[Review] miss A - Only You (Revisited)

Since I don't want to write anything about the recent news regarding YG Entertainment (where would I even begin such a post), it's time for another edition of reviewing a review. I'll try doing these more often, but within reason. My initial blueprint is to have at least two new and two revisited reviews a month.

• Musically, this song is an intermediate between past releases of "Hush" and "I Don't Need A Man." It's not nearly as intense as "Hush" was in terms of the instrumental and sound but isn't as cute and quirky as "I Don't Need A Man" either. Whether or not this is a nice medium between those songs remains to be seen, I'll have to listen some more before I form an opinion.

After all this time, I still like all three songs mentioned. The question is in what order. "Hush" is definitely first because it's more mature and has that girl crush energy so many newer groups lack. "I Don't Need A Man" is really fun and right up miss A's quirky attitude alley, and if I was in a neutral mood, I'd want to listen to "I Don't Need A Man." more than "Only You" because the former is sassy fun while the latter is more tame and mellow.

• This and the combination of not having a rap was questionable, since Jia is a potent rapper and the song definitely could have used a little more punch. Taking the rest of the song into account, Jia probably could have had a rap inserted into the song somewhere, but I appreciate that she was given part of the bridge to sing, since she would have been underrepresented otherwise without a rap segment.

Something miss A have always done well in was line distribution. Jia has shown to be competent in both the singing and rapping arts so even when she wasn't rapping JYP didn't leave her in the corner. I still believe "Only You" needed a spark of excitement which a Jia rap would have provided. Any group that has a solid rapper should always look to use them - it helps set further apart from the mediocrity of their competition.

• Don't get me wrong, miss A still sounds very good as individuals and together. They may not have their own "Eunji" or "Taeyeon" but Min does a good job leading the pack. Suzy and the rest have nice support vocals. I wonder how many times I've said this about this group. It's a bad sign, since it means that their music never does anything extraordinary, and that this has been a recurring formula for whatever reason. The last time I thoroughly enjoyed a miss A song (concerning vocals) was probably "Goodbye Baby." That was a long time ago.

This section describes any non-debut miss A song. And it certainly was a bad sign since the evolution of their music didn't get very far. I was too generous saying they were all very good at singing but they could all be viable as secondary vocalists in almost any other girl group. Even though I do love "Goodbye Baby," nothing in that song is spectacular in terms of vocals either. Just the youngster fanboy in me typing those words with my heart and not my head.

• Now I am a man that can appreciate some pink, but was a little too much, that or the outfits just weren't that good to begin with. Perhaps the outfits also contributed to my lack of impression on the choreography, which seemed rather bland.

A constant over the years is my tastes of the color pink but yeah, the stylists got a little too excited this time around. Bringing up miss A's choreography was a good point I've overlooked over the years because outside of some novelty moments in "Bad Girl Good Girl" (and "Hush" to a lesser extent) they've never made a huge statement with their dancing. Makes me wonder why my old dance crew covered a couple of their songs.

• At the end of the day, I'm rather disappointed in "Only You." The vocals are average at best and nothing really helps drive the song. The video and the numerous scene changes are nice, but the creeper creeping on the girls is rather awkward and the part where they dance at the creeper is even more awkward. There's nothing impressive in the choreography and Jia misses out on a chance to impress, even having a mediocre rap a la Woori in "Black Swan" might have been better than nothing at all.

When I was dancing in college, I had a rule that I need to add any song my crew was performing into my library. Thus I have some...curious selections on my iPod. Upon further review, I deem "Only You" not worthy and may banish it from the collection. Oh perhaps a Best Of miss A is in order...