Hello!
Sorry about my prolonged absence, it’s been a crazy few weeks for me. But I’m back with a review of Mamamoo’s lovely new song, ‘Wind Flower’! As per usual, let’s begin with background information, although this time it’ll be rather short.
In 2014, the group debuted for the company RBW with four members: Solar, Moonbin, Wheein, and Hwasa. Their debut was an EP by the name of Hello with their lead single being ‘Mr. Ambiguous’, which has been considered one of the best debuts of that year. Since then, they’ve released one studio album and seven EPs. The members of Mamamoo are well known for their R&B and jazz concepts, along with having strong and mature vocals. Out of 92 nominations on music awards shows, Mamamoo has won 19 in addition to 27 awards from music programs.
Now that a brief overview of the group has been given, onto the review.
Lyrics
The lyrics for this track are interesting, albeit pretty self-explanatory. It starts off saying that the song is about a cliche love story and the girl feels lonely in the absence of her significant other. She expresses regret for not treating him better when the relationship still existed and wonders if she’s the only one who currently feels pain. The relationship is compared to flower petals—something I’ve noticed happens a lot in K-pop, the flower imagery—and it’s nice, the way she describes her progress in feeling better like a flower blooming again.
While it’s rough being out of a relationship that held so much meaning, the song reminds its listeners that the depressing days will come and go, but self-growth will eventually come. My favorite lines would have to be “I was really lonely while you weren’t here, I had a hard time”, “there aren’t normal days anymore, why is everything so irritating?”, and “why are we filling our song with lyrics of separation?”.
Aesthetics
The music video is beautifully shot and I think it did a beautiful job of encapsulating the regret and optimism of the song. Contrast between Solar’s scenes where she’s staring at herself in the mirror and Hwasa dancing in the empty shop is effective for displaying the feelings conveyed in the song. Their fashion is stunning without being over the top, being brightly colored yet simple and easy to take in. Due to the song’s emphasis on the feeling it creates rather than on the visuals, there isn’t any choreography to accompany the video. But I think that only benefits the song; having choreography might have distracted from the original intents and purposes of the track.
The recurrence of flowers throughout the video caught my interest, because some of the members are seen just carrying them while Hwasa burns hers. It contradicts the lyrics slightly, since the flowers blooming again is supposed to symbolize the girl finally getting over the relationship and moving on. But burning the flower can stand for closure as well, so perhaps it doesn’t matter too much anyway.
Sound
The song is pretty laid back, good for easy listening. But as a whole, I found it to be very typical of the Mamamoo sound, which rubbed me the wrong way. Based on personal experience, most of the songs I’ve heard by this group have something fundamental that stays the same sound-wise and while they have had comebacks that stray from their usual concepts, ‘Wind Flower’ wasn’t really one of them. The instrumentals were relaxing, care-free, and fun. I do like the song and I think the vocals are rich with emotion, but it’s not quite something I’d go out of my way to listen to.
That wraps up this short review and I’ll return with another one soon. Until next time, take care.
—Zephyr
Musical Musings 