I’m very excited to be reviewing Way With Words today, and, as always, I just want to take a moment to say that my reviews are never supposed to be objective and unbiased. I own a BTG jersey and shirt, and so does my wife, we’re fans of BM, as well J.Seph, Jiwoo, Somin and KARD as a whole, and have been following them from Oh NaNa, that said, I’ll share what I like and anything I don’t like too, just because I’m a fan doesn’t mean I won’t have both opinions, as with every other review, so let’s hop to, starting with a discussion of the video for Gunshot.
The Music Video
This video is one of my favorites this year, I usually hate horror or creepier concepts, but between this and Nature’s Girls, the more horror leaning videos have been really good. I really like the vibes in the first two thirds that are creepy and off-putting, like the sewn mouth masked people in J.Seph’s section, and the transition to the aggression after the second chorus is fantastic. I admittedly don’t look at lyrics when I listen to music, or even write reviews, I’m concerned about the way videos are shot and the music sounds, but I feel that I may be missing how good the video is because of this, as it has some sort of story but not completely shown just in the video, so I wish I got more of that story, because it seems interesting.
The styling is some of the best for KARD though, and that’s saying a lot because their stylists are basically always on point, the teaser images don’t really do the members justice with how nice the video looks. Somin in particular stands out to me in this video. Speaking of, the actual filmography on the video does a great job of displaying the concepts I mentioned before, a ton of the shots are Dutch Angles, which really helps to keep the viewer feeling a little uncomfortable, but it all still looks good and coherent. I also like the simpler settings and the white-black-red color scheme, it’s classic and well implemented here.
Last note, before posting this I looked at the comments on Youtube, the language diversity is amazing. Hidden KARD are a really positive and diverse worldwide fandom that goes beyond language, it’s really cool to see that the group has built such an amazing fanbase.
Rating: 8.5/10
Overall great video, I think a little more plot connecting everything would have really taken this into the 9-10 range. Well shot, good styling, interesting and fun to watch, this is a good darker toned video, which we knew KARD could do from You In Me, my personal favorite video of theirs.
The Songs
Ah Ee Yah- KARD titling has learned from labelmates April and their title track Lalalilala on this one. Jokes aside, this song immediately opens with some ska strumming and I’m sold from there, as I love ska beats. This song is good, it’s a chill listen, I don’t really think you need to think about it much further than that.
Gunshot- This is my favorite title track since You In Me, they do dark really well. The biggest thing for me here is the chorus, it hits hard, and the separated syllables of the word “gunshot” really lets it have a more impactful hit. I also think this song, and recent KARD songs in general have been utilizing Jiwoo’s voice much better, she has a unique tone and is getting to use it more, which is great. At the start of the last chorus when Somin says “gunshot” there's a cool electric drum descending run with no other vocals or instrumentation that I really like too. I really like the growth in BM’s production in general, he’s got a style that’s very agreeable to me on this one
Hold On- This has the best raps of the album, BM and J.Seph are good in any style, but I like when they can take the slower thoughtful tone. This song leans towards the more chill style, but has a darkness, and a sadness to it that makes it relaxed, but still fairly emotional, a middle ground between the two previous songs in terms of the feeling.
Rating: 8.5/10
I like this one, my second favorite output from KARD in a holistic sense, it’s well rounded and balanced, every song is a good listen and fits together well with the others. Where this one loses points is that while I like everything here, and really like Gunshot in particular, the other two don’t quite carry me as far emotionally, they’re going on my playlists, but they’re probably not going in my top songs of the year, which Gunshot definitely will. Also, although it didn’t affect my rating, I only wish this could have been longer, a full album perhaps, because it is so consistently good. And I’ve mentioned it before, but please take some time to check out what all the members are doing, they’re such a positive force, and BM in particular is doing some fantastic charity work while promoting a great mental and physical lifestyle for the fans. These four are worth your time.
How did you feel about this one? Let me know in the comments on Instagram, and be sure to give me a follow there if you like my reviews and want to know when the next one comes up.
