Song Review:: QWER: Fake Idol

• Release date: 2024 September 23

• Album tracklist: INTRO, Fake Idol, My Name is Malgeum, Let's Love, run! run! run!, Goodbye My Sadness, REBOUND, OUTRO

• Album runtime: 22 minutes

I've heard from various communities that Qwer is the band to listen to. I haven't yet, only because I've been working through the TVXQ!, A.C.E., and g.o.d. discographies. There's so much. Anyway, I'm looking forward to hearing this, although I'm not a fan of that run time. That got rounded up.

I love it. I love it so much. 

Okay. I'm not even going to attempt objectivity. I was going to, and then I heard the pling! of getting coins in a video game, and that was it. That's all she wrote, folks. The bass guitar has some fantastic stuff going on. I hear a piano, or more likely a keyboard. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, other than the fact that the instrument is included and gets points where it shines, like with the coins audio. The instrumentals establish patterns and then as soon as you think you've got a handle on them, they change enough to throw you off balance, but not enough for them to be unrecognizable from the source material. It's got the audience participation clapping invitation I love. Give me more funky guitar. But as it is, this is a hype-up road trip song, and I love that about it.

The vocals remind me of a more energetic Supersonic. There are sections where the two melodies sound similar, which is good. I like the melodies for both of them. The ones for this song just sound fun. I love fun sounding songs. The song reminds me of anime for some reason. I don't know why I have this image in my head of, like, a round mech suit while I'm listening to the song. I think maybe it's because it sounds like the little I've heard of J-Pop, and that's why my brain is associating it with anime. I don't know. It also sounds a little like Orange Caramel for some reason? Maybe this is just a very Pledis sound I'm hearing without being from a Pledis group, which I'm okay with. I obviously have a big soft spot for Pledis groups so the association, for me, is a very good thing. Also, the "1! 2! Q! W! E! R!" is going to live in my brain rent free for a while. Using the expectation of a "1 2 3 4" against me? So nice. It's amazing. I can't decide if I want more in the runtime, or if I just think it's practically perfect as it is.

Funky animation! I mentioned in the Easy dance review how much I adore random animation in a quirky music video. Guess what shows up here? That's right. Random animation. This is such a weird music video, and I absolutely adore it. It's framed as a news story, and has a lot in common with Is This Love? by Moonbyul. I also loved that song more than is probably healthy. But in my defense, how could you not? And with Fake Idol kind of following in Is This Love?'s footsteps, I'm sorry. I have zero choice in the matter. But even with all of these elements coming together to entice me to loving the group as a whole, and this is literally how easy it is, there is one thing more powerful than any of the others, and it happens to also be my favorite thing about Marvel movies. 

The music video has post-credit scenes.