Song Review:: Hyolyn (Sistar): SHOTTY

-

  • Release date: 2025 September 02

  • Album tracklist: SHOTTY

  • Album runtime: 3 minutes

 If I'd been caught up for the last few months, this would not have been my first Hyolyn review. Alas, this one was. In other news, watching Queendom 2 (because even though I wholly disagree with the whole potential elimination thing, I like to use them to get to know groups, their dynamics, and their styles), I was a little unsure about why everyone was kind of falling over themselves for her. Like, she was good. But I wasn't that impressed. Hearing her live, however? I heard her voice and went "I repent of my previous opinion. I was wrong. She's amazing." Owns the stage. She's incredible. And it's over three minutes, so I'm looking forward to this.

I'm less surprised than I thought I would be about this being a sultry track. I will have to say that I actually kind of love that it sounds like the same bars are at the beginning and the end, and listening to the song on repeat as I do leads the song to actually sound like it never ends. There isn't a whole lot of variation to the song. Some instruments do get added occasionally, but the energy level never changes really. It's not a very dynamic song, which I'm using in the moving sense, not the volume sense, although now that I think about it, that's also accurate. 

This would have been the perfect song to dip a little lower for. We've got some variation in pitch for the upper range, as well as some absolutely gorgeous vocal runs for the ad-libs, but I'd also say that there isn't a lot of variation in general with the vocals. She maintains roughly the same tone and texture throughout the entire song, which is fine only because she's got such a good voice with such good control over it. In the hands of a lesser artist, this song would probably fall flat. I think a lot about a quote my acting teacher once said: "A bad script in the hands of a good actor is still a bad script." not that this is a bad song. There are just pieces to it that feel like they could have been expanded on to add more layers.

The woman has daggers for nails, and she's incredibly gorgeous. Also, this is basically a performance video. It's pretty much just choreography.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Battle of the B-Sides:: Stray Kids: MEGAVERSE

-
Image
 Yeah, I'm still continuing this. Needed some mental motivation and then I got a nice little boost, so here we are, here you are, and here this is. This comes to you from The Form , so if you've got a song you want me to highlight, go for it. Throw as many or as few as you want. For the person who submitted this, I hope it finds you. And also for the dance practice you want me to highlight. I too am very much into the dance practices, so I'm deeply looking forward to this. This is my second Stray Kids post for either a GH or a BBS, the first being My Pace , so it'll be fun to do one that is a lot more recent. (I have another one on the list suggested by my Stay friend, so that'll happen eventually) Before I begin with the chatting about the cool bits of the song, if any of you get hit by the Felix Effect, do let me know. If you don't want to let me know here, you can find me over on Tumblr (or wherever else you happen to have found this, I post them in places). ...
Read more

Battle of the B-Sides: LABOUM: 빛이 되어쥐 (Be the Light)

-
Image
 Unless I do The Roulette Wheel, I obviously can pick which of the suggestions I've gotten that I'll write posts for. I also have a spreadsheet where I have my posts organized by generation and boy group, girl group, and co-ed. The co-ed groups definitely need more attention, but I'm taking these last few Specialty posts to focus on the girl groups because they're not my natural inclination, and while the Roulette Wheel is weighted equally, I don't like that it's uneven. So, I ignored my normal addition of the B/G/Co-Ed Wheel spin and just did it for a girl group, and I ended up with LABOUM. I'm not sure I've heard of them, so this will be exciting.  LABOUM is a third gen girl group that are younger sisters to U-KISS and Brown Eyed Girls, which is wildly hilarious considering the last GH post I did was in fact for BEG's song Abracadabra . So, that was unintended. 빛이 되어쥐 , or Be the Light  as I will be calling it through this because while it would be...
Read more

August 2025 Wrap-Up: The Witch is Back!

-
Image
 Okay, everyone. Welcome back!!! It's been a hot minute since I've written one of these, but considering how many songs I didn't review over the course of the last three months, I didn't feel like I had enough done to warrant a wrap-up. Still, let's get to it! And yes, the title is a reference to the movie Hocus Pocus , but also, I absolutely adore Nina Simone's . High Priestess of Soul, indeed. Back to K-Pop, first up, our lovely debuts. Now, to be clear, I do have a couple that I'm still planning on covering and once I do, this will be updated, but still. The debuts I covered were N. Top , idntt , AtHeart , Cortis, and soloist ZZONE (cignature/Good Day) . Debuts I'm still planning on covering are Rainbow18 and ZOONIZINI (ASTRO). Other debuts include MADEIN S , OFF EQUALS , IXIA , LIPSTICKERZ , and iii . (I may actually consider LIPSTICKERZ as well because that's a whole mini album and an intriguing concept.) Next section is for the songs I was loo...
Read more

Battle of the B-Sides: Jin (BTS): Heart on the Window

-
Image
 My first BBS request! I just saw some of the memes being made about their performance and the amount of space between Wendy and Jin, and I just have to say that they're hilarious and the amount of trolling I'm seeing from the fans gives me life. The timing is actually really helpful for me to get into fan mindset. This request comes from a user on Reddit, who simply said there was too much, they were obsessed, and then linked me to an appreciation post they'd done. This is what I like to see, and it gave me a very good place to start: Jin and Wendy's voices. As a side note, Jin really does have the perfect trot voice. This isn't even in that genre or anywhere approaching it, but that honestly doesn't change this fact about him. If he's willing to give us more trot or trot-adjacent, I'd be a happy camper and eat it up. Heart on the Window comes from Jin's debut album and is the fifth track between a soft rock ballad and a full fat ballad. With the t...
Read more

