Girl’s Day – “Something” Review

Girl’s Day – Something (Dance Version)

Girl’s Day – Something

Reviewed on July 11, 2014

Personal Message: Well there must be something going on…Girl’s Day  is that something! And alright I should stop with horrible puns for the start of a review, right? Anyways, as planned, time to review some Girl’s Day because these amazing, cute, sexy, beautiful, smart, and talented ladies are having a comeback in two days! Or was it three days? Doesn’t matter, it’s close enough. 

Personally I’ve been a Girl’s Day fan for a while ever since I heard “Something”. The very first song I heard from them was “Expectation”, and that greatly raised my expectation for their other songs (Note: I will review “Expectation” some other time). Ignoring the pun, I didn’t get truly hooked onto them nor their music until this song. From this song, I loved it and I also saw some extremely funny videos about them. Their care for each other and how sweet they are is what truly made me become a fan.

Anyhow, their cuteness nor sexiness isn’t a factor when it comes to their song’s quality. So let’s find out if there really is “Something” going on.

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Song Total Score: 8/10 (8/10 raw score) – Average score of the sub-categories, separate so Choreography Score doesn’t affect it.

– Vocals: 9/10 – Girl’s Day is packed with talented vocalists; in specific, Sojin provides very smooth, yet sustained high notes and Minah provides so much energy and power. Hyeri and Yura add in with their lines and further augment the vocals. 

“Something” is sang in a pretty high note, and seeing how these ladies pull it off is incredible; it’s quite respectable and the harmony and melody is well done. 

– Song Structure: 8/10 (8.33/10 raw score) – Going to have scores for “Verse 1 score”, “Pre-Chorus score”, “Chorus score”, etc.) 

The song goes in this structure and order:

Introduction, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Conclusion

So for “Song Structure”, I’m going to go through each section (Verse, Chorus, etc) and give a score per section. After that, the average is the “Song Structure” score.

1. Introduction: 9/10 – Already from the start, Minah’s voice is used to captivate the audience. Minah sings in a sweet melody, the introduction definitely leads the song in the correct path and the transition to the instrumental/beats works perfectly. Minah also does a fantastic job with handling the English lines. From what I’m noticing, her English is vastly improving. “You and I”, a song sung by just her for a K-Drama, had plenty of English lines and I felt that they were fluent for the most part. Anyhow, Minah does an excellent job.

2. Verse: 8/10 – Slow. Sexy. That’s really the best way to describe this verse. Sojin and Minah are in charge of this section. Both of them, in my opinion, are the star singers of the group so we can expect a lot for this. The verse starts off with a somewhat slow pace; it’s completely acceptable, though, since it helps build up the song. Their slow pacing along with reaching some high notes create an unforgettable melody.

3. Pre-Chorus: 9/10 – Once again, another extremely solid score. The very famous “Something” melody is introduced here. If I’m correct, Hyeri takes quite a few lines for the pre-chorus and she does an exceptional job. The low to high pitch melody is generated here by her, and that melody is what makes this pre-chorus and song special. Yura also chips in after Hyeri’s first lines and brings down the pitch to a lower end. Eventually, Sojin sings as well and brings in nice high notes for the end of the lines: “…wae deolkeok geobina, ison nwa…" Sojin does an excellent job with hitting the "ah” sound of geobina and nwa and creating a high note and melody. However, it’s not finished until Minah steps in and adds quite a decent amount of “power” and intensity to the song for the final words. That ending by Minah is the cherry-on-top, if I may utilize that saying. Transitioning to the chorus becomes no issue thanks to her.

4. Chorus: 9/10 – To be very honest, I didn’t expect myself to grade this song this highly. So far, three 9/10 scores. The chorus is definitely catchy. What’s awesome is the fact that it still plays off the melody while throwing in Minah’s powerful vocal for an added layer. Sojin’s initial lines sustain the melody and following up is Minah. Now she does a phenomenal job with adding the right amount of power to the song; it’s not enough to break the current, softer melody, but it’s sufficient with building up the song’s most intense part. After the chorus, the song takes a pause before starting once again on the verse section. I find that completely suiting since the chorus provides this song’s top energy. 

5. Bridge: 9/10 – One of the more solid bridges I’ve heard in songs. Yura starts off this section with a higher pitch, but she remains soft and sustains the already well established feel and melody. Minah then takes over and doesn’t continue the softness; in fact she starts building up intensity and ends with a high amount of power through the lines: “…bye bye bye, out” This bridge does its role well; to transition back into the chorus/song and “Something” definitely has that bridge. The transition back to the chorus goes smoothly thanks to it. 

6. Conclusion: 6/10 – Unfortunately, this song struggles with closing itself. The conclusion’s purpose here was to “de-escalate” the song’s intensity, if that phrasing doesn’t sound too awkward. After such an intense and powerful bridge along with a final chorus, which was actually even more powerful since Minah performs a “2 part” (Not sure what the actual term is, but it’s pretty much an extra layer of singing. For example, if you listen, while the chorus is taking place as usual, Minah throws in an extra line and “ohhhh” part), the conclusion tried to bring down all that high intensity for a smooth, calm ending. However, with continuing the same high note and by actually singing relatively quickly, it didn’t feel too much calmer. I do give credit to the very last line though, that did close the song, but the conclusion was lengthy and too quick paced to truly bring the song down in one final farewell. If they were singing with a mix of either being less high pitched or slower, it might’ve been better.

