[Review] 9MUSES - Glue

Now that finals are over, we’ll embark on “The 12 Days Before Christmas”, where I’ll be putting out reviews almost daily leading into the “Best Of 2013” series, which will end on Christmas Day. We’ll start with one of the more personally anticipated comebacks in 9MUSES

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Vocals: 9 / 10

“Glue” reminds me of “Gun” quite a lot, between the line distribution (as best as it could be for such a large group), quality work from the lead / main vocalists, and very strong synergy. The addition of a really solid bridge and extra vocal treats from Kyungri at the end help boost the score further. However, “Glue” isn’t getting the perfect score that “Gun” received. The main reasons are because “Glue” lacks in power, even despite the additional belting from Kyungri. The whole song sounds much softer, which is both positive given the nature of the girls’ voices but is also negative with the more harsh instrumentals. Sungah and Minha really step up in this song, while Sera and Kyungri are as good as ever.

Appearance: 9 / 10

Hyemi. Erin. Sungah. The three stood out way more than the others, while Hyuna, Kyungri, and Sera would comprise the “middle” of the pack. Minha also looks stunning, and Sem continues to be sort of a “baseline” for the group. She doesn’t really stand out, but she has this very basic style of beauty that is probably thanks to her fierce eyes and facial features. There are two “topics” that prevent this from being perfect. The first, is Eunji. While she’s absurdly skinny, I’m concerned about the hair. The pinned up style is gorgeous and extremely flattering, but the short hair let down in the other solo shot frames her face awkwardly. The second, as some friends have shared sentiments about, are the atrocious red outfits for the dance solo shots and the like. I don’t know why these red outfits happened, but they really shouldn’t have. I’d be willing to bet 9MUSES would’ve looked fantastic if they were wearing black or white throughout.

Dance: 7 / 10

Nothing really stands out in a positive or negative light regarding 9MUSES’ choreography. If that sounds familiar, it’s because I described the choreography of “Gun” and “Wild” that way, and the same continues to hold true for 9MUSES in “Glue”. There’s nothing wrong with having average choreography, considering the group’s strengths is in their vocalists and star rapper. That being said, 9MUSES did mix stuff around this time. They split the dancing at the chorus into two teams, which give both an illusion that there are some backup dancers on the stage and put the emphasis on the right half. The positioning during the rap sequences was also more custom and based on having a center fanning out in all directions. These little “tricks” made the dance look better than just your average Kpop dance, but it did hurt one of 9MUSES’ strongest dance skills: synchronization.

Rap: 6 / 10

This would have been perfect if it was Erin rapping alone, but while Eunji’s work in “Wild” was on par, her lines in “Glue” leave a lot to be desired. So much that Erin gets a perfect score for her half of the rapping whereas Eunji gets a single point. Erin seriously continues to impress and is en route to be the top girl group rapper for 2013, with enough sass, energy, and has the voice. It’s a shame Eunji got such terrible lines and mediocre execution. I would’ve liked to see Erin carry Eunji out of this terrible score, but I have to treat this the same way I did with the vocals in Sistar19’s “Gone Not Around Any Longer”.

Music Video: 5 / 10

This is a standard music video, which would have normally gotten extra points for the glorious eye candy (since that’s all the video is to begin with) but the red outfits and equally obnoxious background / box for the red outfit scenes bring the bonus back down. All that spinning around the solo shots though, made me feel a little dizzy.

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Overall: 72 / 100

While “Glue” was not the most impressive comeback, it’s still a solid release added to the long line of 2013 releases that 9MUSES has thrown out and will only continue to grow in popularity. With all this group work, I would be delighted to see some subunit appearances out of the group for 2014.