Review: Everglow - Pirate
With a genre like idol K-Pop, a good deal of the charm and appeal comes from a sense of idiosyncratic appeal, and camp. While some artists and groups like TVXQ and H.O.T used this larger-than-life appeal to provide strong lyrics, great concepts, and deep meanings. On the other hand, some groups, especially in modern times, have dug deep into their trenches, to succeed in their camp. Everglow is one of those groups which seems to actually know what they are doing. First stood on-trend with its drop beat and stylistic imagery, but stood out with a charismatic performance. Dun Dun was underwhelming conceptually and lyrically, but succeeds with the sheer tenacity of the producers to invest in its ridiculousness.
Of course, with last year's La Di Da, the cheesy synth-pop song was released to intense acclaim, making it into Billboard, TheBiasList, and many other ' best K-Pop of the year' lists, with its dramatic and fun rebuttal to haters, and its appealing synthwave beat. Now, with Pirate, Everglow prove that they can do the same thing with an EDM empowerment anthem.
The first few moments of Pirate are utterly confusing. The song drops from one overblown moment to another without any breathing room. It is really messy, with a short verse, some onomatopoeia, the post-chorus, and a full verse all following one another. Soon, things clear up for the airy pre-chorus. The instrumental here is neat and clean, with an EDM build not too different from early western pop in the 2010s, such as Zedd.
Just like aespa's Savage, another recent idol EDM track, the pre-chorus seamlessly merges into the chorus. The refrains centralize with the percussion opting for a building beat over the powerful EDM beat. With things climaxing, one might expect an anti-drop, as with aespa's Savage, but Everglow's composers pull their trump card out. The song pauses to build anticipation, before returning to the post-chorus refrain, now with some extra pounding sinister electro-bass. Hilariously, the group knows we expect an anti-drop, pausing for a few seconds to raise expectations, before the 'pirate' post-chorus attacks.
Other than this three-part centerpiece at the track's heart, the song ends up a little awkwardly placed, with the minor key verses failing to capture the adventurous sci-fi epic at the chorus' heart. The middle-8 is an outright error, slowing the song to half-time, just as the track promised not to. Not all surprises are bad, however, Ollipop and company know how to return to an established chorus, always knowing what new twist, however small, to make the chorus work.
The lyrics are strange, to say the least. Billed as an empowerment anthem, the song guises itself as a pirate anthem. This results in a few cringe moments, with a 'shiver me timbers' line in the second verse. However, Everglow have a long history of showing strong concepts with cheesy lyrics (See: La Di Da), so this is not as off-putting as it should be.
Pirate is not perfect, it suffers from more flaws than most tracks even, but the three-part centerpiece is worth strong praise, and continues to set up Everglow as one of the most promising 4th generation K-Pop idol girl groups.
I'm sure you know how i feel about this song lol. For me, the instrumental is so strong and so in sync with everything i enjoy about electronic music that the cringeworthy lyrics don't even bother me. My biggest critique isn't even about the song itself, it's the line distribution!
ReplyDeleteHaha, it isn't exactly a secret how much you love this track! Don't blame you, I already really liked it, and the chorus is growing on me quite a bit, despite it already being my favorite part.
DeleteYeah, the line distribution for Everglow always frustrates me. My personal favorite vocal tone in the group is actually from Onda, her getting cornered into a few lines at best, and nothing at worst, it is quite annoying.
Btw, your new track Galaxy is really good! I don't think I'll review it (really busy), but it definitely is worth playlisting!
Yeah, i wish Onda had more lines. She has such a sweet voice and i'm not sure why they don't utilise it as much.
DeleteThanks for listening to 'Galaxy'! No worries if you don't review it, i'm just glad u enjoyed it :)
I guess agency-favoritism, that makes the most sense.
DeleteGalaxy is quite a jam!
It's supposed to be the perfect party edm track but this song is aching for a real chorus after that fantastic prechorus. I don't mind the "I'm a pirate" hook if it's used in a way like Miroh's "wooaah wooaah oh higher jeo wireo gallae". After that great prechorus, it needed an amazing release and "I'm a pirate" as a chorus brings down the momentum for me and never fully goes up how i want it. The rating is about right.
ReplyDeleteI saw this with Savage and this track, there seems to be dispute over what is the pre-chorus, chorus, and post-chorus. For Savage, I think the chorus starts with "I'm a Savage", while others say it starts with "Gimme gimme now". In this song, I say the chorus starts with "All the way", while others say it starts with "I'm a Pirate". I guess it is a sign that the typical structure is altering a bit, with the three-part centerpiece replacing a chorus surrounded by the pre-and-post choruses.
DeleteBut yeah, Miroh knew what to do with its hooks.
Yes for me the chorus is the time when there's an after-release feel from all those building up. For me in this song, it's the "I'm a pirate" and for Savage it's "gimme gimme now". The current pop trend likes to pull back from all the prechorus buildups for a more minimalistic feel. Savage's approach is more like an anti-drop chorus which is similar to Blackpink's Whistle. A drop chorus would be something like JustB Damage because it picked up from the prechorus and made the sound bigger. Melodic choruses however are less debatable.
DeleteMiroh is the textbook for a great hook heavy song with plenty of hooks that a drop chorus made sense in the song's context because the rest of the song is filled and strong.
For me, the chorus is when a song climaxes, a central repeat at the heart of the 'A' of AABA phases in a song. It might not be the exact peak of a song, but the peak of the song is at least tied to the chorus as a pre or post phrase.
DeleteYeah, Savage is an anti-drop for the second phase of its chorus, and Miroh is a great drop chorus track!