Sunday 18 August 2013

[Single Review] 2NE1- "Do You Love Me?"

Ah, back from a long hiatus! And you know, who else has been on a long hiatus? 2NE1! One of my favourite girl groups ever.

I was initially deliberating between reviewing Brown Eyed Girls or 2NE1, but in short, I loved 'Kill Bill' too much to review it. I feel like anything I put up won't really depict the song's greatness as well as it truly is; I'd rather all of you listen to them yourselves and encapsulate yourselves in its silken wings of western infused-dance-electronica greatness.

So, onto 2NE1. Not hearing them for more than a year (and yes, I do not count 'Falling in Love' as a legitimate comeback single because, well, I really did not wish to associate that bore-fest with any other component of 2NE1's otherwise flawless discography), what was I truly expecting from them? I wanted to be blown away, and well that is pretty much as generic a description as anything any Kpop fan has ever said, so to get into specifics, I wanted something distinctively 2NE1.

2NE1 has a flavour which I can't really coin on any other girl group even after months of deep perusing. We see SNSD, Kara and even a dabbling of T-ara trying to go edgy and more, in a lay-man's method of speaking, 'swaggier'. And whilst their singles have been notably good, I never seem to be able to be amazed by them even though the swag image in a rather unique one for all of them. And why do I not feel that sense of stupefaction?? Well maybe its because my mind is still ruminating in 2009, when 2NE1 burst onto the scenes and took our hearts by storm. Recently, they have really sampled a number of different genres, and they have been pretty hit or miss. I understand that their image is like reggae hip hop, but to me, the style in which they were the most comfortable in would have to be, undoubtedly, hard banging dirty clubby dance pop. A cluttered mouthful indeed, but the simplicity in beats and dance break appropriate vibes given out by this genre of music is astounding especially combined with Minzy's inborn bad-ass-ness and CL's instinctive confidence.

So boy was I pleased when I heard 'Do You Love Me?'. The song is infectious and powerful, about as biting as some of 2NE1's best works, and it is a song that conjures those reminiscent auras that 2NE1 used to exude back then. Good times. But that is not to say the song has no demerits. There are certain sections of the song that do not really do much for it, but neither do they take anything away; still, they can and should have been improved on.

The song starts off with some computerised trills and synths which I feel originally had the purpose of being an energetic tart to the song,but ultimately fell pretty flat for me. The pace was just a tad too slow for any key momentum to generate and everything seems rather unexciting to be honest. What makes this bit worse is how disjointed and out of character it is from the following sections of the song, almost akin to putting an APink member in Wa$$up for example. (BTW Wassup is a new 'twerk-dol' group which debuted with a horrifically craptacular eponymous single 'Wassup'. Go check them out please. It will reshape how you view the industry as a whole, and will be an enlightening moment that you shall never ever consign to oblivion) As soon as the intro begins, it seems to abruptly stop giving us this feeling of voidness, like this section was never really meant to be.

Anyway, the real beat that I had been waiting for kicks in. And it kicks hard. Like a homeless dude kicking a pigeon for stealing his last hunk of bread. That hard.

CL's vocals are purposely monotonous, almost in a robotic, mechanical fashion, and they just add this undescribable power to the already foot-stomping beat. A fantastic switch up from the initially dull prelude that could have been entirely scrapped for the grand honour of having this awesome bass line as a persuasive and absorbing introduction.

The chorus shows up next and Bom's voice is surprisingly warm and emotional; not in a sappy, crybaby type of emotion, rather a more lucid and vividly colored palette of emotion that can be sensed from the get-go. As a result the chorus never loses pace and gives us an infectious hook that shall pervade our subconscious lyricist minds for weeks to come. Dara's verse is a very interesting part of the song that surprisingly, is my favourite. The other three memebers' voices are very deep in tone which add that almost robotic and hard hitting feel to their dance tracks. But as we know too much of a good thing is just unbearable occasionally and a slightly switch up can have instrumental beneficial effects as shown in this song. Dara's voice is like a whisper but incredibly peppy, light and shockingly complementary to the bass line. Her voice is hard in a different way, in that whilst her voice is not as powerful, she has conviction in her style and her more supportive role in the song, a sense of confidence which makes all her verses really successful in my opinion.

Minzy's lines are classic Minzy, smooth and bold. I really admire how she manages to convey this confidence and maturity in her performance and vocals considering her relative youth compared to the other members, but out of all of them I would say that she contributes the most edginess to their song in the group. Even more than CL who I feel is more responsible for setting the tone; Minzy just brings everything to another level.

Then the beat slows rapidly. Now usually I hate beat changes, but this is really good, simply because of the emotional template that is amplified through the slower, more pronounced and emotionally fleshed out lines. Because of the slower pace, Cl manages to maintain the confident vibe of the song but channels the confidence not into screaming or robotically chanting out lines, rather into a really beautiful verse with strikingly pronounced emotive effects. One of the best from CL that I have ever had the pleasure of listening to.

The rest of the song is good as can be inferred from my above reviews of the sections but I would like to bring up another verse, namely the entire song after the second chorus. This is where the party anthem vibe hits overdrive but the cold menacingly hard beats are substituted for more dubstep-like, lighter, fun bass synths that really cause you to start jumping in ecstasy.  Whilst the beat is different and more laid back, the girls still project their voices out loud with pride and exuberance, exuding confidence and power like all the sections before. What could have been improved would probably have been a more noticeable bass line as it seems the chanting may have slightly overpowered the backing track, but that is only a minor quibble.

In all, a really strong comeback from 2NE1, though not as good as Brown Eyed Girls, but it really sent me back in time to help me understand the justification behind my love for the group. Now they have reconnected with tier roots, they could definitely go back to more experimental tracks. Well, until I get over 'DYLM' of course.

- The Kpop Philospher