July 25, 2014

[Review] Girl's Day - Darling


Girl’s Day is certainly in the limelight. After landing on my radar just last year, they’ve catapaulted themselves forward with solid title track after title track. When news of this summer release being a return to their roots, that being aegyo, I worried I wouldn’t like the backtracking. Boy was I wrong.
Vocals: 9 / 10
When I first discovered the group in “Expectation”, I thought Minah wasn’t all she was hyped to be and that the other members were still good in comparison. “Something” pulled me away from this opinion and “Darling” rather cements it. Minah is really good. Sojin could pretty much only stand on the sidelines this time around, with the chorus’ range possibly being one of the highest ever. Minah continues to be the strongest with excellent delivery and beautiful high notes at the song’s conclusion. Line distribution, however, is still a weak point of Girl’s Day. Yura and Hyeri have shown us tme and time again that they have the capable support voices but just aren’t ever given enough time to prove so. This is made harder by the extremely high ranges of “Darling”, some of which even Minah is clearly reaching for. All in all though, a graceful synchronized sound carried by Minah.
Dance: 8 / 10
Girl’s Day have discovered the jackpot blend of sexy and cute for choreography. No one with a right mind can argue that the 4 girls shaking their butts at the camera is overly sexual, and it’s just damn cute. Something new this time around was the use of male backup dancers, like the lucky men who got to carry Sojin! But besides that, standard choreography for Girl’s Day or any girl group, to be completely honest.
Music Video: 10 / 10
Girl’s Day. Summer fun. Music video. I could stop writing here. But write on I will. Much like the dance, Girl’s Day grabs the elusive sweet spot of blending cute and sexy together flawlessly. For starters, the outfits were perfect. At least, the white and red dresses were pristine. I was not convinced by the yellow and white tube dresses (I have no idea if that’s what they’re called but whatever) though. The rest of the video is pure fun. Enjoying the free time by baking cupakes, getting ready, throwing darts, etc. etc. Put simply, the BTS could be just a free party film of sorts.
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Overall: 94 / 100
On paper, “Darling” isn’t something extraordinary. Routine carrying from Minah with loveable Sojin support. A dance that is both cute and sexy, and never weighs down too far on either spectrum, all wrapped together in a delightfully fun music video. Yet, this score speaks for itself, in that it’s outstanding. Girl’s Day show us that despite the sexy releases of 2013 on, they still have the cute and quirky qualities the aegyo songs of older years past.

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