CURRENT #10: OH MY GIRL- NONSTOP

Released: April 27th, 2020

Never before had I been super excited for a comeback like Oh My Girl's. The girl group is career-wise soaring higher than ever and has all of the momentum favored towards them right now. 2 successful comebacks in 2018, a terrific first full-length album and title track SSFWL in May of 2019, and a successful appearance in one of the most talked-about variety shows later that year in Queendom (as well as the magnificent song Guerilla that should have had a music video) has Oh My Girl riding very smooth waves. Guerilla was so good that I wouldn't have minded if they had quickly made a comeback after Queendom with that song. Well nothing was released, but Oh My Girl has finally returned with the title track Nonstop. I would have thought that Nonstop would serve as a testament to their experiences after being in the industry for 5 years as well as their time in Queendom. Well I can tell you that when the chorus started to play in Nonstop, my smile quickly turned upside down.

The tropical synths in the intro should immediately scream a certain genre that seemed to have faded in K-Pop after 2017 (yep, tropical house). However, my expectations were high and I didn't think Oh My Girl would make it purely tropical house. Instead of playing that tropical hook over, we simply hear a lower octave variation of it which seemed somewhat reassuring, but not what I was looking for. Throughout the verse, we hear a good amount of vocal hooks like "yayayaya" and "nanananana" which is pretty typical for songs of this genre. Mimi's sing-rap part is pretty refreshing but it's obvious that it's sounds processed. The pre-chorus shuts off the hook and puts in the typical EDM build-up with the clapping sound-effects in the beat, except this one doesn't seem to be as loud as the beat distorts for a little bit. I was still feeling the song regardless cause I believed Oh My Girl would deliver when it mattered. My jaw dropped. Like every other tropical house song, Nonstop decided to let the girl group to stop singing and have the DJ take care of everything else. I absolutely don't like it because I prefer powerhouse vocals to carry forward all the momentum from the pre-chorus, and "nanananana" does not count. A beat drop like this one that's so repetitive in melody kills the energy instead. As if that wasn't bad enough, we then hear another freaking repetition loop; the "nonstop" post-chorus hook. The change in beat makes no sense at all, but it's not like keeping the beat the same in the post-chorus would have changed things. Nothing changes in the second verse except Mimi sounds even more processed. The bridge almost sounds completely non-existent with a pretty lousy trap-breakdown of another rap part, especially done right after the post-chorus. The same hook from the verse plays again and I am once again contemplating whether I'm hearing a third verse instead.

Oh My Girl's Nonstop almost felt like a punch to the gut after counting all the blessings from their earlier comebacks. It's a pretty average song to welcome the near-arrival of summer after what's been a non-existent spring for all of us around the world, but musically it is a total disappointment. I didn't mind Oh My Girl bringing back tropical house but Nonstop didn't reinvent the genre at all. Rather it took all of its weaknesses and sewed them into one song from beginning to end. Here's to hoping Oh My Girl will deliver next time.

RATING: 6.9/10