Everglow is going back to their girl crush styling after the time travel to the past they had for La Di Da, and while it is sad to see that amazing style come and go, they’ve really done something fresh here.
The Video
As always, let’s start with the video. This one looks and feels expensive, with little visual effect touches that look really cool and well done, which is, to be honest, unusual in kpop, as oftentimes visual effects tend to look a little silly. The camera work and editing are pretty clear and on point, not too many cuts, longer shots used successfully in conjunction with the music as well. The sets and settings are interesting visually, they give your eyes a lot to digest and stay engaged with while not increasing visual clutter to be distracting from the subject. The styling is also a lot better in motion than I had expected, as it seemed fairly wacky in terms of the teasers.
Theme wise this nails the “I am the coolest and there’s nothing you can do about it” vibe that so many groups try to pull off. What I really like here though, is that it has two great elements, power and confidence, that a lot of other groups struggle to embody. In terms of power, this dance is strong, it’s aggressive, it’s ready to fight, which doesn’t come as a surprise once you learn that the choreographers behind a lot of Ateez’s work were behind this as well, they really are fantastic. In terms of confidence, this oozes cockiness, but not the cockiness of somebody faking it until they make it, but of somebody so self assured that they know they’re going to win before the fight begins. This isn’t your fake fabricated style confidence that YG likes to have their groups put out, this oozes swag overwhelmingly.
Rating: 9/10
There’s basically nothing not to like here, it’s all amazingly put together, and watching it gets you feeling cocky and confident too, which is an awesome feeling to have, other groups are doing girl crush, everglow is doing woman crush, because this isn’t just child’s play, this is the next level.
The Songs
First- Let’s start from the first moments, epic stings with an increasingly intense drum into a soft but intense “Everglow” just brings you straight into the vibes of the song. The kind of 90’s rap beat is amazing too, and made me feel a little nostalgic, and then it let’s loose in this song’s rap verse and does a couple really dynamic and interesting things for that run, especially in E:U’s part. The chorus threw me the first time, but it fits the song really well, and the subtle chord progression in background of Sihyeon’s part at the chorus’s end is really cool and supposed to sound like some sort of gregorian chant, or something, very fun. Fantastic song, great vibes, not usually my style but I actually liked it on first listen, Everglow has been on fire these last two title tracks and videos.
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell- Woooooo that bass, let it flow, let it flow. This bass line is just absolute fire, man, and I am feeling this whole song because it got me into the flow from the first second. I love that the second chorus starts with the drum and deconstructs the instrumental before building it up, and then that this happens again on the last chorus, but with the bass, musically circular and sound while still varied and interesting. As fun and good as the song is holistically, the instrumental is one of my favorites all year, and is honestly so overwhelmingly fantastic that it’s hard to focus on the vocals.
Please Please- This is a solid ballad, it’s got some nice interesting choral moments and background voice uses in general. The chorus is soft and sweet, romantic really, it really touches your heart even not knowing what the words are, this is good, ballads should make you feel something. So as much as I think this is a decent ballad, I want to have this be the focus of my discussion on album construction and pacing for this review.
So, even though the album does slow down as it goes on, the energy is still absurdly high across First and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, they get you feeling hyped and just absolutely grooving respectively. If you are going to switch up to this soft romantic sounding ballad after those two songs, you NEED something in the middle that bridges the gap, it is way too big and disjointed of a pacing change, I might even go so far as to suggest putting this in the middle if you are set on having these three songs to make a weird pacing sandwich. The other alternative would be to have it in the front, it’s a lot easier to pick up the pace than to properly slow down, but then you don’t have something to draw you into the album immediately, which is a huge no-go. Basically, all these songs are good, but Please Please was not the right third song for the overall album construction, it does not synergize with the other two songs.
Rating: 9/10
I want to have this even higher, it manages to have two great songs and a listenable ballad, as well as some fantastic instrumentals across the board, kudos to the song writers and producers really. If I didn’t think the pacing issues were so bad this would be a 9.5, I enjoyed listening to every second of these songs, and will be putting all of them into my playlist. Also, Everglow performed everything really well here too, they and their team have put out some fantastic stuff with First and La Di Da, and this is their best pair of B-sides to date.
