[#14] Brave Girls - "Nowadays You"

From: "Re-Issue"
Format: EP
Released: February
Territory: South Korea
Previous Best of Appearances: #13 - "Do You Know" (2011)

I really liked the Brave Girls' when they debuted -- "Do You Know" was a really good song, and for rookies their performances were pretty good. But then what happened between that and "Nowadays You" was kind of strange, so I lost interest until I heard this.

A lot of things about this song make it a very stereotypical Brave Brothers production -- the choice of synths, the production, and even the hook. But Brave Brothers productions have always been a guilty pleasure of mine. Most of the time they sound far too repetitive, but some of the songs they put out are too beautiful to not like.

One thing I noticed with this song is that the vocals are actually kind of whiny when you listen to them closely -- they're very nasal and push in the wrong ways. But for some reason it just works. It works nicely with that raw electric guitar-sounding synth line, it works with the dynamics of the song, and most of all it works with the melody itself. It's not a very complicated melody, but the pushing and the nasal-ness gives it some character.

I also love the dynamics on this song -- the bare yet urgent verses, the explosions in all the right places that lead to organized chaos during the choruses and hooks. You know this was made by a person with an ear for music at the very least, because even if the song's littered with predetermined formulas, they were put together really well.

"Nowadays You" is ridiculously catchy, and I guess that's also a big reason why I liked it. It's catchy but it doesn't compromise or forget the rest of the song in favor or just a few seconds of catchy. From start to finish this is a genuinely good song I've been listening to so much over this past year.