[#11] 2NE1 - "그리워해요"

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From: "그리워해요"
Released: November
Territory: South Korea
Previous Best of Entries: 2009: "I Don't Care" / 2010: [#9] "Clap Your Hands" / 2011: [#16] "Ugly"
Other notable song(s) from 2013: n/a

Just like everyone else, I read other K-Pop blogs and reviews as well after I write my own -- it opens up other angles I would've never explored otherwise, and gives me a picture of how other people generally think about a release. But for some reason, I never read any of the reviews for "그리워해요" -- I'm pretty in the dark about the general consensus on it, but what I do know is that I personally really, really like it.

I like the elements on their own -- the very 2NE1-like verses, the sharp choruses in a strikingly minor key, I like the melodies and all the sounds the song made use of. But I'm also aware that it's pretty all over the place. But unlike other songs that are all over the place because they can't pull themselves together, "그리워해요" is all over the place because it chooses to be.

What provides the friction on "그리워해요" is really the instrumentation, and to a certain extent the vocal technique which is also influenced by the instrumentation. The verses sound very rounded, with the water droplet loop and the electric guitar that if it were a picture, would be one put under an instagram filter. And then you have this sharp chorus, amplified by the fact that it's in a minor key and a key change, with very minimal instrumentation -- just a guitar line -- and layered vocals.

The melody brings the whole song together in the sense that it's still a melody you can sing from start to finish and it will make sense. Even with the shift in motif from the verses to the choruses, the melody keeps everything together. If it were paired with a linear instrumentation, it wouldn't seem odd. And as a melody I think it's really pretty -- simple, but versatile. That adaptability allows the rest of the song to run in a million different directions, with the comfort of knowing that the melody will pull them all back together.