Song Review:: Chung Ha (I.O.I): Alivio- STRESS

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  •  Release date: 2025 February 12

  • Album tracklist: Creepin', Salty (with Sunmi), Loyal, STRESS, Beat of My Heart, Even Steven (Happy Ending), Thanks for the Memories, Still a Rose

  • Album runtime: 24 minutes

 Hello. Yes. I am tired. A weekend of fan meetings that were livestreamed, which happen in the middle of the night where I live, and my sleeping schedule has been badly impacted. So I'm hoping my coherency is there for this.

Also, it's been bothering me since I added this to my drafts so that I'd write this review about where I knew her name, because a quick search didn't spark why specifically I knew her name. Member of I.O.I wasn't exactly helpful because I don't know that group other than being the older sister project group to Wanna One and part of the impetus for the NU'EST members to join up for season 2 (because of the Pledis trainees). I wasn't until I looked at her discography to find this song that I finally understood why I recognized her name. Jay Park's title track from back in October was why I recognized her name. So that's pretty cool. I really liked her voice in that.

Audience participation snapping. Yes. We get a house track with this one, providing a thumping beat and high danceability. This actually would make a great group dance number song, so I hope that she's got a large number of backup dancers for this. The slowdown, accompanying the audience participation snapping, and then the subsequent beats of rest for before the climax do a really good job of building the anticipation and allowing the climax's power to be louder than it would have been otherwise. Great use of the energy and dynamics manipulation.

I love her voice. She's got such a strong voice, with excellent control. Even at her softer, breathier points in this song, her voice is still so clearly well supported that I'm delighted. We also get a great range in pitch, with Chung Ha having a couple of moments where she gets to be somewhere in a properly low range that makes my little alto heart happy. They're few and far between, but I'll take what I can get. And her belts are glorious. It's been a long time since her days on Produce 101, but if her voice was a quarter of what it is now, I'm completely unsurprised by her getting fourth place on the survival show.

Wow, she's gorgeous. She is "punch you in the face" gorgeous. Wow. Okay. Anyway. Sorry. We got the big group number as I wanted in the music video, which delights me to no end. We actually get a few of them, but the best part is we actually get a bit of a storyline, which essentially breaks it down to, there are a number of different situations that can cause you stress, including but not limited to work, school, and hobbies, but you also need to find ways to destress from those situations. I think the entire song and its music video can be boiled down to a line from the song, which is "Honey, love yourself best." And yes, this has been added to playlists.



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