[#26] SPICA - "Tonight"

From: "Tonight"
Released: August
Territory: South Korea
Previous Best of Entries: 2012: [#25] "Since You're Out Of My Life"
Other notable song(s) from 2013: n/a

I've been on the SPICA bandwagon since last year -- I adored "I'll Be There", as well as most of the "Lonely" EP -- that early on it was pretty obvious how talented they are. However that didn't stop me from being very, very surprised to see how suddenly this year everyone jumped on the bandwagon too. I know why though.

"Tonight" was the single that got people who weren't initially talking about SPICA, to talk about SPICA. While I don't think it's a phenomenal song (if it was then clearly it would have ranked higher), I think it's laden with strengths that are impossible to deny.

First, the production and arrangement are extremely competent. "Tonight" is one, big party with explosions left and right, especially during choruses, but it knows how to get there, how to get back, and when to simmer down. There is a very clear, but natural build-up to all the chaos of the chorus -- the first verse as pretty bare compared to the chorus, but there is a sense of urgency in the very "fingery" piano line and the bass line, that further builds up to the bridge before the chorus just explodes with "hey hey hey"'s and this very, very pretty but gutsy guitar line.

And more importantly, obviously the vocals on this are lightyears ahead of most girl group vocals especially girl groups of SPICA's stature. For the most part, it's the vocals that make the song. You have a pop melody, that like other pop melodies can be sung by anyone, but SPICA do it better, with more character and more effortlessness. The belting at the chorus could have been disastrous, and usually for less capable girl groups the solution is to pile on the auto tune and put layer over layer over layer of the vocals. But none of that was used on "Tonight" -- the choruses have a clarity to the vocals, no "strength in numbers" or fancy studio tricks anything, just straight singing.

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