Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
After a (much too long) wait, miss A has returned with their latest single “Only You.” So, how does the flawless quartet’s latest single hold up? On the one hand, “Only You” is a fairly average song that doesn’t shine so much as it dimly glows. On the other hand, the video is an exercise in ruthlessly efficient execution with Wang Fei Fei levels of perfection. If the combination of vanilla and perfection sounds contradictory, remember that religions thrive on contradictions and the Church Of Wang Fei Fei is no different.
If there is a weakness to miss A singles, it’s that they don’t oscillate much and there are few “big” moments in the group’s comeback songs. While that can work for slower efforts like “Hush,” it makes “Only You” fall slightly flat. The little horn riff that repeats throughout the beat is fantastic, and its constant repetition does a lot of work for “Only You” as the surrounding synths and snare beats studiously march along. The hooks are fairly interesting as the “breakdown” nature of them gives “Only You” a bit of a an edge that the rest of the song sorely lacks. However, everything else about the song skates by as passable. Part of this is due to the production on the vocals that adds just enough sheen to each member’s voice so that the foursome sound fairly similar, which doesn’t help with some of the monotony. Part of it is that miss A all have similar vocal talents. There is no Hyorin or Minah to call upon for a song’s climax, so the perfunctory climactic “yeeeaaahhh” in “Only You” is so brief that it almost gets swallowed up by the instrumentals. None of this makes “Only You” bad, but it certainly doesn’t help one recall a singular moment where the song blew one’s socks off. “Only You” is an agreeable single, but it never dares to be much more than that.
—–
To the video’s credit, there’s much more to like here (Wang Fei Fei bias aside, I swear). Directorial camera cuts are kept lively and dynamic, from the quick zooms to the “pans” around the girls’ apartment. Every shot makes sense, and despite the cuts, everything in “Only You” remains coherent in a way that is sadly rare for dance-in-a-box concepts. The choreography is nice and easy to enjoy thanks to the video’s decision to (gasp) frame all four members in the shot from the front so that the viewer can easily digest miss A’s movements.
The sets in “Only You” are a real treat. The apartment is colorful and filled in a way that looks “movie lived-in.” The outdoor-like set is also very nice. No one is going to mistake it for being anything but a stage, but the store fronts and extras that litter the background definitely operate within the same universe as miss A’s Apartment Complex From Heaven. Thankfully, colors abound in every set and all the vibrant colors in “Only You” helps the music video pop in a way that the song can’t match.
And speaking of heaven and popping visuals, there’s Wang Fei Fei and the other three members of miss A! Unsurprisingly (especially coming from me), the group looks utterly fantastic. Granted, this is par for the course for miss A, who have yet to release anything where any member looks less than flawless, but “Only You” is a triumph of great makeup, wardrobe, and hair that words don’t do justice. Luckily, that’s why forces wiser than I put gifs on this planet.
In all, “Only You” is a fine single made by a fine group that happens to feature four of the hottest idols in all of K-pop. The song itself is average, but the video is a great example of how to do an excellent dance-in-a-box concept that also doesn’t try to mess with that format too much.
With the song immediately shooting to the number one spot on a lot of K-pop music charts, it doesn’t seem like miss A will have to worry about the reception to their current comeback. However, it would be nice to see them try something that is a little more daring than what we see here the next time around. Hopefully, the success of “Only You” will mean that we won’t have to wait too long to find that out.
