[#48] Rainbow - "Black Swan"

From: "Innocent"
Previous Best of Entries: 2011: [#30] "Sweet Dream" / 2013: [#37] "Golden Touch"
Other notable song(s) from 2015: n/a

Honestly, Rainbow are one of my biggest regrets in K-Pop—they had a great thing going with their material at one point, and to this day I still listen to stuff like 2011's "너뿐 이라고" and 2010's "A" because they're such timeless, well-done girl group pop tracks. I was honestly surprised when I did a recap of their year-end list appearances and found out that they never broke into my Top 20. And honestly, the way their career has gone is really regrettable—to have amazing material and then lose it because of poor sales.

Earlier this year, I said "Black Swan" was one of the worst-produced girl group tracks I'd ever heard. I may have exaggerated a bit, because the track grew on me.

I still don't like the treatment of the chorus because it makes Rainbow sound nasal, and as a song I think the weak chorus fails to pull the rest of the elements together. But those verses are good enough to warrant a mention on this year's Top 50. The verses on "Black Swan" simmer—the instrumental is sparse but decisive, the perfect contrast to a flowy, melodic vocal line. When the bass line hits exactly in time with the sweeps in the melody I literally get goosebumps. And I guess the weak chorus only serves to amplify the strength of the verses.

Honestly, I could listen to the verses of "Black Swan" all day.

1 comments:

AnonymousDecember 3, 2015 at 1:20 PM
Black Swan was one of my favorites as well! Have you heard "Bad Man Crying" from the same mini-album? I really liked it.

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