SNSD's Comeback Extravaganza

Ariel?

I'm such a Sone, the first thing I write about after a year of going away is SNSD. Le sigh.




No seriously; Jessica's gone, EXO is having an existential crisis, Mamamoo have been slaying left and right, EXID have taken SNSD's throne as variety queens, GOT7 been getting mad love, Wonder Girls are back, B.A.P have disbanded AND returned, many other groups have kicked the bucket, allegations and creepy Kim Yeoshin wannabes flying out the ass like buttermilk biscuits and many other wonderful and horrifying things happening in the world of K-Pop that I have missed over the course of a year and the first thing I write about is the SNSD comeback.

... Well let's jump right into things shall we?

The girls have taken a different approach this summer by returning to their 2007 era roots and giving us THREE SONGS this summer, first things first I'm gonna be talking about "Party" as it is the only one that's been released, then I'll give my thoughts on what the other two could be...

(Disclaimer: I've heard the demo for "You Think" and as much as I love Saara, I don't believe SNSD would take the song in that kind of direction, the girls don't really have the attitude for it... Except maybe Seohyun, she looks like she'd be strong arm a bitch for looking at her funny).

Now the first thing that pops out to me is the fact that this entire MV feels like a commercial for either Thailand, their airlines, or both. Not that it's bad but blatant advertising like this is always somewhat distracting to me. Ah well, when in Rome... or in this case-- Bangkok maybe? My knowledge of Thailand is somewhat limited, forgive me.

Anyway, the visuals are really good here, not incredible because Yoona with blonde hair is a big no no, unless it's a bit more of a darker blonde, the contrast needs to be there you can't have both her skin and her hair pale on a sunny set, like really? C'mon y'all...

Notice that when the background is darker, more of her features are brought out... Still could be better though.

That's a bit nitpicky of me of course so I can let it slide, especially since they found Ariel from the Little Merma-- Oh no wait that's just Lee Soonkyu taking the crown for best visuals in this video, no biggie.

She's working it, long or short.

Aaaand one for the perverts! ;)

Getting away from the visuals, the track is funky, upbeat and has a nice summer vibe to it showing SISTAR how it's done (I'll talk about them sooner rather than later). The arrangement is simple but effective and the chorus even has a nice little vocal effect for the "P-A-R-T-Y" part, so overall good song, better than some of the stuff heard this year so far, but not the cream of the crop.

Now then onto the teasers, first Lion Heart.

And let me just say that I cannot contain my excitement for this song. This reminds me of "My Oh My" which remains one of my favourite Japanese releases of theirs to date (Beaten out only by Galaxy Supernova).

What makes this better you ask? Pachibel's Canon mixed with Motown motherfucker, that's why.

Also Yuri giving her life on the chorus as well, and people in the comments were going apeshit over the fact that she's not singing in her low voice, firstly anyone can tell from the recording that she's singing comfortably in chest voice, she ain't doing nothing fancy and this track has a fair amount of Motown influence, I don't recall ever hearing a female artist in that genre utlilize their lower register in the chorus.

Going back to the song, this is exciting because I am expecting nicely layered harmonies with a bit of doo-wop action in the choreography and some really cute visuals (not A Pink cute but more, 'Awww I'm getting nostalgia feels for some reason' cute).

Also Taeyeon looks amazing in this teaser.

Alright! I'm sorry, you can be sexy! Stop looking at me like that!

Baekhyun, you lucky mother-- Anyway, onto the next teaser!

And of course it reveals nothing about the song... Just teases a concept of what the track could sound like.

The entire set has a darker (and by proxy) more fierce vibe to it in comparison to the other songs of this comeback, even in the moments that have pink and gold everywhere, the girls feel more fierce like they've channelled their "Run Devil Run" personae back into them for this one comeback.

I can't really talk about this much because their isn't much to say, the visuals have a theme and have stuck steadfastly to it not deviating much at all. Solid job.

I'm just gonna wait for the release because that seems to be the way to truly judge the song at it's best.

Anyway cutting a long story short, SNSD's comeback has been promising so far, let's hope that the final two songs bring them a wonderful return to form that has been missing since they released "The Boys".

The truth hurts sometimes.