T-ara! What balls they had to stage a comeback just after the ugly situation with Hwayoung! Usually groups involved in such scandals would probably just wait for the effects to die off, which would usually take months to even years in certain cases, but T-ara seems determined to soldier on and slay the charts. I think I need to use this opportunity to bring up a point that we should really stop hating on T-ara. Like seriously. The bullying was not proved, rather it was declined by both T-ara and Hwayoung, and would you really let your childish dislike for bullying affect whether you would like the group's music or not? Honestly, I would not really care if there was indeed bullying in T-ara, though if it happened I would be upset, rather I simply care about the quality of their music. I mean, why let internal matters within a group irrelevant to myself prevent me from hearing wall-thumping, ass-kicking tunes? Yes, and I only care about music quality, and T-ara has never disappointed.
Is there any other girl group as bold and diverse and shamelessly addictive as T-ara? They have practically sampled every style out there, with the aegyo concept ("Bo Peep Bo Peep"), the sexy concept ("Like The First Time"), the retro concept ("Roly-Poly"), the disco concept ("Lovey Dovey") and the outrageous WTF concept ("Yayaya"). I really respect T-ara for actually giving other styles a shot and trying to appeal to wide spectrum of audiences, and honestly, no matter how drastic the song style changes, all their songs (well, maybe most of them') have been awesome.
Now with the controversy about Hwayoung and all, I wondered what style T-ara would choose to go with to win back the converted haters. To overcome all that negativity, I would have expected a classic, T-ara, ridiculously addictive dance track. And voila. Sexy Love. Sure, it is playing somewhat safe, but with all the trouble behind them, maybe safe is the way to go. Let's face it, T-ara is monkey balls awesome, but CLASSIC T-ARA? Respect.
Onto 'Sexy Love'. Let's just start by saying I like this song. Yeah, it's not my favourite T-ara song ("I Go Crazy Because Of You" still holds that honour) but it is pretty solid. From the get-go, a wall booming beat comes in, setting off this club-like atmosphere in you and your feet start to twitch. It is an amazing beat and really sets the pace for the rest of the song. Then a robotic creaking sound plays alongside which is well probably to serve as a build-up for the pre-verse hook, and it does serve its purpose, though it kind of overpowered the infectious wall booming beat which I guess is a tad disappointing. But the next bit makes up for it wholesale.
Duck + Robots + T-ara being robots = WIN.
Yeah, I can't really describe what that background track felt like to me but it was like an anthem, an anthem of robotic dance pop, and I could just imagine a filled Seoul Olympic Stadium just grooving to this. Jiyeon starts the song off with her verse. Jiyeon's voice is ok? I guess? She was great in HersHE perhaps because of Ailee and Hyorin, but I never really thought of her as a powerhouse vocal. Still her lines probably bring forth the sexiest vibes out of any other lines in the song, with an airy trailing vocal towards the end and a slight slurry texture throughout which add a sultriness to the song. Hyomin's parts are the catchiest as usual and the rhythm in her lines never let up, just rushing forward with a tangible impatience and venom, just adding the buildup once more. Boram's parts were high pitched. And they were so-so. Boram is pretty meh to me but at least she got some exposure, and Qri butts in with her whisper. That whisper was probably the most artistic element in the song for me, as it added a sense of mystery, like some ancient goddess suddenly chimed in with a soft quivering message, and it added another layer of sexiness to the song. Mystery and unpredictability are part and parcel of sexiness, because you never know what the real thing is. However ambiguous that was, not knowing anything just makes the result better and not knowing a woman makes her true self and personality shine through much better, enhancing her womanly face, enhancing her appeal.
The chorus is a sudden fast-paced burst of intensity and rapidfire mutterings of sexy organs by Soyeon. What I don't like about this chorus is that it is flat, it lacks intonation. It is like a rap but with louder background, and one-dimensional, not really falunting Soyeon's vocal ability. Eunjung's section after the chorus serves as a pretty good, mildly energetic closing section for the intense chorus, which is much appreciated.
Onto the rap. AARRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHH! Why do raps have autotune? Why? Maybe to add to the robotic vibe of the song? But I could barely hear anything in that rap; maybe the excessive digitalizing was to allow Ahreum to smoke her way through the rap (originally meant for Hwayoung) or something? I don't know. But it is my least favourite part of the song by far.
In all, a solid track by T-ara, it is decently catchy (disregarding the rap) and the dance steps are really fun to watch. Maybe not their best track but surely enough to show the haters what T-ara is about, what they can be and what they will be.
- The Kpop Philosopher
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