Review: aespa- Black Mamba
To be honest, SM seems out of ideas recently. First things first, they have been promoting aespa everywhere, as if they do not care about their other groups, or as if they exist only to promote aespa. They lost their most prominent trainees, and they debuted the group just when their previous girl group Red Velvet's member Irene was in the middle of controversies, making it look like they were trying to divert attention. It seems they have saved members for future comebacks and for attention. And DO NOT START ME ON THE WHOLE AI member idea!
Needless to say, I walked into this song with pretty low expectations. The goofy lyrics (we do not need lyrics explaining the AI concept) and the MV (which I found to be with a high budget, but lacking any ideas, the whole concept could be plagarised), did nothing to help. There was one good thing to look forward to though. Pre-debut clips showed that the members are pretty solid vocalists. Unfortunately, 'Black Mamba' does not give them the opportunity to show this, (though there is one really good high-note, my personal moment of the track) as it tries to be girl-crush and edgy, but in the end, it almost comes off as childish (especially the bratty "A-Yaya Yaya Yaya" hook, which is just immature).
This may sound like I hate the track, but I do not actually. As mentioned earlier, there is a great high-note near the end and the members use every second in the track as wisely as they can. And Yoo Young-Jin helps a lot. It is no secret that he is one of my favorite composers of all time, and his small production choices keep the track from falling apart, as well as giving the little push the track needs to stand out as much as it can.
In the end, while 'Black Mamba' does not fully use the girls' potential, but it actually is quite a solid debut and makes me want to see where the group goes next, as long as it does not double the whole AI thing. Oh, and I am embedding the SM stage version as the audio just simply is better due to the live vocals.
Absolutely, and SM is starting to apply the VOCAL PROCESSING? Whoops... not good. Well the song is OK. But it lacks. BAE173 and STAYC crushed the previous ROTY contenders, even DRIPPIN and aespa. Maybe we'll just see how the NIA reacts. But I can see there is a lot of push for ENHYPEN, BAE173, and STAYC. What do you think of other debuts? Maybe ENHYPEN, might fail me. (for the 1st time I've doubted like this on BH like before TXT debuted).
ReplyDeleteYa, vocal processing is killing K-Pop, just like it hurt western music. I just hope it ends soon...
Delete108Ent you'll be delighted! Listen and look at my TXT review! I was so happy TXT finally came back (although it is an OST) with such a quintessential song. In my critical opinion this is the best Pop record of the year: https://deforestedmusic.wordpress.com/2020/11/24/track-spotlight-your-light-txt/
ReplyDeleteThis is me I'm sorry I used another phone! I'm excited to hear your thoughts it is such a perfect piece! (That's my opinion tho, but if you find it generic it is understandable).
DeleteNice review! I liked the song, not sure if as much as you did, I guess it'll take a few listens for me to decide where it is, but it definitely is in the mid to upper 8s at the least :)
DeleteSo happy it is not drenched in vocal processing!!!!!!!!!! :)
Also have you heard of the news that TIME picked Back Door as the Top 10 Songs of 2020. Well I was absolutely correct on that with the Golden Tunes. The media really loves Stray Kids. Also that might push Back Door to win NIA Record of the Year but their main competitor is LGO/ON it just depends on how the NIA will react (21% of the members are from the media).
ReplyDeleteI saw and was surprised. I think western media has just realized there are more K-Pop groups than BTS for you to put in your end year lists. Pretty good prediction StillBangtan!
Delete"To be honest, SM seems out of ideas recently. First things first, they have been promoting aespa everywhere, as if they do not care about their other groups, or as if they exist only to promote aespa. They lost their most prominent trainees, and they debuted the group just when their previous girl group Red Velvet's member Irene was in the middle of controversies, making it look like they were trying to divert attention. It seems they have saved members for future comebacks and for attention. And DO NOT START ME ON THE WHOLE AI member idea!"...
ReplyDeleteWas it even necesary to talk about that? The AI member idea has actually nothing wrong...
Your judgement is out of topic and useless, can you just talk about the song pls? I really recommand you to read Kbopped reviews, because they are more objective than yours... I hope I was not rude, I am just being honest with you.
I actually read Kbopped quite a lot, Arpydarpy is one of my favorite K-Pop writers. I also comment on his site quite often :)
DeleteUsually the first paragraph of the review is used to set the stage and explain where I am coming from in my review. I would by lying to say I entered every song with neutral judgment, so I thought I needed to explain what my thoughts were coming into this release.
While I did find the whole AI member concept annoying and unneeded, there is no issue if you enjoy it.
After the first paragraph, I spend most of the remaining review talking about my thoughts on the song (solid vocals, goofy lyrics, failing to attain the mood being sought, and the positive Yoo Young-Jin influence).
Thank you for being honest in your thoughts :)
OK but it is just your interpretation right? Of course, they will promote aespa instead of the other groups, they are new, I don't understand what do you mean. As I said before, you just interpret the fact that maybe SM distract the attention of Irene's controversies with aespa. Maybe you are wrong. Again I don't understand. It is useless and you're propaging misinformation because you actually don't know the veracity of your opinion. And you are judging the AI concept without totally knowing it. The AI's members role is still unclear... So AGAIN I don't understand.
ReplyDeleteIt is funny because you didn't talk about the "cringey" lyrics of Dynamite in your review but you judge the aespa's lyrics. I don't want to say you are biased towards BTS, it is disrespectful so... bye.
Okay, okay, let us go a step back first.
DeleteI said in my 'about' page that pure objectivity is not a thing. I will have bias towards concepts and styles in music. But I actually have pro-SM bias. They got me into K-Pop with TVXQ and Super Junior, and I review them favorably (look at my Rising Sun, The Melody, Criminal, One [Infinity + Monster] review), not because I am biased, but because those are good songs.
I am not saying that SM purposely debuted a group during the Irene controversy. It is just that they chose the wrong time to debut, leaving a sort of bitter anticipation in my mouth as I was worried Red Velvet (a favorite of mine) would be replaced.
The AI concept has proven less annoying than I worried, but it influenced my thoughts before entering the song.
Finally, I found Dynamite's sing-song lyrics cringey, but since they were not trying to be edgy over there, I felt it worked fine (I even found myself singing the lines the other day).
I hope you understand what I mean.