Song Review:: STAYC: S- BEBE

• Release date: 2025 March 18

• Album tracklist: BEBE, DIAMOND, PIPE DOWN

• Album runtime: 8 minutes

 Doing this one now because of the music show win, so congrats, STAYC! I was going to get to it eventually, but now is as good a time as any for this. I haven't found a song I really like from the group, though also to be fair I've only heard like four songs by this group, so I cannot definitively state that I am ambivalent towards their songs. I assume I'll find one. It just hasn't happened yet. Maybe it will be this one!

There's a weird disconnect between the vocals and the instrumentals. I like them separately, but they don't seem like the same song together. There's a lot of synthy goodness going on in this song and some bright disco overlays to the percussion. There's also somewhat of a twinkling vibe going on here. I will say, and this is going to follow over into the vocals, that there's a part where both are going in a rolling staccato, that I absolutely love. That's the point in the song where both parts are just synced up, and it feels incredibly impactful with that combination. 

Vocally, the member that's got that part feels like she's punching with the words, and it mimics the way the instrumentals are using drums to punch there as well. Plus with her voice low like that? That's pretty cool, and kind of sexy. Not going to lie. There's also a strong smoothness to the vocals where they feel like they're just rolling over the notes. But I also think this is one of the rare songs where I find myself liking it less after listening on repeat, which is curious. I think it has to do with the cohesiveness issue I was feeling. I enjoy it on its own enough that I think adding it to one of my playlists I don't listen to super regularly will keep me from running into this same problem again later. Still, before I over listened to it, it does have some good pieces and parts to it, enough that I'm satisfied with their win.

So technically this should go up in the vocals and lyrics paragraph, but I didn't look at the lyrics until the music video. I miss listening to songs that tell a story and aren't simply a declaration of awesome and different the group/members is/are. I'd like the stories to be more blatant in the lyrics, rather than being (maybe) side-lined into the music video. 

From a technical standpoint, I'm really enjoying the music video. The costuming in particular is excellent. There's a trend I'm beginning to notice with the eye-make-up where they use a red or a pink underneath the eye as well as on the lid, and I'm wondering if it's this generation's version of the 80s blue eye shadow. But I'm seeing it across boy and girl groups. There were some music show stages where Hoshi and Woozi were in the red eyeshadow under their eyes as well. It's a surprisingly good look, and I really like it on the members of STAYC that have it on in this music video as well. The funny thing is that the red eyeshadow tends to soften the face, which is in direct contrast to the style of their outfits. It's a song of dichotomies.