2NE1’s Fierce Comeback
The reigning queens of K-Pop are back with their long awaited new album “Crush”. If you’re anything like me (massive girl-crush on CL, “Missing You” on repeat on my iPod, tired of slowly being drip fed single after single after single) this is pretty exciting news. “Crush” boasts nine new tracks, three of which were penned by the insanely talented Miss CL herself ( “CRUSH”, “IF I WERE YOU” and “BABY I MISS YOU”).
Any doubts around whether 2NE1 are the greatest living girl group on the planet were emphatically crushed (excuse the pun) when they claimed victory in a head to head battle with Girl’s Generation and their new single “Mr. Mr.” on SBS’s Inkigayo last week. Park Bom burst into the tears as the girls humbly received their well deserved crowns.
The headline single off “Crush” is “Come Back Home” which starts with reggae beats reminiscent of “Falling in Love“. But with its freaky post-chorus dubstep breakdown, it seems more like the much darker break-up sequel to the former single.
The best things about the song, hands down, is the music video. A Matrix-like dystopian fantasy, this video breaks the mould of K-Pop M/Vs in so many ways:
- It actually has a cohesive plot that isn’t just girl meets boy, girl falls in love with boy, boy breaks girl’s heart, girl cries. With a twist on the “come back to me” theme of the song, it isn’t another woman that’s taken away Dara’s love – it’s an alternate reality called “Virtual Paradise” that allows people to escape the bleakness of the real world. Then the leather-clad girls come in leading a rebel uprising and blow up the place with molotov cocktails and baseball bats.
- The video carries a clear social message – get off your phone, tablet, and computer and engage with the real world with real people. A message that’s particularly relevant for Korea – probably the most highly connected nation in the world.
- It’s an upbeat pop song but the girls don’t dance. I repeat, the girls do not dance. At all. There is no dancing.
- There are no lingering close ups of the girls’ body parts. So I guess you’re supposed to enjoy the actual music, the style and concept of the video, and the girls’ talent and character or something crazy like that.
Watch it for yourself HERE.
The second single that was released with the album is “Happy”, a pure pop track where the girls try to stay up-beat and cheery after being cruelly dumped.
The video is again so refreshing for different reasons. With the girls all glammed up in their signature style which could be described as “Neon Biker Goddess” they again prove that you don’t need to wear matching skin-tight outfits that expose thigh, midriff and cleavage to look gorgeous and totally sexy.
The M/V is also damn cute but not in way you’d expect. There is no “Aegyo” to be seen here, just adorable little comic graphics popping up, and the girls are all natural smiles and sass as they strut down the streets of a very non-Korean looking neighbourhood (think Big Bang’s “Bad Boy”). The fact that it was filmed on real streets with natural light, rather than inside a studio, is a breath of fresh air.
K-Pop come-backs are so hotly anticipated that disappointment is sometimes inevitable, but not here. 2NE1 and their team at YG Entertainment have outdone themselves, so much so that they set the record for the highest-charting K-Pop album on the Billboard 200. That’s my girls.