I-dle ft. Skaiwater – Mono

K-pop group with Things To Say…

[Video]
[5.29]Claire Davidson: There’s a vintage quality to “Mono,” which is so clunky in its broad-strokes “come together” messaging that it almost becomes more charming for it, its quirks at least betraying a semblance of sincerity. Indeed, there are so many left-field choices in this song that it becomes hard to pick a real standout: there’s the hook that seems to deliberately break its own rhyme scheme specifically to end on a reference to gay-straight alliances, the slurred rap verse from Skaiwater, and, most amusingly, a spoken-word bridge that features an unknown man attempting to start a pronoun circle with the members of I-dle before admitting that he doesn’t know any nonbinary people. (This voice presumably does not belong to Skaiwater, who is actually nonbinary.) Even the song’s lyrical conceit is bizarre — beyond the fact that the line “love is louder in mono” barely makes sense on its own, given how young K-pop fanbases tend to skew, I’d wager that a significant portion of I-dle’s audience doesn’t even understand the context of that metaphor. I will admit that “Mono” does have an intriguing beat, but its foundation of thumping synth bass doesn’t exactly accentuate the song’s otherwise uplifting tone. Ordinarily, that contrast would have a flattening effect, threatening to damn the track to mall-pop anonymity, but given the song’s sheer oddness, I’d wager that “Mono” will at least leave a distinct impression on anyone who encounters it.
[5]

Iain Mew: The way this metaphor usually goes, the way Kelis played it and Clean Bandit & Zara Larsson played it, when they sing about a more complex version of music it is as the better, elevated version. I-dle have mono as what they want the world to aim for (perhaps they’re mid-period Beatles purists?), complexity taken away in favour of unity. If it comes off a bit confused and limited, that fits with a song that has both a pronouns section where someone says “I don’t personally know any theys”, and a guest who uses that pronoun (among others). The possible generous reading, “Born This Way”-style, may be that it’s clumsy but their popularity means that its acknowledgements of queerness are still important; I don’t know its primary audience context well enough to make that call. So I’ll stick to saying that I enjoy its cool pop-house pulse in a soft “4 Walls”/“View” style, which musically uses simplicity very well.
[6]

Kayla Beardslee: I don’t think there’s any malice to the “right or left” line, so I’m just going to acknowledge and move past it in favor of noting that, no matter how basic the ideas may be, a track that so intentionally centers the line “whether straight or gay,” and which features a nonbinary artist and references they/them pronouns, is downright groundbreaking among the usual heteronormativity of the K-pop industry, especially coming from one of the most popular groups of their generation. (And if any K-pop group could take this path for a comeback, it would be I-dle, whose M.O. for years has been to push back on ignorance, judgment, and gendered expectations by way of catchy, confident fuck-yous.) “Mono” certainly isn’t I-dle’s most remarkable or ambitious single, but it’s a worthy of a spot in their discography for this purpose alone. The muted groove is a refreshing change-up from their louder electronic fare last year, plus Miyeon gets a nice little diva moment in the bridge; as far as this Neverland is concerned, I’m satisfied with “Mono” as standalone single to tide us over until their next proper album. Soyeon said this one is for the gays.
[6]

Andrew Karpan: When Skaiwater’s voice patches in, it sounds like it’s being broadcast from a distant high school PSA, murky and under the weight of the early, intensely plastic, communication of the late 2000s. A kind of ad-lib buoyed by grace & how we all hope we would sound, two decades from now too.
[7]

Leah Isobel: That spoken word bridge is camp, honey! The rest is fine.
[5]

Nortey Dowuona: i was going to give I-dle credit for putting a nonbinary artist on their very good song but then they don’t feature them at all in the video. No credit for them.
[2]

Julian Axelrod: It boggles my mind that nonbinary Brit-rap rabble rouser Skaiwater has gone from hijacking Rihanna and Sabrina samples on songs like “S+M” and “wna torture me tn?” to collaborating with K-pop superstars in a few scant years. The song itself is a standard, solid girl group offering, and Skaiwater’s influence is more cultural than sonic. (Gay-straight unity is cool and all, but if I-dle were real allies they’d bury their voices under seven layers of distortion.) Credit where it’s due: this is probably the first pop song to feature a spoken-word interlude where cis people exchange pronouns and say, “I don’t personally know any theys, but… I think it’s important to just be yourself.” Gay rights!
[6]