GutterPutter

K-pop is one of the certified exports of South Korea. The Southeast Asian country’s mastery over the pop formula allows it to become an international sensation since the turn of the century. Acts like Blackpink or BTS often see their singles top the chart anywhere in the world and their concerts fill within minutes of the tickets being up for sale. One of them, Wonder Girls, might have disbanded earlier compared to the mentioned names and thus wouldn’t be around to see their successes bloom to global dominance. However, one of the former members is aiming to stake in an opportunity for a comeback.

Sunmi is the artist’s name (well, mononymously that is, her full name is Lee Sun-Mi) and HEART MAID is that one answer for the comeback. Being a K-pop album, it sticks close to shiny electronic beats as the baseline for its production while the singers carry themselves an expressive inflection that is built on previously by the past Trot genre. Additionally, many of her works before on Wonder Girls or through her EPs are beloved through how she incorporates a lot of Japan’s city pop tunes into her work to make them catchy and timeless. It is for this reason that much of the record at first sounds pretty appealing. 

The intro in ‘MAID’ has its more monotonic vocal delivery and house-like drum pattern in its beat for example to catch your attention and to stand out as being “quirky” so to say. ‘뚜뚜 (DDU DDU)’ sees bits of its bassline ebb up and down in reaction to the slight shuffles in the rhythm to create an unconventional nu-disco vibe. ‘CYNICAL’ embraces some parts of Electroclash as Sunmi carries on her deadpan singing with a more minimalistic outline in its production. ‘미니스커트 (Mini skirt)’ at least has some playful keyboard playing to compliment the catchy hook and ‘Bass(ad)’ demonstrates some bit of solo bass performance. On the surface layer, much of the record does meet the criteria of being fun, harmless K-pop tunes.

It comes under further re-listens and even based on some glaring marks in the first round that the album starts to fall apart in the seams. A key problem within HEART MAID is its sterility; its pitch-perfect pop formula is so rigid in its accessibility that its themes and tunes ring hollow once the fun wears out. ‘Happy af’ has its little bit of piano which contrasts with the guitar riff for the chorus. This soft-harsh dynamic is supposed to represent a masking of negative emotions only for the reveal of wanting love to downplay its impact as being cliche and empty. It falters compared to someone like Billie Eilish whose similar style goes further in examining toxic relationships or mental health issues. ‘새벽산책 (Walking at 2am)’ highlights the sterility in its nostalgia where the piano and R&B beats doesn’t add to the bittersweet romance so much as it does porcelainize it. Then, here’s the more clear-cut instance of city pop in ‘Bath’ in which the reverbs along with the mellow bass draws to mind dreamy bedroom pop. However, the direction falters under the lyrical focus on escapism to be with a loved one where the more English delivery comes off as awkward and the backing vocal layers make the song too melodramatic.

One major instance of the rigidness lies in its bouts of retro-themed direction in the tracks where it is simply “there” without either coming off as unique or poignant. ‘Sweet nightmare’ has a kind of texture that is akin to new wave back in the 1980s. However, its tempo feels inappropriately fast in its bid to present some bit of feminist themes. To take a step further, it is reminiscent of those #girlboss kind of songs that try to celebrate women being independent without addressing systemic problems – very much like Katy Perry. ‘Tuberose’ suffers from the similar issue where its bluesy influences and more alt-rock punch doesn’t just sound out of place, but it also draws to mind the feeling that much of the album feels a bit too overproduced. It sounds too “clean” for any kind of grittiness to actually come off as convincing.  Lastly, ‘긴긴밤 (A long long night)’ sees its piano usage carry the futile reunion with your love to its exaggerated limit. It’s a ballad in the same way that Bonnie Tyler’s ’Total Eclipse of the Heart’ is mostly for the worst and while it doesn’t have the high notes, it still is weighed down by its drowsy loneliness.

Even as the shine wears off and the blandness starts to kick in, there are two tracks in HEART MAID that accredits Sunmi’s talent as a singer-songwriter. For one, ‘BLUE!’ has a certain tweeness that would remind some fans of the best girly pop songs such as Gwen Stefani’s ‘Sweet Escape’ or Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Run Away With Me’. Its vocal layers are more subdued, if not completely absent, to make the song feel more authentic and the way some of the lyrics transition to the “whoo ah!” are admittedly flat out adorable. The other track to shout out is ‘Balloon in Love’ which also carries itself the cutesy energy, yet the rock influence is front and center to accentuate the desire to be together. It’s funny thus that both the best tracks in the album happen to be more reminiscent of indie pop artists like Alvvays or Camera Obscura whose music both blend creative freedom and innocuous search for romance all together…

Which leads to my final thoughts on HEART MAID where I find it to be one of those “fast food” pop records. Sunmi shows that her songwriting can be a pleasure to enjoy and her ear for knowing which genre to appropriate into her works is a tool that compliments the eclectic side of K-pop. However, it is clear that so many of the other tracks, once you get used to the flashes in the pan, didn’t just match up to the imaginative heights of the highlights but they’re shallow in their vision. Maybe that’s in part because of the open secret that South Korea is a corporate hellhole where industry titans are so obsessed with “safe” cookie-cutter formulae that they would forgo any sense of actual innovation. That might explain why Sunmi might not stick the landing as well as she would have liked. You could well ask someone like Asian Glow or Parannoul from the underground scene about something like that.

Still, you would wish for Sunmi to be consistent in the other direction given that she’s shown the talent to deliver great songs. After all, that’s the similar kind of direction that soon fell on Fiona Apple or Imogen Heap. Fans who have been following her long after Wonder Girls’ disbandment would have been delighted to see that HEART MAID is out and ready to go. I doubt that she might attract newer ones with it however.

1.3/5