[Review] Sistar19 - Gone Not Around Any Longer (Revisited)

The fact that Sistar19 only ever released two songs is depressing. "Ma Boy" was sensational with audio and choreography, so the sophomore release had a lot of expectations. "Gone Not Around Any Longer" was quite a mouthful of an English title, considering how short and to-the-point the Korean title is. Let's see what my thoughts were on it from seven years ago, and how the song holds up nowadays. This review was during the 2nd season of my blog so each aspect of the song was compartmentalized. If this revisit comes off a little choppy, that's why.

• Yeah, I’m giving Hyorin 5 (read: not 10) points in vocals. You know why? Because of that fourth word: Hyorin. She is everything and everything in this song and by everything I mean Bora has no lines sung for three plus minutes. At least she got something in “Ma Boy”. Yes, Hyorin sounds absolutely divine. Yes, her high notes are fancy, pretty, and charming. Yes, the variation work is quite lovely if but a little awkward structure for the ending. But that’s all Hyorin, no Bora. 

I still stand by how annoying this was. Yes, me being a huge Bora fanboy (especially during those days) factored in but you can't tell me that this shit was fair. Considering groups in the current age still have line distribution woes, it's unacceptable that a duo had one member with all of the singing lines. If instead of calling this a Sistar19 release Starship had labeled this Hyorin featuring Bora then it'd be less obnoxious.

• “Sistar19 comes to your house and wipes your desk with their butts.” I wonder if a Sistar choreography will ever not include their butts as the focus haha.

Years later and butts were still the emphasis in Sistar's dance routines. Songs like "Shake It" and "I Like That" certainly did not shy away from the booty. Perhaps Sistar invented butt dances during this time period.

•  The use of backup dancers was interesting, and so were their outfits. They did not receive the luxury of benches though, probably to keep the highlight on Hyori—er, Sistar19.

In the linked live performance you can see what I mean about the backup dancers' outfits. Fake blindfolding them adds...something to the atmosphere of the stage. What exactly, I'm not sure. This was something we saw a few years later with f(x)'s "4 Walls" and both times I was confused.

• Oh, the rant about disproportionate distribution continues here. Bora comes in after the chorus to rap. It’s a fine rap, you say. She isn’t the best rapper so this was good enough, you say. I can agree to those points, but the later half of the rap is what pisses me off. Bora’s indeed still rapping, but can you even hear her soft low voice when Hyorin is “lightly” harmonizing to make the rap singing combo? If the whole rap was 50% of the song (which it wasn’t), Bora only actually got 25%. Since the rap was about 25 seconds, Bora had 15 of them. For the entire song. She even had to rap in a blank room for crying out loud.

Damn, even in 2013 I was spitting truths out. Seriously, many fans were rightfully upset at how unbalanced everything was in "Gone Not Around Any Longer." Bora couldn't get her brief moment in the spotlight. #JusticeForBora

• It’s just run of the mill standards for the music video. It’s the first time I’ve seen a Kpop idol stand on top of a piano though, so yay?

Surprise surprise, music videos from years past were still just as boring as they are now. Though in this special instance (as seen above), they legitimately got blank rooms. 

• This song is absolutely pleasant to listen to, yes. There is no denying that. However, the distribution of lines was pathetic and Bora is nothing more than a backup dancer with a miniscule moment and lots of close ups. The structure of the song, with the dance bridge in accompaniment also didn’t help, leaving Bora’s rap a mere afterthought. The song title should really have been called “Hyorin (feat. Bora) - Gone Not Around Any Longer” but I guess that’d be a really lengthy title.

Ah there's the part about changing the artist label to Hyorin feat. Bora. And as mentioned both then and now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with "Gone Not Around Any Longer" from a musical standpoint. It's just that when you have a subunit, you'd expect all parties involved to get a decent amount of screentime. That wasn't the case. The audio remains gorgeous and a great listen on a rainy somber day. It's just knowing how little Bora receives in this song makes me (ir)rationally angry whenever it comes up.