LOVELYZ - 'HI~' (Repackage) ALBUM AND MV REVIEW

Woolim's first girl group, Lovelyz, greet their fans with their new repackage album, "Hi~." As almost every song on here has already been released (some more than once) before, we'll just focus on the new ones: "Amusement Park" and "Hi~."

The lead single, "Hi~," has that strange flourish for no good reason in the title. Despite the odd diacritical mark, it's still the straight-ahead, sachharine-drenched pop that we've come to expect from Lovelyz. The girls are trying to get the courage to ask their crush out on a date. 



The second single, "Amusement Park," is a slower song, that ballad-yet-not-ballad quality that fans of A Pink are familiar with. The lyrics describe a perfect night on a perfect date at a theme park. They also admit that it's a fantasy and that they don't want to let go. Sometimes it borders on the annoying with some ultra-high, childlike voices intruding on what otherwise is a pleasant tune.

In general, the songs are exuberant, breezy odes. Consisting largely of older songs from their November 2014 release, 'Girls' Invasion,' there's not a lot of reason to buy it again, unless you missed it the first time around. The songs are all high-quality and feature sweetly-sung vocals and hook-filled harmonies sung to a plucky synth. Again, I reiterate: songs like this are my guilty pleasure. It's bubblegum pop to be sure, but it's also ear candy like this that satisfies my musical sweet tooth.   

MV REVIEW

This video shows the girls somewhat less animated than they were in "Candy Jelly Love." Eschewing the schoolhouse for a real house, this time, the girls are ofttimes sitting around, filmed in soft light. We're treated to a series of whimsical but puzzling events, everything from a live butterfly in a jar to a pair of helium balloons lifting one of them from a chair, from blown bubbles floating around one of the sleeping girls to a face drawn on foggy windows.

The soft light gives it a dream-like quality, and dance sequences liven up an otherwise plodding video. It's alright, and the camera doesn't linger too long on any one scene, but it's not the most interesting thing I've watched. I think  the problem is that, other than the dance parts, the girls aren't really doing anything. When they sing, they're sitting, tilting their heads and lip-syncing their parts, smiling as they do so. As adorable as it is, I still want to see something more. Or maybe I'm not in the mood for it. I should probably be content that the aegyo was kept to a minimum.



It's well-filmed and respectful to the girls, but that's probably about the best that can be said. I can't quite put my finger on what I was hoping for, but I just know this video didn't satisfy as well as it might.  

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