I guess I live under a rock. I went on vacation for a week and came back with shock that Starship Entertainment's SISTAR, one of the major acts in K-Pop at the moment, not only released a new single, but also dropped an entire album: 'Give It To Me'. While I'm head-over-heels for the title song, the rest of the album doesn't exactly sit right. While overall I appreciate the effort put in by the group, 'Give It To Me' ends up being nothing more than a collection of suspiciously-heard-before fillers which doesn't progress SISTAR's musical presence. Yet despite this, I hardly doubt this will detract the most ardent SISTAR fans as it's a feed that they're more than used to consuming from them.
Give It To Me
On first listen, it's clear that this song is heavily influenced by the disco feel SISTAR's 2012 smash hit "Alone". While I personally didn't care the most for "Alone", I felt this type of genre actually allowed the best of the group to be brought out, rather than the flavor of the month that "disco" became to be last year. The obvious difference in "Give It To Me" is that it more uptempo and somewhat instrumentally more interesting. This superficially erases the "sad disco" label that branded "Alone", which gives "Give It To Me" a quality that will likely give it more sustainable airplay in radio and club settings. While musically the song is nothing special, it is darn catchy and likely the least cheesy of any SISTAR song pumped out so far. Hyorin, as usual, shines in her belting at the end of the choruses, which is primarily responsible for the high amount of replay value contained within this song. And again, she proves once again why she is arguably the strongest performer (regardless of gender) in mainstream K-Pop.
I say "superficially erases" above as this song is still lyrically quite depressing as a whole, regardless of which interpretation of the song you choose. In sum, the song depicts a protagonist who is frustrated by the lack of love she is receiving from her significant other compared to the immense amount she has given. On a socially acceptable level, this type of "love" will likely be viewed as the idyllic teenage romance love of writing love notes, giving flowers, and generally puppy love. Yet if the music screams anything plainly, it's likely the girls are sexually frustrated. While the multiple in-your-face sexual innuendos and choreography of the music video is enough to suggest this, the constant repetition of the English loan words "give it to me" tends to reference a physical object or act, rather than the mere concept of love. Regardless of what "it" is, it is obvious that SISTAR really wants it as these lyrics—perhaps unimaginatively—takes up around 70% of the song's lyrical content.
The Way You Make Me Melt
The next track, "The Way You Make Me Melt", replaces the typical rapping role that belongs to Hyorin with the underground rap duo Geeks. This is a nice change up as not only does it positively feature a relatively unknown artist with a major headlining group, but the rapping is actually competent and skillful in a SISTAR song for once. A laid-back, stripped-down, acoustic pop song, this essentially serves as a duo between Hyorin and Geeks, with Soyu and Dasom switching roles of singing the refrain. I've written before about my frustrations concerning the balance of SISTAR, namely that the group is basically Hyorin-and-guests and that Hyorin should really have a solo career, and this song doesn't necessarily help this annoyance. Why they bother adding other members in this track is beyond me: they don't add anything and they likely only subtract from what would be a great duo (or trio depending on how you look at it) effort.
Bad Boy
"Bad Boy" continues the trend in K-Pop where the musical setting does not match the lyrical content. Here we have a relatively straightforward, peppy pop song that is highly akin to most other filler songs in the SISTAR songbook collection. Albeit the song is somewhat excruciatingly boring on a whole, the song is uptempo enough to suggest a light-hearted lyrical content. Instead, we have a pretty harsh critique on an unknown love interest, with the group (and by that, I mean pretty much Hyorin) repeatedly calling this person a "bad boy" over and over again. I'm sure one could conjure up that the mismatched lyrics to represents some sort of sarcasm or playful arguments with the love interest, but any deep reading seems like a waste of time. More or less this concurrent happening is due to a random picking of lyrics in a large bin and using whatever was picked first.
Summer Time/A Week
The next two tracks "Summer Time" and "A Week" are merely fillers and don't really warrant a conversation. Perhaps the only notable thing about "Summer Time" is its obligatory summer-theme which SISTAR seems to be known for since their release of "Lovin U" in summer 2012.
Crying
Unlike the track "Bad Boy", the track "Crying" makes lyrical/musical sense. This is likely the closest thing to a ballad on the album, but overall it's not that special. While Hyorin does have some nice vocal moments, I don't know why I would ever bother listening to this song again.
Hey You
"Hey You" sounds more reminiscent of something 4Minute would put out than what I'm used to from SISTAR: this song quite a bit more urban-y and electric-y than the typical straightforward K-Pop of the latter. This isn't necessarily a bad thing: it gives a break from the staleness that SISTAR often falls victim too. Overall, the song is surprisingly listenable on a whole. The refrain, in particular, darn catchy, especially when Hyorin does her scalar leaps on the "ooh" syllable. Also notable is Bora serving perhaps her largest role of the album here. It's nice to hear her do some kind of extended work, and ultimately does a serviceable job at providing the rap breaks between the choruses.
If U Want
The next track, "If U Want", continues the same vein of relative urban-ness found in "Hey You". A slap-bass heavy R&B track, the song flows nicely on a whole. This is arguably the most soulful that I've heard Dasom and Soyu sing in this album (I'll leave that up to you to decide if that's a good thing or not). Unquestionably the least Hyorin-and-guests feeling of the album, which actually is surprisingly nice to hear. From a lyrical standpoint, this song is quite the opposite of "Give It To Me": rather than the female protagonist being frustrated and forceful, this song depicts a much more sensitive, non-narcicist version of the woman in that she is thoughtful for the male's desires. So much for album continuity.
Up and Down
"Up and Down" just seems like they ran out of ideas. It's not really special in any way, but it's not entirely bad. It's a bit slow for a club song, but I could see this being a nice medium as a remix…but I doubt that'd ever happen. While it doesn't end the album out on a bang, it certainly is a fitting culmination of my opinion on the album as a whole: while there are a few nice points, there is too much reliance on old, standardized fillers which fails to progress SISTAR on a musical level. Perhaps 'Give It To Me' would have best been served as a mini-album, but kudos nonetheless for SISTAR in recording all the originals placed here.
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