Alrighty, it is time to dig into ‘Crush’ by Weki Meki, released on October 11th. I’m going to be a bit blunt here and say that from what I’d anticipated based on the first 15 seconds of the music video, the song itself was a letdown. But before I elaborate as to why the track didn’t suit my fancy, let’s get a bit of background information on this particular group.
Now, I’d never heard of Weki Meki, and it’s because they’re a relatively new group. I tend not to keep up with those. Formed by Fantagio Entertainment, a development company for rookie musicians, the girl group debuted in August of 2017. There are eight members: Suyeon, Elly, Yoojung, Doyeon, Sei, Lua, Rina, and Lucy. Their first album dropped October 11th, consisting of three tracks, ‘Crush’ being one of them. So without further ado, here’s my opinion of the group’s latest comeback.
Lyrics
In the last post, I talked about how the lyrics of ‘Love Bomb’ encapsulates the adorable and innocent side of having a crush or being in love with someone. Well, ‘Crush’ focuses on the exact opposite. Rather than emphasizing the fun of being hopelessly smitten, Weki Meki deals with the frustration and impatience that accompanies such feelings of affection. They’re not particularly moving or deep, but relatable for sure.
The girls sing about having their pride hurt, the sleepless nights that follow due to overthinking, the ‘should I or should I not’ indecisiveness, and they ask the one question that many might find themselves asking when they’re in a similar situation: “what do I do?” Lyrically, the song gives off subtle vibes of irritation, uncertainty, and yearning. There was fairly decent line distribution from what I saw, but I will say that Lucy in particular needs more solo lines in the future.
Aesthetics
The music video itself reminded me very much of the girl group, BlackPink, due to their heavy use of the color scheme. If judged separately from the music itself, I’d say that it was a cool video, but I can’t help thinking that it’s incredibly disconnected from the message.
Nothing in the video really corresponds to the message that the lyrics are trying to send. There’s no hint of the same feelings, and having darker backgrounds, guns, and leather jackets doesn’t automatically mean it properly captures the darker side of being in love. Sure, it’s visually stimulating, but it fails to deliver what I’d personally expected. The girls themselves are dressed like badasses, but then they break out into adorable pouts, which undermines the whole hardcore aesthetic they have in the first place, if anything. It all strikes me as mildly contradicting. Even the choreography, though well performed, puts too much of a sweet and light hearted twist to the words.
Sound
While I like the actual lyrics of the song, the music was a big disappointment. There wasn’t anything that set ‘Crush’ apart from any other run-of-the-mill K-Pop song. I expected more from watching the start of the music video, something more hard-hitting and powerful in sound. Instead, as I was listening to them sing, I was reminded of older girl groups. I swear the chorus sounds familiar, and overall, it gives me old K-Pop vibes. It’s boring. The song is catchy, no doubt, but there’s something pretty formulaic about the melody. In fact, compare just the electronic backgrounds for ‘Sugar Free’ by T-ARA to this song. Weki Meki’s new track sounds pretty similar in terms of beats, just higher in pitch. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I can confidently say the song is reminiscent of 2012-2013 K-Pop for me.
I mean, the vocals and rap parts were fine, but they weren’t anything jaw-droppingly good or extraordinary; I’m merely bothered by the fact that nothing stands out to me as special. It almost feels like the people who wrote the song just listened to what has worked in the past for K-Pop and mashed sounds together to create a pop tune that’s generic enough to make people like it without straight up copying another group’s concept, if that makes sense at all. In some places, I would even argue that the synth/electronic sounds are too heavy and it clashes a tad bit with the singers, making it tiring to listen to after a couple times.
The comeback was subpar in my eyes, and I probably won’t stay tuned for whatever the group has in store. However, if the girls do manage to toss aside the formula and go for something a bit more original, I’ll take a peek. Let me know your thoughts on this song and if you have any songs you’d like for me to review! I’ll post again on Thursday with my review of RM’s ‘forever rain’.
Thanks for reading,
—Zephyr
Musical Musings 