Allow me to start off on a tangent: I don't consider junior groups (of the same company) to be "successors" of their seniors if the member count is mismatched. Twice isn't the successor to Wonder Girls, and neither are Cosmic Girls the successors to Sistar. The member difference is too extreme a factor - so for this argument, you can look at Black Pink as the successors to 2NE1, as well as EXO to Super Junior. Anyways, speaking of SuJu, Cosmic Girls (or WJSN) is Starship's newest group which is more a 3rd generation female remake of Super Junior than the next Sistar. Though outside of the 13 members to the Korean and Chinese nationalities on the team, the similarities stop there.
"Secret" is a song with a delicate aura. The instrumental definitely sounds like one from a fairytale or anime opening of sorts, which isn't really straying from the group's debut releases. It's still the group's best instrumental thus far, and there's something very peppy about the audio that makes you bob your head to the beat, and I for one always welcome something like that. The members of Cosmic Girls don't really impress in terms of their voices themselves, but I think they make a great unit collectively. There isn't a particular member that sounds ahead of the rest (even if the line distribution suggests otherwise) and having a unified sound is awesome with a group as big as they are. At the same time though, it's more difficult for anyone that isn't Exy to stand out.
The line distribution is as admirable as it gets, with Yeonjung carrying to bulk of vocals. For the most part, the rest of the lineup gets relatively brief but equal moments. There shouldn't be any complaining about line imbalances because with a group of this magnitude it's impossible to be fair to everyone. Because of the massive numbers, it's difficult to point out things in each member, but I will say that I really like the chorus. The way those notes flutter around is wonderful and if WJSN had previous songs with this style of chorus I'd likely be more invested in them by now. "Secret" by itself is nice, but is further amplified by the unified sound of WJSN and the lovely instrumental.
I think Exy got off to a slow start. "MoMoMo" and "Catch Me" featured forgettable raps by her, although those raps did showcase her speed. In "Secret" though, we get to see what she is truly capable of.
What's perhaps most impressive is that Starship created a 13 member group, but gave the entirety of a 16 second rap to Exy. There are many examples of split raps among smaller groups so it's nice to see Exy get all the rap time to herself, even if it costs a few members the chance to squeeze in a few extra seconds here and there. Besides, I don't think anyone on WJSN can hold a candle to Exy anyway, so it's a smart business decision to leave the rapping to her.
I believe that the setup of the choreography is polarizing, and I can't tell which side of the argument I prefer. Having members standing around on the periphery doesn't look flattering in full group shots and I'm often times lost in transitions as there are too many bodies to account for. There's a reason why the average group size is smaller than 13. However, sometimes having more is good, and breaking down the team into smaller units provides an excellent opportunity to show off some clever choreography and formation changes. I also liked how they slowly added members into the chorus moves in a branching out fashion. Honestly, if there were more larger groups since the early days of Super Junior I'm sure I wouldn't be as indecisive about the dance as I currently am. It's something new and unusual, that doesn't mean it's bad.
I'm not one to really watch or rewatch music videos in my spare time, but I gotta tip my hat to Starship on this one. This is a beautiful and enchanting MV. All these effects and camera angles make the video a work of art, without question. There's so much going on and it's...magnificent. I don't even care about the space theme and unicorns and whatever. Everything in this MV convinces you it is there for a reason: to make said MV look good. Using a planetary theme is also helpful in that it makes you believe all of WJSN could dance together and not feel crowded because 13 members is a lot of members. And an empty planet definitely has enough space for all of them. I did find it curious that a majority of the video was spent on showing the scenery but then opted back to lipsync shots, too. I figure you either commit 100% or not to having them worry about lipsyncing. It's just really odd to have a split. Then again, I can't recognize everyone yet so does it really matter?
This has been a busy year for Cosmic Girls, and they make the most out of "Secret." The instrumental is delightful and does a great job in setting the tone of the song, and the pretty vocals across the board certainly hold everything together. Choreography-wise Throw in a solid Exy rap for support and your traditional pop formula is set. all in all makes this song slightly good enough. But sometimes just good enough, is still good, and "Secret" works that way into my library.
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