[#40] AOA - "My Song"

From: "Wanna Be"
Format: EP
Released: October
Territory: South Korea
Previous Best of Appearances: First Appearance

AOA's debut wasn't really that high up on my priority list this year, because I heard "Elvis" and wasn't blown off my feet like I was expected to, but I was pleasantly surprised with "Wanna Be". I really liked all three of the songs to the point where they were on loop for almost a week, when I usually just pick one or two tracks from a release to loop. It was a really smart and honest idea for them to release just three songs, because there's always that possibility of compromising quality in favor of quantity, something I'm not really fond of.

What really caught my attention with "My Song" was the strong production. I wasn't expecting much from them production-wise, so I guess that also made me more surprised, and more aware of the fact that this song really does have such outstanding production. I love how the production acts like deadly, sugary icing on a cake -- it's very full, very confident, but it has that sharp sweetness to it.

So if the production is the icing, the melody and all the other elements make up the actual cake. The confident vocals give the melody much-needed body, and the arrangement allows for padding during the parts that need it, and have I mentioned that the vocals are confident? They are, and I know I don't usually talk of emotion unless it's in relation to confidence, but really, that are some pretty expressive vocal technique right there. It's half because the glides in the chorus will most probably be expressive regardless of who sings, but for the rest of the song, the credit goes to the group.

The melody itself is gorgeous, graceful where it needs to be, like during the verses, but brave where it needs to be, like during the chorus. Meanwhile, even if the instrumental is pretty dynamic and varies, it does a really good job of supporting the melody, which is really the focus of the entire song.