March 15, 2016

[Review] FIESTAR - Mirror

FIESTAR join the girl group fray with their comeback since "You're Pitiful." This is a key release in the group's development. After the success of "You're Pitiful," they need to keep the momentum in their favor. Yezi is responsible for a huge portion of their potential. She impressed the world on Unpretty Rapstar, and her solo debut has some excellent material. Will she be able to carry them to greater heights?

I'm not sure if this is just me, but the instrumental slaps you across the face with similar key notes to "You're Pitiful." While not as delicate, they are used more aggressively but eventually after enough listens I can't really hear the comparisons anymore. Anyway "Mirror" is very much the daughter of "You're Pitiful." From the sombre overtones, soft singing, and the visual styles of the MV, definitely pays homage to FIESTAR's best song to date. But the offspring song varies in significant aspects.

Let's talk line distribution. Jei is the poster child of FIESTAR for sure, but the amount at which she overshadowed the other members was kind of ridiculous. Thankfully, "Mirror" is much kinder to everyone else given the rather inexcusable distributions of songs past. At least, more specifically, Cao Lu isn't left with nothing anymore, which is always a step in the right direction. The members all seem to match each other in vocal output, too (I consider this a good thing even if Linzy's skills aren't fully used). This chorus is definitely the highlight of the song, with her and Hyemi's crystal clear voices ringing evenly against the instrumental. The bridge is nothing to write home about, but it's nice to see that the final chorus was split between everyone (except Yezi). Speaking of, Yezi gets adequate (appropriate) time in the spotlight in this track. She has a lengthy rap in each verse, though she doesn't show up anywhere else. I really liked how she was used in the last chorus of "You're Pitiful," adding another layer to the singing with her rap and was hoping it'd make another appearance here, but oh well.

The MV gives me "Black Swan" vibes, which is to say, simple sets used to show off the girls being sad, while being coupled with choreography shots for eye candy. They're trapped in a house of mirrors, looking gorgeous the whole while. Not much else to say. The choreography is also subtle and seductive. Nothing too flashy, but not to the point where it's boring, either. While there aren't any chairs, jackets, or male backup dancers this time around, "Mirror" provides a more simplistic visual in terms of the dancing, which is appropriate given the nature of the song.

"Mirror" is to "You're Pitiful" as EXID's "Ah Yeah" was to "Up & Down." The backbone was unchanged and both songs are clear winners. However, unlike "Ah Yeah," I'm not sold if "Mirror" is better than the predecessor. Visually speaking, it is, because Jei doesn't have 80% of the video content, and I like the more simple dance better. But vocally speaking, it's not as interesting (especially the bridge), and while Yezi's double rap is good, both combined don't measure up to the quality in "You're Pitiful." In the end though, it's a good song that feeds off what made "You're Pitiful" so great, and that's worth applauding any day.

[ Overall: 85 / 100 ]

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