Alrighty, time to jump into a review for gugudan’s most recent comeback! As always, let’s go straight to background first and foremost. As someone who has never even looked into this group beforehand, researching them has been pretty beneficial for me as well.
The eight member girl group debuted back in 2016 as a product of the survival show, Produce 101. I’m actually a little surprised at how many of these groups have been formed through survival shows and I don’t know how I feel about it. For me, music deserves to be something a bit more organic, and that notion seems almost laughable for the K-Pop industry. Not trying to badmouth them or anything—I mean, they have produced some bops—but it all comes across as so cutthroat that it’s hard not be bothered by their process at times. But enough of this tangent.
Under Jellyfish Entertainment, gugudan originally had nine members, but one member (Hyeyeon) recently left to take care of her health and education. As of right now, she is still under the company’s wing. This leaves members Mimi, Hana, Haebin, Nayoung, Sejeong, Soyee, Sally, and Mina to carry on in the group. There are two subunits, one becoming inactive once Hyeyeon departed, and the other remains active, though I’m not sure how much they do on their own. The group as a whole has released three EPs, and this comeback is for their most recent EP, Act. 5 New Action.
Side note—I find this title amusing, because the previous EPs were Act. 1 and Act. 2 so I have no idea where Acts 3 and 4 went. They totally just skipped over them; I’m a bit curious as to why they chose that route.
Now, onto the review itself!
Lyrics
I liked the lyrics of this song way more than I expected to. In fact, I love them. From the first verse, the girls establish that they’re different from most girls in that they hate waiting around for the guy to make the first move. Honestly, I found it to be pretty refreshing coz I relate to this sort of mindset; it’s relatable for me. Despite having quite a bit of anxiety and being pretty timid, I don’t have enough patience to wait for others to take the first step in most situations (not strictly romantic ones), and oftentimes I’ll go ahead and say what I need to. So they essentially make it clear that if they are after something, they won’t waste their time in trying to get it, which I applaud.
The first verse basically sets up the whole premise of the song with the rest of it going into how the girls know they’re cool in the sense that they don’t rely on the guy to get things done and if they like you, they’ll tell you without hesitations because they’re not the type to sit around. I think my favorite lines have to be “yes or no, just tell me. Make it easy and simple. I hate ambiguous answers. I’m not that type”.
Amazing. I love it when girl groups do songs like these; it beats all the cutesy ‘oh I’m head over heels in love’ stuff, coz I’m always wishing the song would have them actually do something about it. Being in love is grand (and a hassle at times), but sitting around and waiting for the person you’re in love with to realize or make a move is freaking exhausting. I can’t deal with it sometimes, so lyrics like these pump me up and I love this song just from the words alone.
Aesthetics
The music video was pretty good. I liked the simplicity of the settings and how they didn’t go over the top with lighting or anything; it was easy to take in and appreciate. Fashion wise, I liked a few of the themes they had going on, but my favorite outfits were tied with the garage scene.
This one. It’s not too overwhelming to look at and the outfits are just…cool. There’s no other word for it; the girls look phenomenal and fierce. You can’t pull off outfits like those unless you know how amazing you are. For the scenes in front of the store, there were a few members sporting animal print outfits, which I didn’t particularly care for, but all in all, the styles were nice.
The choreography was also nice; I did have to go watch a separate live performance so I could focus on the dancing more, but I was pleased. It was dainty in some parts yet simultaneously powerful, so it went well with the rhythm of the track. Frankly, I don’t have much to say about the aesthetics other than that they were great and I loved it.
Also, I couldn’t take my eyes off one member so I did some hunting and figured out who she is. I think I can safely say that Sejeong (third one from the left) is my bias (favorite member). She’s just so lovely. Plus she struck me as familiar, and as it turns out, I’d watched a Korean drama that she was the lead in. From what I remember, her character really annoyed me so imagine my surprise when my favorite member ended up being her. The pictures below are of her.
She’s lovely, that’s the best word for her. Her vocals are amazing and she looks really sweet; it’s hard to pay attention to the other members when she’s in the group…or maybe I’m just terribly biased.
Sound
Simply put? Top-notch. I really appreciate girl groups that do more badass songs without being too flashy (totally not thinking of DDU-DU DDU-DU). Sometimes when the songs are so over the top, I can’t help thinking that the members are trying too hard to establish how badass they really are, but it can be done without confusing me by flashing intense visuals for four minutes.
It’s energetic and upbeat without being redundant. They repeat the chorus enough times so that it’s stuck in your head but not tiring. The vocals were great, the beat drop was satisfyingly on point, and I’m already playing it every morning during my commute to school. Hasn’t gotten old yet; it’s a track that does an awesome job boosting my mood, and I think it’s definitely one of my all-time K-Pop favorites. There isn’t a single thing I found wrong with it, sound-wise, and that surprises me given how picky I tend to be.
Gugudan really came out of nowhere for me, so I’m more than eager to see what their next comeback will be. Seriously, give this song a try. In the meantime, I’ll continue jamming to ‘Not That Type’. Until the next review, take care!
— Zephyr
Musical Musings 