[#48] Jewelry - "Look At Me"

From: "Look At Me"
Format: EP
Released: October
Territory: South Korea
Previous Best of Appearances: "Vari2ty" (2009)

One of my biggest problems with a lot of K-Pop girl groups is that they lack that "girl power" element. Call it a product of growing up with groups like the Spice Girls and Destiny's Child -- cutesy girl groups just don't appeal to me. I mean they don't have to run around stage breaking things or blatantly sing about how they don't need men (That totally wasn't meant to be a Miss A reference! I swear!) because even the girl groups of the past didn't do that 24/7, but there's a certain confidence, and maybe even fierceness if they can swing it, that I like paired with the femininity of girl groups.

I found that with "Look At Me". The song is very Duffy-esque on the surface, especially with the choice of instrumental, but that's basically it. The production isn't the best, which sometimes makes the song sound a bit cheap, but at the same time there's some appeal to that and if this were to be overproduced you'd lose the spunk.

The melody has always intrigued me, mainly because it's half of what gives this song that "girl power" feel, and it's also what mostly carries the song. The verses are powerful with bits of femininity courtesy of those "ooh oohs", the bridge is slightly epic, slightly feminine, but with a different kind of confidence to it. The chorus hits and it's spunky bordering in-your-face, but those three lines of melody at the end even everything out.

For some strange reason I always end up wrapping things up with delivery -- I swear this isn't on purpose either! But anyway, a dynamic melody like that is no use without strong delivery on all fronts. The right girls got the right parts on this song -- the strong vocals were put during the verses, the slightly weaker, but nice timbre was put at the bridge, and the rapper got the parts that needed that in-your-face sound. That's also the beauty of girl groups (and even boy bands) -- the song can be as dynamic and contrasting as it can get, but it'll still turn out good if it goes to a girl group whose members can deliver.