Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Hello Venus have returned to us with “Mysterious” after what seemed like forever away — or maybe that’s because I just don’t remember how their last comeback even sounded. Either way, their most recent effort is certainly an improvement over that, but how much remains a question.
Everything about this comeback should work for me, yet even a day later I’m still sort of torn on “Mysterious”.
On one hand, the chorus is absolutely infectious (vocally, at least) and there are a lot of elements to the song that I enjoyed. In particular, the whistle interludes were utilized nicely and Lime‘s contributions shouldn’t go overlooked. On the other hand, there’s something distinctly … tacky-sounding about the instrumental, and that unfortunately gets ratcheted up to the max during the hook. I honestly listened to this over and over to figure out why exactly I didn’t love it like I felt I should, and I concluded a lot of it had to do with the backing during the aforementioned infectious chorus, and if the producer had just toned that down a bit it wouldn’t make listening to “Mysterious” uncomfortable enough that it hurts the replay value. Plus, the repeating chorus reminded me of Hyoyeon‘s “Mystery” for some unfortunate reason.
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The music video reminded me a lot of AOA‘s “Excuse Me” in concept, but instead of Dick Tracy it was like ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel‘ on a train with cuts to a group of hot girls dancing at The Fortress Of Solitude.
“He’s so dreamy, hot, and creamy.”
Well that certainly applied to the male leads of Seo Kang Joon and Eunwoo of ASTRO, and “Mysterious” was a rare girl group music video that provided male eye candy as well.
On the female side of things, Nara, of course, looked great…
…but I will always love Alice more.
One specific thing I loved about the choreography was this gun move that kicked off the hook, as it seemed to embody the spirit of the song.
So no complaints about the music video, which didn’t bring anything new, but executed the concept as well as could be expected.
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Given that I actually enjoyed “Mysterious” for the most part and my downgrade of it had less to do with something obvious and more to do with a quirk I personally found annoying, I would expect that most people would love this comeback. And while I wish I could join the parade of international netizens this time crying out for how “Mysterious” deserves so much more, I just don’t quite feel it that way this time around despite all of the positives it contained.
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‘Mystery Of Venus’ Album
“Mysterious” Song
