[#50] Son Dambi - "Dripping Tears"

From: "Dripping Tears"

Format: Extended Play

Released: November

Territory: South Korea
Previous Best of Appearances: #41 - "Can't U See" (2010)

Son Dambi was one of the first acts I was introduced to when I was first getting in to K-Pop, and over the year's she's has her fair share of amazing singles. 2010's "Queen" was pretty good, so I was sort of curious of what she'd deliver this year.

"Dripping Tears" wasn't exactly a pleasant surprise, but it was pleasant. It's very Brave Brothers, which to most people, me included, makes it very generic. But to be completely honest, amidst the cheap synth loops and ridiculously overused drum kits, if there's one thing that the Brave Brothers know how to do well, it's make a beautiful, yet still pop, melody. They're so surprisingly good at it, that their melodies have become one of my biggest guilty pleasures, actually, and this is just another one of them.

A lot of people react negatively to the Brave Brothers, and even I have a pretty comprehensive list of everything I dislike about their productions, but people have began to overuse the fact that they make rehashes of everything. Originality is a good thing most of the time, and of course being generic and directionless aren't very good qualities, but some of the best songs are songs that are familiar to us, or songs with familiar elements. Bottom line is that even if most people would like everyone's material to be different, a good song isn't necessarily one hundred percent original, it isn't necessarily always the newest thing since anything.

Sure, "Dripping Tears" may sound too much like the Brave Brothers song that it is, and it may be ever so slightly outdated beside all the other trendy songs on this list, but I like it. I like it because I think the melody is gorgeous -- it has this slightly sharp, slightly cheap sound to it during the chorus and especially the hook, but it also has this rounded, smooth quality. It's soft to the ears, making the song graceful, but at the same time that sharpness gives the song enough kick to carry Son Dambi and her extremely airy, flat vocals. As far as the arrangement and instrumental goes, it's very plain, but I really like how the bass line is very full, creamy almost. It gives the song body. Not kick like the melody, but body.

Throw everything together, and honestly the analogy that has been on my mind for a few paragraphs now is mozzarella cheese. Mozzarella isn't a sharp cheese like cheddar, like how the bass line is subdued and kind of muffled. The cheese becomes really soft when you melt it, but what makes mozzarella good is the fact that it also becomes chewy, like how the melody of the song isn't strong but still manages to grab your attention.