Song Review:: aespa: SYNK : PARALLEL LINE- UP KARINA Solo)

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  • Release date: 2024 October 09
  • Album tracklist: UP - KARINA Solo, DOPAMINE - GISELLE Solo, Bored! - NINGNING Solo, Spark - WINTER Solo

  • Album runtime: 26 minutes

 I wasn't going to do a review on this because it's a collection of solos without a title track. This is perfectly fine to do, and I'm actually really happy that they got to do this for the fans and for themselves. When I saw they'd released an album, I was going to do a review of the title track, until I realized there wasn't one, and I, quite frankly, felt like this would be an all-or-nothing situation, where if I reviewed one, I would have to review all of them to make it fair. However, with Karina's win on Show! MusicCore, I am required to do this review, as I did for DAY6 and their win with Happy. If the other members get wins with their solo songs, then I'll do those reviews as well at that time. 

That drum at the beginning makes the entire song sound like a 1990s TLC song. I appreciate the fact that even when other instruments and beats get added over the course of the song, that drum stays pretty constant. When that drum disappears, it's very noticeable and it pulls attention back to the song, but that quick, skittering beat does a really good job of driving the song. There's a moment where the instrumentals cue an upcoming time signature change, and I'm not sure there isn't a key change as well. I deeply enjoy it when songs do that.

Did I mention this sounds like a TLC song? We ain't got No Scrubs here. Sorry. Anyway, Karina is spending this song showing off upper range, mid range, and her low range, while also showing off brief flashes of rapping. Her versatility being displayed is truly impressive.

I'm not seeing a music video for this. If an official one is released, I'll update this section.



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