EVERGLOW – 'REMINISCENCE'

TRACKLIST:

1. SALUTE

2. DUN DUN *Title

3. PLAYER

4. NO LIE

EVERGLOW has released their first-ever mini-album, 'reminiscence.' This EP contains four brand new tracks plus the title track "DUN DUN." Why don't we dive in and figure out how it sounds?

"SALUTE" begins with an absolutely wonderful loud chorus and some pho horns. I absolutely adore since blasts and they use that to the hilt here. It's also catchy as all get-out! I've stanned EVERGLOW since debut, and this is definitely a worthy addition to the EVERGLOW canon. Their title track is "DUN DUN." if I thought the first track was catchy, I hadn't heard anything yet. This has that girl crush style, with attitude-drenched refrains and loud synths. One of the few title tracks I think is probably the best tune on the EP.

"PLAYER" is one of those songs that definitely tells you EVERGLOW is going in the girl crush direction. It starts out distorted, and not quite musical. And they continue that with chants and lyrics telling you what for. I love songs like this. And the softer, poppier bridge makes it even better. They shake up the formula they've used for the other songs on this mini-album with "NO LIE." This tune more resembles what we come to expect from 3rd gen K-pop. It's a more generic song, but that doesn't make it any worse. In fact, it's a breath of fresh air after the intensity of the other tracks.

I don't know what I was expecting, but maybe not this. Every one of these tracks are serious jams. Maybe there are only four tracks, but that's fine. Tunes of this high a quality earn their space on an album. I figured these girls would go places, I was an album like this, they deserve to.

MV REVIEW

Whether stomping on a reflective floor with faux ice walls, strutting with icy fields in the background, walking through extras holding black flags, rocking side to side in front of shadowy figures of themselves, or dancing inside various other odd structures, these girls use every inch of space they have. And if they don't have it they create more through CGI.

And the meteors start to fall a third of the way through the video. I wonder if that's a recent CGI trick they mastered. I remember that from a couple Drunken Tiger videos, too. I only say that because once you see a particular piece of computer graphics wizardry, you start to see it more and more (watch "The Abyss" and "Stargate" to see what I mean).

As this is basically a girl crush anthem, everything they do is made to look as badass as possible. That's intentional. Aegyo in a song like this would just not work. Or at least look extremely weird. I like how they cast some of these scenes with as much shadow as light, and the purplish LCD screen behind them while they do their dance moves fit in nicely.

The dancing is somewhat of a mixed bag. There are some moves that are confident and bold, and there are a few throwaway moves to fill in the gaps. Still, when it works, it definitely works. These girls know how to bring it!

This is one of these MVs that is intended to keep you watching. There are more things going on than what I describe here. Regardless, this vid was a lot of fun. Is there a plot? No. But the special effects are awesome, and so are the girls.

Score

MV Relevance...........8

MV Production..........9

MV Concept..............9

MV SCORE: 8.6

Album Production.....9

Album Concept.........8

Tracklisting...............8

ALBUM SCORE: 8.3

OVERALL................8.5