Not remotely like “I’m Gonna Getcha Good”…
[Video][Website]
[5.57]
Jonathan Bogart: It was the music video’s shot of a model dressed up like Shin A-Lam in the tensest moment of this year’s Olympics that keyed me into the mood of the song: inspirational, but in a much more specific way than the usual thumping key-change delivery system. Nationalism maybe, industry-alism definitely — love or hate its most obvious manifestation, 2012 is the Year That K-pop (and K-culture more broadly) Broke, and Epik High are running a victory lap on more than just their own account. And here I am stuck rooting for the underdog.
[6]
Alfred Soto: The voices are discrete, the chorus well titled, but the generic production is the sound of global Guettatized hegemony.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: Did will.i.am pick up a Shania Twain record on one of his Korea trips? (Which version of Up! would that make this, anyway? Ultramarine? Electric purple? Bah, I’m putting more thought into this than they did.)
[4]
Patrick St. Michel: The members of Epik High have spent the last few years doing compulsory military service, so it’s appropriate that the chorus to “Up” sounds like something chanted during a group exercise. The rest of the song stays on its toes, the singers moving along with different tempos and sounds. The vocal contribution from 2NE1’s Park Bom is kind of anti-climactic, though.
[6]
Iain Mew: As much as I love 2NE1, Park Bom’s interjections drag this down a bit from sounding too powerful and mannered for the surroundings – not quite Park Bom Bom but too close. I would rather listen to some more marching beats and Epik High showing off their versatility some more: being inspirational and serious, and bellowing over sirens for the fun of it.
[6]
Anthony Easton: When exhorted to do something, my most common reaction is to stubbornly refuse. I want nothing more than inertia when this song tries for energy.
[3]
Brad Shoup: The thing about inspirational songs is that they’re so often baldly self-actualizing exercises. Still, people love ’em (Eminem can credit his ’10s resurgence to the moment of clarity) because when you’ve gone to shit, any sweetness is welcome. The differences between this and, say, the Peas’ exhortation exercises are slight. Bom taps a grandiosity Fergie could never match for technical and aesthetic reasons, and Epik High leaven their pop-rap with pure homosocial Eurochant. It’s more than finding the will, it’s discovering the pleasure. I think they’ve got it.
[10]