Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Red Velvet stars as f(x) in their new music video “Ice Cream Cake“, and f(x) is usually a pretty reliable route to go.
Sonically, this is much better than their previous efforts, and it’s the first time where I get a sense of direction to the group, at least in terms of what their future identity might be. The music video is also nice and open with sets that stand out, sort of along the lines of Nine Muses‘ “Gun“. Though this music video doesn’t really have any story, it’s just about throwing a bunch of artsy stuff together for the hell of it to look pretty, and to their credit, it does look pretty.
Yet, there’s something still missing for me. I came into this prepared for it to be the hit that finally makes them relevant forever like a lot of SM Entertainment groups have, but the hook simply wasn’t as catchy as I anticipated and it was more disjointed than I expected. For instance, the rap parts, despite not being Minho level bad or anything, did make the song drag like hell right in the middle for seemingly no reason other than they ran out of things to do vocally.
Most importantly for them, despite me liking this much more than the snoozefest of “Automatic“, I actually think “Automatic” will score better with the public. I could be wrong since I don’t exactly have the pulse of the public in terms of my preferences, but despite the generally positive reaction to this thus far, I get the feeling “Ice Cream Cake” will struggle to really take hold and be that hit they need.
That said, this comeback should mark the start of movement up the charts and it sets up their future nicely by breaking out a lot of the potential that’s been sat on.
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1) Fans of the group weren’t pleased with the addition of a new member, but she’s not distracting at all because, quite frankly, I had to yet to distinguish any of them yet, and this ‘White Chicks‘ concept certainly hasn’t helped me along that route. The new member just fell into line, and I still think that remains their biggest obstacle.
2) I actually liked this more on first listen than I did on subsequent ones, which is when I noticed how much the rap drags down the whole mood of the track.
3) Boy this isn’t gonna help f(x) fans who are already paranoid, because Red Velvet just took their sound.
