A PINK – 'LOOK'

Track List:

1. Dumhdurum *Title

2. Yummy

3. Be Myself

4. Love is Blind

5. Overwrite

6. Moment

7. Everybody Ready?

It's A Pink's spring comeback, their ninth mini-album 'LOOK.' The EP contains 7 tracks, including the title track "Dumhdurum." (Say that three times fast).

"Dumhdurum" is a club-banger along the same lines as "Eung Eung." It's about the same tempo and even has a little rapping at the end. Very little, because A Pink was not set up as a hip-hop group. It's pretty good, especially for a title track. A more low-key offering would be "Yummy." And that pretty well describes that song, too. It's very soothing, easy on the ears. It's got a little more heft to it than some of their earlier B-sides. But there's still nothing wrong with the song. "Be Myself" comes perilously close to a tropical house beat. But it doesn't stop it from being a fairly effective pop tune. It's cute, catchy, repetitive, and chock-full of vocal goodness.

"Love is Blind" is a light, poppy tune. It's bouncy and upbeat, and probably one of the most playful tunes on the album. I like the bass undertones in the beginning. They even have an adorable rap sequence. Just a pretty, body-moving tune. The first ballad we get is "Overwrite." But it transitions more to soft pop as the song progresses. One of the things I like about this song is that each girl gets a chorus to themselves. Bomi gets it first, then Eunji, Hayoung, etc. It's a nice touch.

"Moment" is another ballad. This one's more the billowy ballad type. The epic tune where the girl gets to show off her pipes. One thing I can say about Eunji is that she really has a powerful set of lungs. She gets seriously emotional in this song.

"Everybody Ready?" is the final tune on here. It's also probably the fastest. The vocals take on sort of an urgent tone. Particularly when they try to sing about as fast as they can. That's not a bad thing, and the song ends up sort of a party rock anthem.

As usual, these girls put out a solid collection of tunes. Many of them are soothing. They've kind of adopted a more mature sound over the years, though they still bring the aegyo on "Love Is Blind." Quite a few of the songs are soft, but the vocals are so beautiful you won't mind. Do you want a little slice of heaven? Cue this one up.

MV REVIEW

The opening and closing scenes have them aboard a train but besides that, all semblance of a concept narrative falls apart.

I'll be honest. I thought when we saw them on a train it might be some kind of road trip video. Or a vacation video. Maybe we'd get to see some exotic locations and some hijinks aboard the train. I was wrong. They end up in a hotel, sort of. Mostly it's the girls dancing and hanging out in some trippy sets.

The sets are somewhat amusing. Some scenes show them aboard a train, others are everything from full-blown hotel suites to being lost in a lamp shop. And still, other sets are completely weird, like the one with several fist-sized crystal spheres hanging from the ceiling. As I implied earlier, I'm not sure I buy the idea that they're at a hotel.

The dancing is quite good, considering. They are industry veterans, so they should be in good shape to pull that off. It's not an amazing choreo, but it's probably harder to do some of those moves than I realize.

And really, as much as I'm complaining about it, it's a just bit hard to describe. It's very retro in style, looking very artificial, hearkening back to the days when there wasn't much in the budget, and the sets were largely facades. They do a great job with the lighting and the splashes of color that dance across our gazes. It's not hard to watch at all, just don't think too hard about what you're seeing.

Score

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

MV Production..........8

MV Concept..............8

MV SCORE: 8.0

Album Production.....9

Album Concept.........9

Tracklisting...............9

ALBUM SCORE: 9.0

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