OH MY GIRL - OH MY GIRL

Track List:

1. Oh My Girl!
2. Cupid (Title Track)
3. Hot Summer Nights
4. Curious Questions

Adding to the girl group explosion this year, the sister group to B1A4, Oh My Girl, has dropped their new mini-album. The first single off the album, "Cupid," is produced by Shin Hyuk, whose production chops include songs by Justin Bieber. The song is perfectly-timed: springtime, a season for falling in love.  

The album opens with the intro song "Oh My Girl!" It's serviceable,and sets the tone for the rest of the disc nicely.

"Cupid," the title track, is a cute tune punctuated with a clattering drum beat, high-sounding synths, and radio-friendly chants: "Hey cupid has shot my heart!" This is also by far the liveliest song on the album. They chose to highlight Seunghee as one of their strongest vocalists -- just listen to those sustains near the end! The one surprise was Mimi, the rapper. This is something that most of the cute girl bands lack, and it makes these girls stand out.

 
"Hot Summer Nights" is a pleasant, if predictable, summer lovers' song. They keep it firmly G-rated (which means that it likely won't get banned), talking about footprints in the sand, holding hands, and the waves crashing on the beach. The tune is light, poppy, fun, and again has Mimi coming in near the end with her pitter-patter raps. They're not the best I've heard, but they sound good enough.

The last song, "Curious Questions," sounds a lot like "Hot Summer Nights," at least at first. There's more rests during the song, which, along with the whistling synth, separates it from previous song. That and the fact there's no rapping on this track. It saunters along at an enjoyable pace and is a sweet finish for the album.



This is a highly listenable, radio-friendly album. The songs are soft enough to be easy on the ears while there's peppiness that stops them from becoming too bland, and a distinct lack of schmaltz is always a plus. The only thing I could ask for is more improvisation. Well-inserted "woos" or "yeahs" or something similar might give the songs a much-needed shot of spontaneity. The songs are very clean and well-put together -- they're great for background noise while studying, but they lack dash. The girls have a lot of potential. It's sweet, fluffy album, with nothing I cringed to hear, and I can well imagine them partnering with someone who will give them a mega-hit for their next comeback. I just hope they don't get lost in the glut of girl bands debuting this year.   

MV REVIEW

The MV is a typical cute-concept video -- I know I've seen this somewhere before, but I can't exactly nail down where or when.

The girls wake up, apparently urgently as if they have overslept. They look surprisingly un-disheveled and wrinkle-free while doing so. They get dressed and go out on the town. At first sight, it looks as if they're crushing on a guy, using aegyo to get his attention...

But no, a closer look reveals they have wings, and they cheer in pantomime when he gets together with another girl. They're all cupids!

Of course, interspersed with dancing and cute outfits, it's a watchable video. The town, mounted as it is on a sound stage, is appropriately bright and cheery, free of moving cars, concrete, drab colors or anything else that might be a downer.

The dancing is clean and precise; there are three or four costume changes. It's fun. Nothing groundbreaking, but fun.  

SEE ALSO: K-netizens react to a streamer blackmailing Junsu with intimate recordings for over 600,000 USD