SNSD’s take on disco with “All Night” results in one of their best singles

Since “Holiday” was an upbeat dance track, I figured that surely “All Night” would be SNSD‘s sentimental anniversary mess. Again however, I was pleasantly surprised that they opted instead to basically continue on with the same vibe as before, just with more of a disco twist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_YzgDFegrU

In a way, the spoken word of the music video is the sappy fanservice everybody expected and basically makes it impossible to listen to the actual song. Fortunately, the audio track doesn’t include that, and what we get is quality modern disco.

Two things conspire to ruin it, unfortunately. One is the inexplicable inclusion of YoonA‘s whiny, childish ‘I like to party’, which is the first thing you hear on this track. The other is the equally inexplicable choice to let Tiffany drop an attempt at rapping, which ends about as terribly as you expect.

That said, those bizarre choices don’t ruin the whole effort, as “All Night” is far too appealing for that, but it’s more of a disappointment that every time this pops up on your playlist you have to be subjected to that in an otherwise amazing anniversary track from SNSD. And “All Night” is amazing, as in many ways it’s a far superior song to “Holiday”, which can have a hit-or-miss aspect to it with its musical feels. “All Right”, on the other hand, carries over the celebratory atmosphere and adds a throwback disco twist to it along with a bassline that won’t quit.

Perhaps most importantly, “All Night” is much better at using calm as a tool and building to an apex than “Holiday”, which makes those apexes feel higher and more impactful, making “All Night” all the more effective. In the long run that’ll help the replayability factor (not to mention the fun factor at concerts), and despite some odd hiccups, this was one of my favorite SNSD singles in a while.

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