[Review] AOA - Good Luck

AOA are on the verge of something historic. Since late 2013, they have released high-quality material and been on a run the likes of which no other girl group has seen. From "Confused" to "Heart Attack," this string has arguably eclipsed the best runs of other groups based on sheer number alone. But that's completely ignoring the greatness of "Miniskirt" and "Heart Attack," among others. "Good Luck" is AOA's opportunity to simultaneously chase after Girls' Generation for that #1 spot on the girl group ladder, and elevate themselves high enough above the other groups that they'd essentially be locked in at #2 at worst.

Alright, look. "Good Luck" is unquestionably a good song. It's similar to "Heart Attack" in that the chorus starts off the song. It's energetic, catchy, and has a pretty good instrumental to back it up. All of this is true, and a formula for success. However, something ominous lurks within the song, and that something causes problems and makes the song weaker than what it should be. And that ominous entity is the English. So what's wrong? For starters, there's simply too much bad English. There are songs that use a lot of good English well (BoA's "Kiss My Lips") and even those that use a lot of bad English well (Jessi's "Ssenunni") but this is one that uses a lot of bad English poorly. From the splattering of words everywhere to lyrics that don't make any sense (what does "I'm your lucky lucky" mean?), it's unfortunate to have a song like this ruined because there was potential here. In earlier drafts I wrote about three long paragraphs on the issues I had with the English but that was too much. Let this be a lesson learned that this much English used in this way doesn't produce good results for your track.

Also pretty disappointing is that the line distribution was fairly weak here. The splits between Choa and Yuna leave Chanmi, Mina, and even Jimin (to some extent) as afterthoughts. My gripes are somewhat counterbalanced by Choa herself, who puts in perhaps her best individual performance to date. She took part in the verses, chorus, and nearly everywhere else (at the expense of the other members' portions). She had some good vocal runs at the end of the song and long notes to bridge chorus and verse together. Maybe more importantly, she sounds comfortable within her normal range. Songs like "Heart Attack" and "Miniskirt" definitely had her reaching more into her head voice and while still pretty, is nowhere near as lovely as her regular lower voice, which strengthened (carried) "Confused" and "Short Hair." Choa, along with a few bright spots ("beat drop," good pronunciation) help ease the pain of the terrible English.

It's been a long time since we've had an AOA rap show up at the end of a song. Jimin usually muscles her way into the music after the first chorus, so during my first listen I kept wondering "when is Jimin showing up?" Jimin has also never had a rap entirely to herself in the contemporary era. Considering Chanmi got her chance at a solo rap in "I'm Jelly Baby" it only seems fair that Jimin gets her own. She has a rap of both decent length and quality, but Jimin suffers the most from the overabundance of English. Between the lines that don't make sense like "you boy go bow wow" and the horrific mispronunciation of "south god" that I thought was Japanese before looking at lyrics, Jimin has a tough time. Hopefully I stop harping on English soon, but Twice has consciously forced my hand to be more aware and scrutinizing of English in songs. Even with my English gripes, it's still not a bad rap by any stretch of the imagination and Jimin continues to do fairly well for herself.

The choreography of "Good Luck" follows in the footsteps of "Like A Cat" and "Heart Attack," in that it's visually pleasing but not overly extreme with the fanservice. This dance is probably better than "Short Hair?" Maybe even the best choreography we've seen since "Confused." Even though they took one break in "Heart Attack," AOA has quickly gone back to having a dance with butt focus again haha. This dance is simplistic in nature, leaving all the body waving for the chorus and other movements are small and position changes subtle. "Good Luck" is essentially a song to start the summer with, and this choreography shares that attribute. Easy to dance along to, and enough eye candy to meet the usual AOA standard.

After watching the video for the first time, the immediate thought that popped up in my head was: why is AOA on lifeguard duty at an uninhabited beach. There's literally nobody there, but they act like there's serious business going on and people actually need attending to. The next few thoughts were why can't I be on this beach so AOA can save me, and why couldn't this have been filmed similar to Sistar's "Loving U" with real people in the background? Sure, even in Sistar's MV only a portion of it had Sistar with or near people but still. Another MV that came to mind was Girls' Generation's "Party" because of the similarities. Both videos showcase the girls enjoying their time on an isolated beach, followed by partying it up indoors-ish (again by themselves) all dressed up fabulously.

This MV has locked down my top 3 AOA members. Hyejeong, Choa, and Seolhyun don't have to worry about anyone trying to usurp their spots. God bless Mina's wink, and thank you Hyejeong and Seolhyun for being perfect human beings. Hyejeong is still very much underrated for the general populace so hopefully this MV changes that at least a little. Let's talk about how cheesy the product placement was? Seolhyun literally drinks out of a Sprite bottle ten seconds in, and there's blatant shots of phones and shoes elsewhere. There are other curious bits in the MV, such as the girls reacting happily to a mysterious phone call (promotion perhaps?) and hilariously jumping for joy after Seolhyun did the difficult task of...plugging lights in. I did like the sunset shot towards the end, showing at least something that came out of the choice of location. All in all a video with more substance than "Miniskirt" or "Confused," but lacks a thin or even confusing plot like "Heart Attack" or "Like A Cat."

In AOA's contemporary era, "Good Luck" falls into the bottom half of the set. I'd give the song the advantage over "Short Hair" and "Like A Cat," but even then I'm hesitant as to how much better. The other trio ("Miniskirt," "Confused," "Heart Attack") are far more complete and the gap between "Heart Attack" and "Good Luck" is alarming. The question thus, becomes quantity over quality. When you consider the group landscape and that staying power is so key, I'd make the argument that a handful of decent quality songs bests a few high quality songs. "Good Luck" was a good effort that unfortunately tripped over itself with bad English lessons.