[Review] EXID - Every Night (Throwback)

The retro series is pretty much nonexistent on my blog. I wanted to use the retro tag for songs that have long been out of the spotlight, or even old songs that were never really appreciated. The only other song on my blog that's tagged retro is Psy's "Right Now," which I reviewed alongside "Gangnam Style" during that past time. It's only appropriate I take a look back for EXID, who have risen to great heights with the help of "Up & Down."

"Every Night" has all the right elements of a solid release. The rapping from LE is excellent (more on that later) and kept in check by the superb vocals in the chorus. The support vocals and instrumental also have good teamwork, the latter doesn't take away from the singing while the former is good enough to bridge the main points of the song: the rap and chorus.

An excerpt on LE: I'll try not to dive too much into her here as I have to write about her in the Girl Group Rapper Power Rankings, but she is really good here. Hani and her fancam may have brought them to fame but LE was probably the standout member from the start, even before superstardom. LE's rapping in "Every Night" is commanding but doesn't overrun the song in any way, something that tends to happen with other key rappers like CL and even Yubin. I'm not convinced that she says "booty call" in her opening rap though, I always thought the words were "pretty cold" before I looked up lyrics so it's been hard trying to convince myself those aren't the lyrics.

Solji is exceptional. I'm going to be making a Girl Group Vocalist Power Ranking sometime this month as well, and I can already tell Solji will have a high placing. She has a lot of soul and power behind her voice, and is the driving force behind the choruses in "Every Night" and "Up & Down." The amount of work she does here, especially towards the end of the song is incredible.

The video is interesting to say the least. The gas masks are pretty creepy admittedly, and the actors and actresses do a good job playing their part(s). However, I'm not exactly sure why we needed slow motion close-ups of them spewing liquids from their mouths. If that was added with intention to be funny, they fell quite short. Everyone in EXID looks great, with Junghwa and (of course) Hani in the lead.

All in all, "Every Night" has every right to have been the song which launched EXID's career but the remake apparently continued to fly under the radar. Explosive vocals from Solji coupled with dynamic rapping from LE make for a strong combination, and with EXID's visuals and a gloomy video as backup they scored high in all the right places. Here's to more magic out of this group in 2015.

[ Overall: 90 / 100 ]