– Line Distribution: 9/10 – Honestly looking at the distribution, it’s near perfect. Sojin and Minah can be seen with more lines and being a bit dominant, but Hyeri and Yura definitely got their important lines that were vital as well. Everyone sang where their strengths were and everyone had a decent amount, so overall, a perfect share. I guess the only thing that might be worth complaining is how Hyeri is missing near the end, but she did her job earlier and it would be hard to fit an extra person anywhere near the end. 

– Instrumentals: 7/10 – The instruments definitely suit the song and mesh well with the vocals, however, nothing was special about it. They weren’t bad at all, but nothing was sticking out nor augmenting the song directly from the instruments. It was the chemistry among the ladies and the instruments that pieced together the song, not the instruments alone. 

– Meaning: 7/10 – Before we get started, let’s actually take a look at the full lyrics, in English. Although keep in mind, it’s not 100% accurate although the meaning is very blatant, nevertheless.

Anyhow here they are:

Don’t you look
Into my eyes and lie again
I’m sick of being alone

Your shaking face and words
Seems like something is up
A strange scent is all over your body
Seems like you’re possessed by something

Maybe you felt guilty at my guess
I caught you off guard and you’re so out of it
Your story keeps changing here and there, what’s wrong with you
Maybe you felt guilty at my guess
I caught you off guard and you’re so out of it
Why, are you scared all of a sudden?
Let go of my hand, don’t lie to me

I was the only one who didn’t know about this something
I clearly feel it, must be something
Your obvious lies,
it’s over
Nothing, it’s something,
stop it

That rainbow inside the gray skies
The sadly crying piano
A strange scent is all over your body
Seems like you’re possessed by something

Maybe you felt guilty at my guess
I caught you off guard and you’re so out of it
Your story keeps changing here and there, what’s wrong with you
Maybe you felt guilty at my guess
I caught you off guard and you’re so out of it
Why, are you scared all of a sudden?
Let go of my hand, don’t lie to me

I was the only one who didn’t know about this something
I clearly feel it, must be something
Your obvious lies,
it’s over
Nothing, it’s something,
stop it

Don’t try to gain love so easily
Don’t regret
You deceived
and made a girl cry
You’re only up till here
Bye bye bye out

I was the only one who didn’t know about this something
I clearly feel it, must be something
Your obvious lies,
it’s over
Nothing, it’s something,
stop it

Was the love I gave a joke to you?
Were you sick of the love I gave you?
I don’t want to show you
the tears I held back
Was the love I gave a joke to you?
Were you sick of the love I gave you?
Are we over?
Are we over?

So the song is, in summary, about a woman catching her partner cheating. Pretty much, she feels “something” is wrong and now addresses him about it. 

While I do enjoy the story behind the lyrics, I just feel there’s a lack of anything deeper; as a result, the lyrics become average. Don’t get me wrong, this song is VASTLY more meaningful than plenty of other songs, (such as “Nice Body” as I reviewed a few days ago) but it’s just about the man’s reaction to being caught and how the woman is responding to it. Definitely not bad, but nothing super meaningful nor interesting. 

Nevertheless, I would say the lyrics are good and I enjoy them.

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Choreography Score: 8/10 – This dance is sexy and beautiful; you can see for yourself by clicking the link above this review. The dance video should be shown. 

Pretty much the dance is slow paced and more graceful when the song is the same, and of course, once intensity increases for the song, so does the dance. To see a song sync with its choreography provides a lot of joy, and that’s what “Something” does well.

Now the only negative things I would say would be the very start. The “cat dance” as Girl’s Day calls it (I think, anyways. Feel free to YouTube: Girl’s Day Something Let’s Dance to see the sweet ladies teach some key points of the dance. It’s funny, cute, and awesome to see and learn) is quite strange. It’s somewhat sexy and it matches the beat somewhat, but it does NOT fit with the rest of the song’s theme. Contrast the rest of the dance to that one start and you’ll notice it; the cat dance is out of place. And unfortunately, since there’s such a huge gap from that, I’ll have to give it an 8/10. In the end, the dance is still awesome and there are a lot of key points that are super fun to watch. 

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Overall Score: 8/10 (8/10 raw score) – So overall, this song comes out with 8/10 or 4/5. So definitely above average, but it’s not something that will break out as the top K-Pop song for my personal list. And alright, I am sorry for that pun. 

Anyways, the song is great with its melody and well timed changes in intensity. The transitions are great, and the dance goes perfectly with it, minus the beginning. This song is still worth a listen, and Girl’s Day definitely deserves the attention and fans due to this song.

Girl’s Day will be coming back soon with a new song, so I will be looking forward to supporting them and reviewing it. From what I’ve seen “Darling” will be the title, so perhaps a cute concept versus a sexy concept this time? Although since it’s Girl’s Day, they’re essentially both: cute and sexy.

Girl’s Day, fighting!

Well now it’s the end of the review; I spent only an hour and 20 minutes this time, but it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. Hopefully you guys found this entertaining as well and I hope it provokes YOUR thoughts about the song/music in general. 

Thanks for reading, and expect more reviews to come.