Taeyeon belts her way to death on “Fine”, which has a fatal flaw in over-processed vocals

Following the release of her pre-release track “I Got Love“, Taeyeon is back with “Fine” off her first solo album, ‘My Voice‘.

“Fine” is a quality twist on the acoustic alternative pop songs of the 00s, but instead of settling for the soft snoozer that I thought it would end up as, a quality beat eventually dropped in to give it some oomph. Vocally she sets the mood well with a melancholy sound that’s actually somewhat uplifting at times, the contrast of which I found interesting.

That said, speaking of vocals, why does it sound like there was an audio mistake on this? The unnecessary processing on her vocals during the chorus has this static or disruptive quality to it, especially noticeable as the notes get higher, and it’s distracting to the point of ruining immersion for me. I’m confident she doesn’t need to actually strain to hit most of these notes, but whatever they did in post certainly makes it sound like she’s constantly straining throughout. On an upbeat, poppy song it’s tolerable, but when the vocals are the main draw it’s definitely a significant negative.

Furthermore, I feel like there could’ve been more subtlety used during the chorus, as the continuous belting got to be a bit much and felt like we were being smashed with a sledgehammer over and over when some finesse could’ve been used. The combination of that belting and whatever they did in post to her voice makes this rather grating over the long haul.

So there were positives to “Fine” that could’ve resulted in a quality throwback alt-pop track, but aside from what I felt like was disastrous processing on her vocals, I just couldn’t escape the feeling that this would be included on a early-00s teen rom-com soundtrack. It would definitely fit perfectly into that type of atmosphere, but like the rest of the songs from those movies, “Fine” was ultimately forgettable.

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‘My Voice’ Album

“Fine” Song