[Review] Ailee does things her own way in “When We Were In Love”

Ailee is back(!) with her fifth mini-album, I’m. Headlining the album is the emotional ballad, “When We Were In Love”. Not only did Ailee gift us with a new mini-album but her own mini-drama as seen in the music video below. Check it out for all of the feels!

I’m not crying you’re crying!

In all honesty, this song actually took a few listens for me to feel something. The music video is an excellent piece of drama but during my first listen, I felt the song lacked in a way, as if the song didn’t carry the weight of emotions the music video was portraying. But, I think it’s grown on me a lot! Musically speaking, of course. The lyrics are another thing altogether -which I’ll get to shortly.

The piano and string accompaniment is really beautiful in the intro of the song. For those who are fans of Korean drama OST’s, would all agree it instantly gives you a familiar feeling. This ‘feeling’ pretty much lasts throughout the piece. There are no twists and turns or anything particularly worth noting that’s out of the ordinary. It’s a clean-cut ballad and there’s nothing wrong with that! There are a few stylistic decisions I don’t necessarily agree with (I don’t love belting in a ballad), but that’s subjective. Regardless, I can imagine Ailee and ballad fans alike will share relatively positive reviews for this release.

With all that said, it’s the lyrics where I believe this song really shines and is arguably the best aspect of the song. Ailee takes a different approach in her ‘story’ by putting the onus of her breakup on herself and apologizes for the mistakes she made, “when we were in love”. She expresses this as clear as day in the chorus:

When we were in love
Why didn’t you say anything?
How frustrated you must have been
When we were in love
I only did things my way
That’s why it took a breakup
To truly know you
Finally

Beautiful. Definitely check out the rest of the lyrics as it really paints a picture and is a crucial part of the puzzle in what makes this song great.

Last but definitely not least, is that a shout out is warranted to the no-doubter Actor of the Year, Lui the dog. What a friggin legend.