[Review] Secret - I'm In Love

Secret is back, and after Hyosung’s decent “Goodnight Kiss” we are graced with “I’m In Love”, complete with English intro by Hyosung. Secret continues to bounce back and forth between aegyo and mature, and “I’m In Love” was poised to deliver the latter.

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Vocals: 9 / 10

Secret (read: Jieun) is just divine. Alright to be fair Hyosung is a really good compliment voice to Jieun, and Hana has shown she can pull her weight since the days of “Poison” and “Talk That”. Poor Sunhwa though, poor girl is more Dasom than Dasom was in “Touch My Body”. If anything, Secret’s vocal composition has never really been kind to her, oh well. Back to Jieun though, this girl is pretty much perfect. She has a very clean voice but can always reach for those high notes to make you shiver. I’d love to give this song a perfect score for vocals but the bridge just doesn’t work for me. The tempo change is too sudden and doesn’t blend with the rest of the song. Coincidentally, I think the bridge in Hyosung’s “Goodnight Kiss” meshes better with this song.

Dance: 7 / 10

Meh. Some parts of the dance were better than others. The more graceful lying down on the ground and some of the shifting around positions was pretty good but most of the other movements seemed erratic and not well focused. Maybe I’m just lying to myself but I have yet to watch the dance practice video so I may be completely wrong.

Rap: 8 / 10

Hana is a staple in the top 10 of girl group rappers, so I was quite disappointed in the rap for a few main reasons. The first is that, like the bridge, the tempo was slower than the more frantic pace of the rest of the song. Second, it was way shorter than anything could do her justice. Last, the rap seemed pretty tame and Hana is capable of fantastic ferocity in her raps. Not so much a swing and a miss as it was an awkward hit to the side.

Music Video: 6 / 10

I have committed to giving a score of 6 for any stereotypical video (which includes boxes, solo shots, fanservice, etc.) and adding or subtracting from there based on stuff like outfits, appearance, etc. Speaking of, the girls look great. Not a fan of Hyosung’s bangs (didn’t really work in “Love Is Move” either), but everything else is genuine eye candy. Hana is probably my favourite visual out of the group, and has been since “Poison”. Anyway there isn’t much to be said about the video besides Secret being smirky and emotional. How lame.

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Overall: 76 / 100

Secret comes back with vengeance, striking hard with a mature and sexy sound in “I’m In Love”. While not the superstar that “Love Is Move” was, it can remind us of how a consistent sound and Jieun’s incredible vocals really really help Secret when they’re being serious. …please no more aegyo stuff. Secret syndrome has existed for too long.