[#6] Girls' Generation - "Mr.Mr."

From: "Mr.Mr"
Released: February
Territory: South Korea
Previous Best of Entries: 2009: "Genie" / 2010: [#19] "Run Devil Run" / 2011: [#36] "Sunflower", [#7] "Let it Rain" and "GIRLS' GENERATION" (Album) / 2012: [#5] "Animal" and [#2] "Girls & Peace" (album) / 2013: [#30] "Galaxy Supernova" / 2014: [#16] "Motorcycle"
Other notable song(s) from 2014: "Goodbye", "Wait A Minute", "Indestructible"

Anyone who knows my taste in music well knows that I have a strong love-hate relationship with SNSD -- I think there are a lot of things wrong with how they've been handled and how they're marketed, and we don't always see eye-to-eye with regards to their "musical direction," but I can't deny that they're at that point of their career where, for the most part, they're given top-tier material. And one of my biggest regrets as a blogger (and even as a fan) is that I didn't praise "Genie" enough when I had the chance -- I thought it was okay, good at most, back in 2009, but to this day it remains, for me, one of the most outstanding K-Pop releases of the 2000s.

So I'm not going to miss my chance with "Mr. Mr.", because I honestly think this is their best Korean release since "Genie." After all the "experimentation," the mess that was "I Got A Boy," I'm glad they're back to what made me sit up and notice them, and what they do best: slick, extremely well-produced (even for SM standards) pop tracks.

"Mr.Mr." is gimmicky but not cheap -- the cheers in the background, the "1,2,3,4" between the chorus and the dance break, all the random synth loops, they don't seem out of place because of both the simplicity of the melody and the "electro"-leaning nature of the arrangement. The melody is not so much about the actual notes or melodic line, but more about how it's being sung -- it takes advantage of the so-called "vocal line" with the verses that require a certain competence, while also having short, relatively spaced out lines so majority of the group can pull the verses off. On the other hand, the chorus takes advantage of the fact that there's nine of them -- strength in numbers used to their advantage, as I like to call it.

And honestly, "Mr.Mr." has most of what I like about SNSD -- they're a lot like DBSK in the sense that they take trends, they take pop "canons," and do them better. Sometimes their attempts aren't so successful, but in cases like "Mr.Mr.," they definitely got it right.

1 comments:

AnonymousDecember 28, 2014 at 10:36 AM
I remember when I first listened to this and then 2ne1's album. Everyone was like, "this song is trash compared to 2ne1". I also liked 2ne1's album (Neo Anim Andwae was amazing), yes, but I didn't really think that Mr. Mr. was trash. I thought it was great, the whole EP. Had a hard time picking a favorite, but I guess Mr. Mr. and Europa were the best in that EP. ^_^

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