Song Review:: BOL4: Bloom

• Release date: 2024 October 23

• Album tracklist: Bloom

• Album runtime: 3 minutes

 I have had this sitting in my drafts, partially done, since October. I'd like to clear out some of extensive draft pile I have, and as I have a moment, I'm going to.do this one. She's done mostly singles this year and only one album a year for the past few years, which feels like a reasonable amount of music to release.

As I was listening to this, noting the floatiness while still being grounded and general pleasant quality of the instrumentals and smiling at how well they match a song called "bloom" while figuring out what I'm going to say about it, I happened to glance over and saw "The Rose" as composer and lyricist. And I thought to myself, "No, that can't be right." So I went to double check the information and what do you know, but this song is essentially a collaboration between her and The Rose. And, even cooler, while Park Dojoon is one of the recording engineers (as well as a handful of other positions), the other one, Yeo Minsoo, also worked on the majority of the World Ep Fin album from ATEEZ as well as TANG TANG TANG by 90TAN, the newest BTOB subunit. Nice. BOL4 is also a composer and lyricist for Bloom under her real name, Ahn Jiyoung. So that's all very cool.

There's a very strong quality to the instrumentals where the guitar and drums take front and center. I was a little surprised by it, but not after seeing the credits for the song. There's a focus to them that I expect not to have in a song of this style, There's also a very second gen girl group feel to the song. Yes, the song matches something that you might hear from Girl's Generation, but more than that, it just feels solid. There's no risk to this song just floating off in the wind. The dirigible that it is is well anchored to the ground. Even if it wanted to try to fly away, it's not going to, but somehow, it also sounds like the title track for a survival show. Gentle EDM.

She's got a youthful voice, which matches the concept of the former duo that BOL4 was, and I'd kind of love to see her team up with VIVIZ. Her voice is so incredibly clear that even when she's using a little bit of a breathy tone, it never quite works, and I'm actually interested to see what else she can do with it, which I'd like to be clear is very beautiful. 

That is an absolutely lovely music video about finding yourself and finding the joy in your dream, while she sings about how lovely your dream is. It's bright. It's happy. It still works as the title track for a survival show. I did laugh a little at the ghost that showed up because it reminded me of NCT Wish's song Steady, which also features a ghost in a sheet. Both are frankly inordinately adorable.