[Review] Girls' Generation - Run Devil Run (Throwback)

Well things have certainly been...existing. The other day a couple old SNSD songs showed up on shuffle, and I thought "hey why not look at some of their classics?" And here we are. "Run Devil Run" has aged pretty well all things considered. Originally sung by Ke$ha (does she still exist?), SNSD brought this out of the mire way back in 2010. To add to the excitement, this was released shortly after "Oh!" popped off and there was the mysterious teaser at the end of their video.

Holy shit everyone looks so good in this MV. One could argue that this was the most balanced Girls' Generation ever was in terms of visuals across the board. Sunny's eyes were piercing, Sooyoung's short cut continued to be chic, and Jessica rocked that blonde and black mix. Then you have staples like Yuri and Taeyeon. The only real loser is Yoona, whose facial structure doesn't hold up with bangs like that. Anyway enough about appearances. The beat is simple and really all you need when the chorus features subtle yet strong harmonization between the roster.

Can we take a moment to appreciate Seohyun's enunciation? It's so clean! As to be expected from such a proper girl. Unironically, this may have been a reason I loved her so much during my early fanboy days. Yuri and Sunny do solid jobs at being the baseline, then the vocal stalwarts like Taeyeon, Jessica, and Tiffany do their usual thing. Keep in mind this was only three years into their careers but they were already a force to be reckoned with.

What wasn't and still isn't a force to be reckoned with is any attempt by SNSD to rap. God it's so fucking bad. Doesn't matter who it is, all attempts have ended in failure. Each moment is brief in "Run Devil Run" but not brief enough, as all parts could've edited out and the song would've been better off with silence replacing it. Sooyoung, Hyoyeon, etc. try but yeah no. The saddest part is - as we'd all come to know - their "best" (and I'm using that term so loosely here) rapper ends up being Tiffany. Then again this is SM we're talking about, who have yet to find their standout female rapper... Maybe their next group will do it?

All in all, "Run Devil Run" served its purpose as a remake, bridging the gap between younger SNSD and the peak SNSD we'd see in the next few years. The song still holds up, and to this day remains one of my more favorite releases in their extensive history. Darker and more mature Girls' Generation was the best. On the managerial side of things, I like the idea of having (at least) three reviews a month: a current song, a throwback, and a revisit. It provides a distinct balance between looking at old and new song, plus a retrospective. Coronavirus slowed down my pace over the last month plus, let's see if I can still meet my goals at the end of the year.

...if we're all still alive by then.