Song Review:: Jeon Somi: Ice Cream- Ice Cream

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  • Release date: 2024 August 02
  • Album tracklist: Ice Cream
  • Album runtime: 3 minutes

    There's a particular texture to Jeon Somi's voice I deeply enjoy that I had the pleasure of hearing live at KCon LA 2024, and I particularly appreciate that it works so well with a sugary sweet summer bop like this. 

   Unfortunately, sugary sweet is just about the only thing memorable about this song, which is so frustrating considering how much I love her voice. Realistically, the pre-chorus and the chorus don't show up as often as I think they do, but the amount of time given to them versus anything else makes me feel as though that's all the song is. Because of this, listening to the song on repeat traps me in a time anomaly where I have no idea what point in the song I'm at for any given moment when I zone out or zone in except for the very end. It's even in English, which you think would help considering my Korean is not very good, but it might as well be in Russian for all that it helps me know where in the song I am.

    I love brass instruments, which is part of why I was so hopeful to absolutely adore this song on my first couple of listens. And her voice has some of the same qualities as Peggy Lee and others from that era, so having the jazzy brass going on had me excited. But the song never changes in tone or texture. It just stays at one level and never strays too far from too sweet, reducing that gorgeous voice to a novelty ice cream of the cursed SpongeBob variety.

    At least the music video has more texture to it so you can track where in the song you are. I like the music video. If you only watch it once or twice, you might be forgiven for not noticing how repetitious the song itself is. The choreography is interesting (though, again, not super dynamic but with the music video, it's not as noticeable) as well, which, instead of improving the song, just makes me feel worse for it. 

    On the other hand, for someone who doesn't speak English, this would be a fairly easy song to learn and practice pronunciation on because of the repetition. There are only so many words you'd actually need to say, nor is it particularly fast, both of which very much help with that, speaking from experience of learning both French and in the process of learning Korean.

   Whoever composed and produced the song could have done so much because her voice is so absolutely lovely. Instead, we're left with something so cyclical, it's suffocating.

    It's a shame.






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