Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
After last week’s pretty disappointing string of releases we get to start this week off with something pleasant. QWER have been pretty busy recently, playing at multiple festivals and padding their YouTube content after their League of Legends collab. Now with some live performance experience and a bigger fanbase, QWER gives us another sweet pop rock single in “FAKE IDOL” to wash out that after taste of weeks prior.
The runtime is a bit short for my liking at two minutes and thirty nine seconds, but “FAKE IDOL” gets straight to the point, starting off with their signature pop sound leading up to an addictive chorus. You can also tell from both recent festivals and newer songs that QWER has easily improved in their instrument play, which isn’t to say you’re going to hear something like a Dream Theater composition, but they deliver a tight and concise package that leads to a very pleasant time and urges you to hit replay one more time.
Speaking of the composition, Siyeon is really defining that signature QWER sound, and her addictive “HA HA HA HA” throughout the song quickly infects you hear it throughout your day. Chodan‘s play is solid as ever, and as someone who loves spending hours watching Mike Portnoy videos, I have so much respect for a drummer that can fit their own technical skill inside of a song and not overpower the rest of the group. You can really hear it on repeats with those little extra fills she throws in at the right moments, which don’t overpower things but keep the song from flattening out.
One of my favorite parts of the music video itself is one that T-ara fans should recognize. Yes, the homage to the guy throwing eggs at the MBK Entertainment office, this time showing fans being outraged at the ‘fake idol’ group QWER. As the song wraps up and the “FAKE IDOL” signs turn to “Fate Idol” signs, we’re treated with a fun cameo of Soyeon of (G)I-DLE, which was a fun surprise to end things on and will probably annoy more netizens than her last interaction with the group.
angry t-ara fan throws eggs at the ccm agency building for mistreating t-ara during the hwayoung bullying scandal pic.twitter.com/1FHXeqbKyH
— . (@kpop_archives) June 3, 2016
In the end, QWER helped wash away the bland taste in my mouth from last week’s subpar releases. Is “FAKE IDOL” gonna top the charts? Probably not, but it’s still a fun little romp to throw on while grinding solo queue before this split ends.
