CURRENT #21: WOO!AH!- WOO!AH!

Released: May 15th, 2020

Is the arrival of the fourth generation close upon us? Every single member in the new girl group Woo!ah! was born in or after 2000, marking the second time after ITZY of such an occurrence. It felt like yesterday that when Apink debuted in 2011, I went into complete shock after I found out the groups's maknae Hayoung was younger than me, setting a milestone in my mind. Now everyone debuting these days is around the same age as my younger brother. The age of the group obviously has an influence on the public-appropriate lyrics, but to some degree it also has some impact on the composition of a song. Woo!ah!, named after the group itself expresses both the quirky and the mature sides of the group, setting the bar quite high for the next comebacks to come.

Woo!Ah! is a mid-tempo song injected with hip-hop and electro-pop influences in the verses and the chorus, respectfully. The hip-hop rap in the verse has the song going in a more serious tone, before the phrase hooks come in and loosen up the production. It's almost quite polarizing, but it somehow works without ending up sounding like 2 different songs. The rap itself is nothing ground-breaking, but it's quite refreshing to hear it at the very beginning of the verse. The rap transitions nicely to the catchy "ba-da-ba-da-bing" hooks, bringing in that flavor of lightheartedness, even if there's nothing else added in the background. The production changes things up in the chorus section, where the stagnant electro-bass now has a melody. There's that one extremely high synth sound echoing the "Peek-a-boo" that's brief, but works in diversifying the chorus even more from the verse and also grabs the listener's attention. The vocals themselves are nothing special, but they do more than enough to avoid Woo!Ah! from sounding monotonic, and I particularly like overall how the song seamlessly goes from sounding bland in the beginning to a chorus that is almost as uplifting as I expected it to be. The composition itself is quite minimalistic, with mostly just the manipulation of the bass synthesizer, with some piano being heard in the bridge. However, the hooks are effective enough to keep the song progressing. It follows exactly what the typical structure of a song is supposed to sound like, even if there's no extra piazzaz sought here and there. I will be looking forward to whatever the girls have in store next.

RATING: 7.3/10