SNSD - Run Devil Run

SNSD are back and following the current girl group trend, they're donning a supposedly 'dark' image. Hmm.


A little background on the song - the 'concept'/makeover was hinted as early as the release of the Oh! music video that featured the nine girls in black outfits at the end of the video. Once the song finally surfaced earlier this week, it was brought to knowledge that Ke$ha recorded a demo a while back but the license/copyright was sold to SME Korea and the song went to SNSD.

The song is definitely a departure from their cutesy image during Oh! promotions, but before I start actually reviewing the song itself, I have something to say. As a non-biased SNSD listener (meaning I listen to SNSD material but only choose what I like), I'm sick and tired of all these 'image changes'. I don't like the fact that their pattern ever since they came out with Gee early last year is cute-not cute-cute-not cute. I don't like it because it's confusing me - who the effin' crap are SNSD as a band? What are they, cute or not cute? Yes, there should be change, but like I always say, it should be a growth rather than a complete 180.

SNSD constantly changing in gargantuan proportions only means one thing to me - they're one of the most capitalist-controlled bands I've ever seen because only someone who doesn't know anything about music can do something like that to 9 pretty decent performers.

But that aside.

The song isn't very original in my opinion - it sounds like a cross between their earlier promo single Chocolate Love (for the LG Chocolate phone) and Kara's Lupin. It's a midtempo verging on uptempo and I'd have to admit, after listening to it once, the hook was stuck in my head. It wasn't as annoying as Gee and Oh!, but I believe that it'll never match Genie in terms of production. Although the production on this single is pretty OK too, considering the oftentimes crap production all these other Kpop acts get.

In short, it's catchy in the non-annoying way. It's not that annoying mainly because their vocals weren't cute-i-fied but the treatment of their vocals is similar (NOT identical) to the treatment they got on Chocolate Love, which I hated - it's like a toned down version.

Surprisingly, the right girls get the right solos/airtime on this song - Taeyeon, Seohyun and Tiffany. The three take most of the melodic parts and they do it pretty well, thankfully. Yuri gets like a line or something, which is good, but I wish Sooyoung got a solid singing part - she would've matched the song nicely although I highly doubt if she'd be able to deliver it live. Jessica got a ton of exposure on this as well, but I find her vocals annoying. Yeah sure she matches the cute side, but I do not like their cute side.

I don't like the pseudo-rapping/talking/pseudo-singing throughout the song, but I think I'll learn to live with it the more I listen to it.

One of the reasons why I held off reviewing the song was 'coz I wanted to see if it was like Genie that took some time to sink in. (that and I literally didn't have any time whatsoever during the week) The conclusion? I don't really ADORE it, nor do I hate it, but the good thing is that after a few days of listening to this almost non-stop, I haven't gotten sick of it. Usually if I listen to a kpop single as much as I did this, I would've thrown up if I ever heard it again. That's a good sign, but I'm not that keen on the song.

One thing's for sure, it's better than Oh!. I know I gave that song a pretty high rating and responded pretty positively to it when it was new but the cuteness makes me want to hurl. Oh well.

4.5/5