[Review] Hyorin - One Way Love

Vocals: 10 / 10

Like “Lonely”, Hyorin is divine in this piece. And also like “Lonely”, there is a plethora of strong synergy between the verse structure, airy prechorus, ridiculsouly high ranged chorus, and belting at the end. Hyorin sings all of that and more. This song screams “Sistar” instead of “Hyorin” but I’ll talk about that while wrapping this review up.

Dance: 8 / 10

I don’t remember on which show, but Hyorin said somewhere that the whole “crab dance” made her uncomfortable and awkward, etc. She also said she went under plenty of criticism, and I’m gonna have to pile on. It doesn’t only look awkward, but it’s used in rather random parts throughout the song. Usually the “signature” moves of a choreography tend to be during the chorus. However, I’m still going to give Hyorin strong scoring here because the dances in Sistar and Sistar19 tend to be very sensual rather than straight up sexy, and not only that Hyorin debuting as a soloist

Rap: 10 / 10

Hyorin. Is. Fierce. Maybe fierce isn’t the right word, but perhaps sassy? It’s a very soft but fast rap, which I didn’t expect all too much until she dropped the “Let’s go” and was like “Oh damn Hyorin is about to rap!” and then the rap was pleasant and quickly over…just like most of Bora’s raps in Sistar’s music. She even layers over her own rap with her light vocals towards the latter portions, too. It’s actually ridiculous Hyorin pulled this off so fluidly.

Music Video: 8 / 10

Fabulous. I’m talking about Hyorin’s appearance, anyway. The video has all sorts of relationship drama and emotion that you’d expect, so good marks off that. The distinction between the bright white happy experiences of the past contrasted with the dark black difficult present was a pleasant touch that we’ve seen in previous Sistar videos (most notable in “Gone Not Around Any Longer”). The use of a brand new primary set with limited backup dancers during the rap also caught my eye and was nice to see. Maybe I’m spoiling Hyorin by giving her such a good score here, but her attractiveness plus the specific qualities of the video fight back.

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Overall: 90 / 100

Perhaps even moreso than “Lonely”, I find myself replaying “One Way Love” every so often. While reviewed, a fantastic song, it’s concerning when Hyorin takes an entire “Sistar-esque” song and essentially outperforms every groupmate. I pictured it this way: if this was a Sistar song, Soyu could easily take the prechorus with her breathy vocals, Dasom could either have a verse or the soft background support vocals during the second verse, and Bora very obviously would’ve had the rap. 2013 was a very good year for Sistar, especially with Hyorin’s solo debut, I hope the other members get some love too, however, otherwise Hyorin could very well steal the spotlight away from them for good.