[#39] f(x) - "Pretty Girl"

From: "Pink Tape"
Released: July
Territory: South Korea
Previous Best of Entries: 2009: "Lachata" / 2010: [#46] "Mr. Boogie" / 2011: [#32] "Hot Summer" / 2012: [#47] "Beautiful Stranger"
Other notable song(s) from 2013: "Signal", "Goodbye Summer", "Airplane", "Toy"

There were quite a few tracks off "Pink Tape" that I enjoyed, and that I was choosing from to put on the list. "Airplane" was one of my early favorites, but I quickly outgrew it (and the live performance that I saw was a let-down), "Goodbye Summer" is also really pretty but doesn't really go any further than that, and "Signal" didn't have enough moments to sustain the whole song. So "Pretty Girl" it was, and for good reason.

f(x) have always had this sleek, young sound -- trendy synth lines, clean production. While sometimes the trendiness goes overboard, especially when they pile on the auto tune and try to play "how many trendy synth lines can you cram into one song", there have been times when they've embraced and went places with it -- "Pretty Girl" is one of them.

This is a slightly messier song in terms of what's going on with the sounds, but unlike other more recent SMP tracks I think it works with "Pretty Girl." There is enough of a shock factor to jump from the urgent but lay-low verses, to the screaming, exploding verse, to the anthemic chorus (complete with R&B/Rap "hey hey hey"'s in the background) -- transitions are snappy, making the juxtaposition of the three elements effective. But while it's easy to jump to another sound, it's quite difficult to jump back once you've gotten somewhere completely different. So I was impressed the most at how the choruses went back to the verses/rap, and how it was done with the same snap and conviction as the forward transitions.

The elements themselves are proficient. Like I said the verses start building that sense of urgency that carries on to the (very) urgent bridge, and the harmonies used for the vocals give it dimension. The bridge is a scream-fest, but it's matched well with stadium-ballad-worthy elements, mostly the stomping drum line. And the chorus is anthemic, catchy, but melodic. The entire song, actually, despite the fact that there's a lot of chanting and the vocals are treated in different ways for different parts, manages to stay melodic.