no sort of drama version, and of course being the stereotypical MV that it is, there’s no plot or interaction at all. I did find the intro / first fifteen seconds a little strange, since it’s only Eunjung singing notes with no real substance and is more structured towards a ballad (or at least a softer song) but then cuts (despite the instrumental buildup) right to the “wub wub wub” intro of the song.
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Overall: 68 / 100
While the song is very good, the score doesn’t quite reflect that. Primarily because the unneeded rap was so bad, and because the music video didn’t provide much either. If you only looked at vocals, dance, and appearance, the score would be 25 / 30. Which is a shame, since these aspects were executed so well, but the remaining two weren’t. We’ll be hard pressed to find more solid releases with quality scores in all fields. T-Ara put out a good effort but couldn’t quite make things happen.
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