We have our limits.
[Video][Website]
[5.00]
Megan Harrington: There’s nothing about “Marionette” that immediately presents itself as unforgettable, but I, too, miss En Vogue. A great thing about En Vogue was that they were all grown women who sang with great authority. Stellar present what strikes me as a niche sexiness (those leotards with bra holes are an acid flashback to Regina George) that might be more convincing without their reliance on breathy sweetness.
[6]
Alfred Soto: The stutter beats and guitar runs scream anything but “marionette,” and the harmonized vocals’ becoming thickness projects a welcome solidarity.
[6]
Patrick St. Michel: A fair share of contemporary K-Pop has put as much stock in its visuals as it has the music. It worked – back in the glory days of the K-Pop trend story, a heavy emphasis was placed on music videos and fashion. It wasn’t a top K-Pop songs list…it was a top videos countdown. The clips, in particular, went viral and drew media attention for being over the top, “Gangnam Style” being the peak moment. The problem since has been, in an effort to get attention, K-Pop acts have been attracting all the wrong type of talk. The past year saw a bunch of videos getting called out as racist (or at least race appropriating) and here’s the latest controversy stoker, “Marionette,” thanks to being overtly sexy. It has been called out quite a bit by liberal-leaning international K-Pop fans, and its all because K-Pop has really been built around images. The song though…pretty darn good. It’s a smooth, disco-tinged slither that manages a far more complex, sad sexiness than the video. Yet that has been overlooked for the most part, but the powers that be should understand that by now.
[7]
Brad Shoup: The drums are too much. If there were transitions — or even a guitar melody — they’ve been beaten away. On top, it’s practically a sea shanty, but it’s too late: I’m turning green.
[4]
Jessica Doyle: There have already been so many witty ’80s-retakes in K-pop recently (see “Big Baby Baby“) that this one has no case to make. Unless a drag cover version is in the works. (BTS? Please? Please please please?)
[4]
Sonya Nicholson: If it hadn’t been such a slow week in Kpop when this turned up I doubt we’d have chosen to review it. Dull song, dull (and kind of gross) video, although competent enough. The correct song to round out today’s Korean chart battle would have been CNBlue’s Can’t Stop (listen here), which only appears to be boring, but in fact has a kind of anesthetized madness to it. When I was sick all last week with a bad cold and couldn’t get hyped up Can’t Stop sounded better to me than anything off 2NE1’s album.
[5]
Madeleine Lee: I like Sweetune; I hate exploitative marketing practices. Where was this song when Infinite needed it?
[4]
Anthony Easton: Mid ’90s Eurovision was not a good time for anyone, and I would appreciate a trigger warning before someone tries to revive it.
[2]
Scott Mildenhall: A couple of years ago Antonia came out with a really quite horrible ballad bearing the same title as this. “We’ve become some poor excuse for love”, go the lyrics, and therefore “I wanna be in your control… as close to love as we’ll ever get”. All of that, prefaced by two words: “she says”. Her agency reduced to having her story told for her, and no-one can offer any explanation as to why she feels like she does. Stellar tell their own story, and yet they offer absolutely no reasons either – even Sandie Shaw had “all the fun of the fair” sometimes – so does that make this, despite the vigour, even darker?
[7]
Iain Mew: “Let Me Fail to Blow Ya Mind”
[5]