Girls’ Generation’s new album, The Boys, disappoints

After a long and anticipated wait, SNSD finally releases their new album, titled “The Boys.” With so much hype, I expected this comeback to be huge. I thought to myself, this song is going to be like the next “Genie” or “Gee.” This will be amazing. Guess what? I was sorely disappointed. The concept itself is captivating and beautiful, but the song is sadly underwhelming.

Watch their music video here:

I generally do not enjoy rapping parts in K-pop songs, and one of the reasons I like SNSD is because their songs have very few rap parts. When I watched the teaser, I prayed so hard that the rap part would just be part of the Intro track, or at least be the worst part of the song, like the “I like it like this, I like it like that” in T-ara’s “Roly Poly,” or the dub step in HyunA’s “Bubble Pop.” To my despair, the rap part turned out to be the chorus. Not just part of it, either, but the whole thing, save for a couple of static “Bring the boys out” lines. The chorus should be the focus and drive of the whole song, and it ended up sounding lazy and uncreative.

The chorus is not the only flawed part of the song, however. Although the verses contain an actual melody, they are repetitive and boring. The only parts that vary are at the end of each phrase, where the pitch rises slightly or the rhythm changes a bit. Honestly, though, I would have accepted the verses and the build-up if the chorus was actually good. The build-up makes you anticipate an upbeat and moving chorus, but all you get is a monotone “We bring the boys out” and then a string of rapping. (Ironically, this effect parallels all the hype that led up to this release that eventually ended up falling short of expectations.) Additionally, the tempo is not suited for a rap; the song loses a lot of momentum during the chorus. I kept waiting for a powerful melody and a strong beat, but when I finished the song, my reaction was basically That’s it? There are no memorable parts of the song, except for the (grammatically incorrect) “Girls’ Generation make you feel the heat,” which just shows how disappointing this song is for me.

The choreography is decent, but there are few movements that really stick in my head. The dance break is mediocre; like the song, there is very little variation or energy. Hyoyeon and Yuri are, of course, very talented dancers, but I did not get that impression from the music video. If only the chorus was more exciting, the dance break would have been just fine, since it’s the more powerful part of the song.

Vocally, the song does a poor job of showing variety and musicality in the main singers. Particularly, Jessica’s voice catches my attention; her high note right before the last chorus sounds like she does not have enough support. She needed the help from the backup vocals and audio processing. A lot of people describe her voice as pure and clear, but I disagree. Her voice does have a light feel to it, but there is also a significant amount of buzzing that adds a somewhat sandpaper-ey feel to it, detracting from her overall sound. I’m glad that the producers didn’t process the verses too much, because it really brings out all of their individual voices. However, the high register of the verses makes a lot of the girls sound like they were struggling to maintain their voices at that pitch, although I’m confident that they are capable of doing it.

It is debatable whether or not the lyrics match the song well. The Korean lyrics and the English lyrics have completely different meanings. The Korean version is more about empowerment and encouragement, whereas the English version emphasizes the fact that they have the ability to attract all the boys. Perhaps the rapping makes more sense when you consider the Korean version, but that does not excuse the lack of creativity in the chorus. The dance break takes care the empowerment aspect just fine, with lines like “The boys of the world, I am Athena, the one who gives the number one wisdom. Check this out!” and “Enjoy the excitement of the challenge – you already have everything in this world.” Aside from that, there should a better way to highlight their lyrics with a more exciting chorus. See the lyrics for yourself here.

Hopefully, their comeback stage will make up for most of the flaws in the song. I have a feeling that, although the rapping part is extremely bad, SNSD and SM Entertainment will find a way to make it very popular. Their large fan base is definitely a great help, too, since they appeal to audiences of all ages. SNSD has a lot of stage presence, and since they debuted a while ago, the individuality of the different members stand out. Therefore, they really need to make a big impression on stage, since their song doesn’t give them much to work with. I’m really looking forward to see if they can hold up against the stiff competition.

Ratings:

Since I’m only reviewing one song, I’ll rate the different aspects of it. A follow-up article will include an album rating as a whole, plus a live performance rating.

Song (General): 5.5/10 (The majority is terrible, but there are some decent parts.)

Verses: 7/10 (Standard, not too unique or appealing)

Chorus: 4/10 (Not a fan of the rapping at all)

Choreography: 7/10 (Decent, nothing special)

Visuals/Concept: 8.5/10 (SNSD’s visuals rarely disappoint)