The beginning of "Hate" is absolutely beautiful. Graceful piano in the background really suits Gayoon and her powerful vocals well. Hyuna and Jihyun(!) take over from the opening sequence and both do admirably well. Hell, just the fact that Jihyun is already singing means it's 75% less likely of "Hate" has a really awkward bridge! Jiyoon's rap is pretty chill, if uninspiring. For the first time in a while, Hyuna's part has overshadowed / impressed more than Jiyoon's part. It's not a shame, just something that Jiyoon usually wins. Given the state of the chorus (we'll get to that later), this song has incredible line distribution. Each member essentially had main parts across the entire song, with Sohyun getting the weakest part. Her prechorus does the job of building into the chorus, but admittedly that shout (scream?) at the end has to go. Gayoon's version of the prechorus is so much better since she sings the high note and there's less distortion. This bridge rocks. End of story. The piano from the start of the song comes back, and Hyuna adds her smooth vocals (something we don't hear very often) as the instrumentals transition into something more frantic to go into the final chorus. Even if the choruses were lackluster, the bridge deserves even more credit and praise.
The only thing to hate about "Hate" is really the chorus, and using hate there is quite strong (maybe too strong, even). The brass instruments are distracting and loud, and they easily overrun the audio. The chorus is very basic in structure and there's not a lot of singing or shouting going on. Using those trumpets makes them more noticeable. Second, while I don't listen to Skrillex, I get the feeling that deep loud trumpets aren't really his signature style. "Hate" would have benefited from something more electronic, or even just a continuation of the instrumental from the rest of the song, because that certainly wasn't disappointing.
"Hate" is very much the sister of "Crazy" in terms of the music video. For the most part, we have simple rooms for the girls and backup dancers that are so very boring. We do get some diversity thrown in this time around, with Gayoon's wedding simulation at the beginning, and some miscellaneous shots of Hyuna and Jihyun out in the middle of nowhere looking pretty. Gayoon continues to get the "weird edits" section of the MV, just watch her and you'll know what I'm talking about. And is that Jiyoon...smoking? That ain't a good message. All in all a standard MV.
While "Hate" may not be the superstar that "Crazy" was, it's still an addicting song that has but a single weakness in the chorus (and even then it's not that bad). This song is still comfortably better than a plethora of other 4minute titles, and in the grand scheme of things is probably the group's #3 song since debut. Wouldn't say I'm excited, but definitely pleased with how "Hate" turned out.
[ Overall: 85 / 100 ]
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