[Review] LOONA - So What

With three weeks of digestion, it's now time to look at one of the most anticipated comebacks of not only 2020, but for girl groups of the last few years. LOONA have been gaining all of the momentum and hype after releasing "Butterfly," and despite Haseul being sidelined, I'm still ready. The last time I was this excited about a girl group was probably when 9MUSES returned after losing Eunji, Sem, and Sera. If you aren't keeping track, that was a long time ago. Let us continue the February onslaught with more reviews.

There's something...off about the whole track. It all started with that cringe English commentary, which Kpop definitely does not need any more of. The whole song structure is like some Itzy and Black Pink fusion with a mix of older 4minute thrown in. There's a lot of one-liners and random "rap" quips from start to finish and it's not really that smooth to listen to. Most of LOONA are not suited for rapping, and they decided to have almost everyone take part. Jinsoul and maybe Olivia should be the only members rapping so spreading the love in this regard is not ideal in my opinion. Such a combination of things makes "So What" feel clunky: the chorus is powerful and drives the song but paired with all the throwaway lines makes it feel super messy. I'd be willing to be around 40-50% of the track was spoken rather than sung, which isn't a good ratio for any group much less one with only one decent rapper.

On a positive side, the bridge is absolutely gorgeous (despite some more chants). Kim Lip leads a few members in a brilliant transition and it's a damn shame the rest of "So What" could've sounded like this but didn't. The music videos from Blockberry continue to be high-budget and high-quality. The transition at 1:21 is sick, as are a few others throughout the MV. They continue to incorporate a variety of backup actors and dancers into the mix which is cool.

It seems the dangerous pitfall of having a superstar track such as "Butterfly" comes up again, as "So What" fails to recapture some of that magic. Outside of the bridge, there wasn't anything in particular that got me hooked. The large number of quips and rapping ruins the experience for me and a strong chorus and even stronger bridge isn't quite enough to salvage the situation. "So What" simply reminds me too much of some other girl groups like Itzy with their attraction to one-liners. Perhaps the absence of Haseul made a much larger impact than originally thought. Better luck next time.