CURRENT #1: ITZY- WANNABE

Released: March 9th, 2020

Making a spectacular debut last year with Dalla Dalla, JYP’s newest girl group has been hitting all of the right notes so far. Dalla Dalla, as well as their other single Icy has led the girls in a direction completely different from that of their labelmates TWICE. Like all their other singles, analyzing this song requires breaking it down and dissecting each part, as each of them, although sounding different from each other, somehow blend together well.

The song starts off with a calm, but perturbed music-box tune that seems to foreshadow a slow build-up, before kicking full gear to a bouncing electro-synth loop that just screams ITZY (did anyone really expect such a build-up from ITZY?). The sound effects help to smoothen this transition, although I would have loved to hear more of the music box melody in making the transition seamless. A guitar breakdown is followed to bring us to the chorus. I like the use of sound effects between the measures in the verses to keep us intrigued, even when the verses do let off a little too much steam from the intro. The chorus plays to the song’s strengths with additional horns in the background, but the post-chorus takes the trophy home here, as I love the use of the rock guitar for the chord progression. My only complaint is the abrupt ending, as I wish the progression could help smoothen the transition to the 2nd verse. The 2nd verse does sound more disjointed than the 1st, as an alternation between the raps and the singing could have been done instead. I don’t dislike the placement of a dance breakdown at the bridge, but I do feel as if it causes the bridge to cool off too much after building so much energy in the chorus. In general Itzy’s vocals also struggle to match the notes that are much higher here than in Dalla Dalla and Icy, and this results in them coming off as more strained and less natural.

One thing to note is that the song is much more melodic with less chanting than their 2 previous singles, but still has enough“in your face” attitude. I ultimately welcome ITZY in exploring different arrangements that are out of their comfort zones, and I know that they can make any arrangement their own. The song is a wonderful addition to their high-energy, fun-to-dance-to discography that proves that ITZY is designing a complete different image of their own.

RATING: 7.4/10