Show Luo – Ai Tou Luo Wang

King of dance, but not of our scoring system.

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[4.71]Iain Mew: Of all the East Asian music industries looking on at the K-Pop phenomenon, Taiwan’s seems the best placed to follow its path to wider success (Japan is playing a different game). If anything, the lavish video to “Ai Tou Luo Wang,” complete with Luo’s newly G-Dragon-like look and an appearance from Ga In, makes its aspirations a bit too obvious. Still, while less distinctive than the Jeannie Hsieh song we covered recently, the rough-hewn approach adds enough personality to be more than just imitation. I love the release offered by the jagged synth skipping and “woo-ooh”s in the chorus.
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Patrick St. Michel: A brief glance through Show Luo’s past singles reveals a versatile artist who knows just when to latch onto a pop trend. Besides the practically mandatory ballads, he’s been cast as hip-hop guy, bubbly pop duet-er, and marching band captain. He isn’t a stranger to the whole EDM-pop thing – last year’s “Count On Me” is a pretty manic take on the style. “Ai Tou Luo,” though, comes off a bit more phoned in, the whole thing feeling like Show Luo’s team listened to some Big Bang singles and thought “let’s try that.” Which, despite a mini-controversy online centered around whether Show Luo ripped off G-Dragon’s hair for this video, is especially a let down as I think Show Luo deserves more credit than being a K-Pop biter.
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Madeleine Lee: You know what, I had wondered what “Mr. Simple” would sound like if it were only one song instead of five. According to this, though, the answer is: pretty boring by the third or tenth repetition of the hook. Maybe an out-of-nowhere key shift would do this some good after all.
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Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: From queenly Zoolander walk-off to warmly delivered kiss-up to cluttered club wobble SFX, there’s little organic movement for Show Luo here. There’s a sketched-in romantic bent to “Ai Tou Luo Wang” but one wishes he could focus on one ideal. More of the middle factor, please, what with the darkwave arpeggios and snap armies of digital back-up singers.
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Anthony Easton: If his everything just consisted of those amazing woooos, and the introduction, I might actually be his baby.
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Brad Shoup: My favorite part is where he lowers his voice to the buzz. Attempts at takeoff are stalled, however: repeated phrases and BEP-style hoots are not distinguishing features.
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Alfred Soto: After the density of the opening bloops and beeps, the chorus yearns most unbecomingly, as if a nervous marketing department stitched the track together.
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