CURRENT #11: CHUNGHA- STAY TONIGHT

Released: April 27th, 2020

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there aren't too many soloists in K-Pop at the moment, but Chungha happens to be one of the few exceptions who is finding success promoting by herself. Yes she was a part of the reality show Produce 101 and the famous group I.0.I, but her unique vocal and dancing skills have truly propelled her to stardom and not just produce 101's platform. Like all of her other singles, Stay Tonight emphasizes performance and Chungha's choreo skills while showing off some of her vocal capabilities, but this one goes to the extreme on both ends. The result is a song that deviates a little from the typical song structure and hits both some remarkable high and low marks.

It's about time we hear a song from Chungha in the major scale, as she has not done one since Why Don't You Know, and so the sound is oddly different. It's not just the sound, but also the intro as we aren't greeted by the usual musical hook. I love the progression in the intro's amplitude, and the transition from the harp to the appearance of the piano synths to increase the sound volume. The electro bassline throughout Stay Tonight is addicting and fits a major scale song well, but I would have loved to hear background sound effects or ascending/descending chords per measure during the verse, as I thought the verse sounded a little bit bland with only the chord progression in control. The transition to the pre-chorus was a little weird to where I thought it wasn't really needed, but nevertheless, it does what it needs to do with Chungha repeating "Stay Tonight" at a higher pitch each time. The chorus dissipates all that energy with a lower-register funky-like version of the bassline but Chungha's vocals later brings most of it back, to the point where the post-chorus with that amplitude increase resembles more like another pre-chorus. This entire sequence is very unique in K-Pop, but I am not sure if I can get used to that huge drop and jump anytime soon, although I love Chungha's vocals in each section. Again, the second verse would have been the perfect opportunity to throw in additional electro sound effects to add harmonic texture, as the it sounds no different from that of the first. The transition to the pre-chorus though sounds a lot better. The bridge puts Chungha's vocals in the spotlight, but I absolutely hated the transition to the instrumental break, as how are you not going to follow up to her extreme high note and keep the impulse moving? It's even worse than that of the chorus because there's no vocals to contrast with that low-pitch bassline.

I can definitely picture insane choreography happening in Stay Tonight, as well as numerous vocal covers being done, but Stay Tonight is not without its structural issues. There are questionable placements of some sections, and almost every single transition between sections sounded jagged as a result of trying to do too much with the song's amplitude (except in the first half of the chorus). Only the amplitude is keeping the song's layers from drying out, and I wanted to hear more instrumentals thrown in like that in the intro because it sounded that smooth. Stay Tonight overall is a solid addition to Chungha's performance-centered discography but musically it needs more work.

RATING: 7.25/10