Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Crayon Pop‘s conquest of Japan started yesterday with the release of “Ra Ri Ru Re” and its music video.
I’m torn on this song. On one hand, I really liked the chorus and the bridge, which were extremely J-pop in the best ways that groups that KARA capitalized on. On the other hand, the verses that were essentially reduced to talking, were too drawn out, and didn’t have the instrumental to make it work. “Bar Bar Bar” was my least favorite singles from them to date for similar reasons, but even that had verses that were more lively.
As for the music video, it’s the most boxy music video in history. They are in a box, sitting on boxes, and it’s framed with more boxes, which actually managed to amuse me. I thought the editing was great and the choreography was on point, and it somehow sort of made the concept work? Creativity in spite of an obvious low budget is a hallmark of Crayon Pop, so it’s only appropriate. Also, as usual, the girls were the best and Soyul got center position for the most of it (cause the Japanese have the best taste), so it essentially could not have ended up bad.
Despite my mixed thoughts on the song, the good news is that since it wasn’t one of my favorites it’ll inevitably go viral or something like “Bar Bar Bar”. That and KPOPALYPSE will show up to tell me why the chorus and bridge fucking suck because they were melodic while the verses were punk genius or something.
