[#49] 4Minute - "Only Gained Weight"

From: "Only Gained Weight"
Released: February
Territory: South Korea
Previous Best of Entries: 2010: [#43] "HuH" / 2011: [#48] "Mirror Mirror"
Other notable song(s) from 2014: "오늘 뭐해"

4Minute have always been one of those mediocre groups for me -- they've had their fair share of strong releases, but for the most part nothing about them really blows me away. And considering how they've been around for just as long as I've been in K-Pop (I still vividly remember all the backlash they got for HyunA and being "2NE1 copycats"), they've settled into a sound I neither hate nor love.

Brave Sound, both surprisingly and not, is responsible for the quite unexpected rise of 4Minute -- "What's Your Name?" was apparently a huge hit in Korea, which is rare for K-Pop because it's usually targeted at teens and pre-teens. I admit that I like "What's Your Name?" and the singles after more than I do most of their past releases, but I attribute that to one quality of Brave Brothers productions that I oftentimes overlook. You cannot deny that Brave Brothers songs, even if they all sound the same, are well-composed. They're good compositions. Of course creativity is a whole other argument, but the one thing K-Pop has been short of for so long, one thing 4Minute have not had since their debut days, is a cohesive, well-strung together composition.

"Only Gained Weight" is one of those tracks. It's a very simple song, very Brave Brothers, but in 4Minute's repertoire it's so refreshing to hear something as cleanly-composed as this. It's a standard structure (none of that "Mirror Mirror" or "Volume Up" mess) of a cohesive sound -- this is a song you can play over and over again, because it's no-frills. No nonsense, just melody and instrumentation with a tight arrangement and strong production. No(t much) screeching, no HyunA sexy-fests, none of the qualities that has turned me off so many potentially good 4Minute songs.

And while "Only Gained Weight" may pale in comparison to other, more original/creative entries, there will always be room for strong compositions as far as I'm concerned.

1 comments:

AnonymousDecember 2, 2014 at 9:33 AM
OMG I thought everybody overlooked this track but I am glad one of my favorite K-pop songs of 2014 got on this blessed list! Very simple, very BB, very clean production -- I definitely agree with your commentary.

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