♥ LEE HAYI ♥ She is absolutely the loveliest and I adooooore her. I can’t say I’m madly in love with the album or any of the singles, but I’m head over heels (hi heels?! HAAAAAA) for her styling and all of her concepts so far. I wish Rose had more OOMPH to it because the snippet in the teaser was incredible, but the full song is rather anticlimactic. I kept waiting for a huge chorus or bridge to blow me away, but it never happened so that was a bit of a letdown. Rose is hands down a much better title track than It’s Over though and I was ready to celebrate the revival of Teddy’s ability to product music, but I have a feeling the dance beat was his idea so I’m witholding the excitement. I really want to hear the song over an orchestral background.

The MV, however, is phenomenal. It’s GORGEOUS. I really liked the twist on the song’s meaning vs the story that’s told in the music video: the femme fatale warning her lover not to come too close becomes something else entirely when you see that she is the wolf being hunted and yet she can’t escape because her own walls are imprisoning her. ✧ SYMBOLISM ✧ SO DEEP ✧ I think the quick cuts were a little distracting, but I can let it pass since it added a bit to the frantic nature of the “plot”.

And while I love Hayi’s sleepy demeanor (people with sleepy personalities are my favorite! thing! ever! ex. Junhyung / Lee Dongwook / Simon D / Bosco), I wish YG could hide her away for a while and coach her on emoting in her music, because her voice is so rich and beautiful, but she sometimes she sings like a DEAD FISH and I’m saying this lovingly. I remember reading a critique about the emotional substance in kpop idol music, which pointed out the hypocrisy of having kpop idols sing songs about love and heartbreak when most of them haven’t had the chance or are not allowed the opportunity to experience any of these things; I can completely see how it applies here. So much of Hayi’s music thus far has been about romance and relationships when she was just a regular kid last year. BUT MUSIC IS ALMOST ALWAYS ABOUT ROMANCE, you say. Yeahhh I know. I just hope that after the promotions for this album, she gets time to train and hone her skills so that the second album is even better because she is SO TALENTED it kills me to see people rag on her performances. She’s still so young (16!!) and has plenty of time to grow into a fantastic artist~ HAYI FIGHTING!!! ♡

PS PS: I always link people to this video, but my favorite performance from Hayi to date is her rendition of Im Jaebum’s For You. BoA called her out on the lack of emotions HAH, but the her voice ugh slaying me forever.