(G)i-dle is a very popular group within K-Pop known for creating songs that have a catchy chorus and lyrics that deal with serious topics. As one of the group’s main vocalist, Minnie delivers amazing high notes and occasionally introduces songs with a dark concept. Before releasing her own album, she would sing for K-dramas and with other artists for collaborations.
For her first album, Minnie included a total of 7 songs: “Blind Eyes Red”, “Her”, “Drive U Crazy”, “Cherry Sky”, “Valentine’s Dream”, “It’s Okay” and “Obsession”. Based off of her normal sound in her group’s songs, I would have guessed that she would’ve went with more slow songs, but this album contains a lot of darker sounding songs.
All of the vibes of these songs are immensely different, even though the sound is similar enough to fit perfectly into this album. “Blind Eyes Red” is probably the darkest overall, but also one of my favorites. It is so different from what is normal in K-pop concept-wise, and she really executed R&B perfectly. The track “Her” exudes confidence and speaks to what the entire album is about. There really isn’t much to say about the song other than it has a catchy beat and is just good. “Cherry Sky” is a vibe of a song, and I can see myself casually listening to it. The more that I do listen to it, the more I can practically feel it in my veins, if that makes sense.
The two slower songs, “Valentine’s Dream” and “It’s Okay”, are what I expected from Minnie. They fit her very well as a vocalist and what I had thought her style was. “Valentine’s Dream” is perfect for slow dancing and sounds like her songs in Kdramas. The other song, “It’s Okay”, is probably my least favorite song out of the rest. It isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s almost the same throughout the whole track. She puts good emotion into this song, so I do like it and will probably listen to it when the mood fits.
Minnie collaborated with two artists on this album, one of which was her groupmate Yuqi. The two had previously got together for a song on Yuqi’s solo album, and I really like how they decided to continue the trend on the song “Drive U Crazy”. I was the most excited for the final track of this album, “Obsession”, because Minnie sang with Ten, one of my favorite solo artists. I love how the song sounds like running in an open field, or on a road trip with your friends.
When I usually listen to new Kpop albums and love them, they are well recieved with fans too. Surprisingly, the highest amount of listens on one of these songs is only a little over one million. For this genre of music these numbers aren’t exactly crazy. Minnie really did good work for all of these songs and hope for her to continue doing so in the near future. I believe that this album is extremely underrated and would recommened anyone to give it a listen if it seems like its your style.