Battle of the B-Sides:: IN2IT: Young & Dumb

-
Image
 So this lovely group left their company after a little over two years, founded their own company, and are now going by the name Skye as of 2023. So, yes, technically IN2IT is disbanded, but it's more of a B2ST/Highlight situation. I also found out that they did a cover of SHINee's An Encore  a few months ago, which delights me to no end because that's my favorite SHINee song, and they did a great job. This one was also recommended to me, and because I've never heard of this group before, I'm genuinely delighted by the idea that I get to cover a group I haven't heard of. And the only group I've covered in one of these posts, going by some of the numbers, that's smaller is the ill-fated Chocolate, which I also hadn't heard of before I started looking into them.  Some brief background on them. They debuted in 2017 as an 8-member project group from the survival show BOYS24 under what is now WAKEONE and left at the end of their contracts in 2020, which m...
Read more

Music Show Wins: Week of 10/16 - 10/22

-
Image
This week is apparently dominated by the soloists, as we have both a member of BLACKPINK as well as a member of aespa taking home wins. Karina's required to me do a review on the song, which is fine. I'm happy to do it.  Show Champion, Inkigayo, and The Show  did not have shows and no winner was announced. Also, Billie was the guest on After School Club this week. The links in the table, by the way, are links to my reviews for each win. I don't know if I ever said that. Show Champion: N/A MCountdown: Jennie "Mantra" Music Bank: The Wind "Hello, My First Love" Show! Music Core: aespa (Karina solo) "Up" (note: I couldn't find a performance for it from this music show, but here is another performance of it.) Inkigayo: N/A ASC Performance: Billie The Show: N/A
Read more

Music Show Wins: Week of 11/27 - 12/03

-
Image
Aespa got the triple crown on Inkigayo this week! ATEEZ and WayV got their first wins with their new songs. There were no performances on either Show Champion, nor MCountdown, nor were there any wins for either program. Jay spent a lot of time singing on ASC, and there wasn't an MC Challenge, which I'd be upset about, but he sang so much that I can't be upset. Also, he did a quick cover of Mariah Carey's Christmas song, and his vocal runs and the quality of his tone just makes me melt a little inside.  Just as a reminder, the links in the chart go to my reviews, and the link down on ASC is for the full hour program. And I include the stage for the music shows, unless the winner didn't perform it on that day, in which case, I pull usually another live performance. Show Champion: N/A MCountdown: N/A Music Bank: ATEEZ "Ice on my Teeth"  (note: I don't think they're still promoting, so have the performance from 20241115) Show! Music Core: aespa "W...
Read more

Song Review:: Stray Kids: KARMA- CEREMONY

-
Image
Release date: 2025 August 22 Album tracklist: BLEEP, CEREMONY , CREED, MESS, In My Head, Half Time, Phoenix, Ghost, 0801, CEREMONY (Festival Version), CEREMONY (English Version) Album runtime: 32 minutes  Congrats to my Baby Stay friend who has graduated to Toddler Stay! Whoooo! And the fact that they spent the tour giving spoilers and no one noticed. When they revealed that, I had to blink and sigh. It's fine. I'm just being clowned this year by my groups.  I could swear, I can feel that drum or bass in my bones, but I'm not even listening to it in a way that would allow me to feel it in my bones. This song doesn't feel like it's as long as it is, which is both weird and a shame. We've got kind of an Indian vibe to the whole thing layered over the top of the bass and the drums that is just satisfying to hear, you know? Also, the siren alarms is a very nice addition. This is going to be a really good performance song, which is good considering K-Pop in general i...
Read more

Greatest Hits:: Stray Kids: My Pace

-
Image
 I tossed some potentials at Tumblr in a poll and this was what came back in first place, so here we go! Yes, I've gone back to the wasteland that is Tumblr, discovered that I'm considered ancient and decrepit for how long I've HAD a Tumblr account, and had to relearn how to Tumblr. But, that's fine! My Pace is one of the songs that had to be rerecorded following the departure of the former ninth member, so I'm not quite sure how to navigate the differences. I really want to be respectful of the situation and try to find as many post-departure performances and events as I can, but it may not be especially possible in all cases. In any case, I won't mention his name, because I'm aware that there are feelings surrounding his departure on all sides, and I follow the direction of Chan, who prefers that material of the nine of them not be used anymore. So all of that to say, I'm going to focus on the eight members as they are now and not mention the former ni...
Read more

Song Review:: Taemin (SHINee): Eternal- Sexy in the Air

-
Image
Release date: 2024 August 19 Album tracklist: G.O.A.T, Sexy in the Air , Horizon , The Unknown Sea, Crush, Deja Vu, Say Less Album runtime: 21 minutes      As the inaugural review for this new blog, I had to go with Taemin. I know this is a few weeks late, but better late than never and it's at least still in August. Hello, and welcome!      As his first album under the new company, I'm sure most fans approached it with mild or moderate hesitation.       Luckily, I don't necessarily think we need have worried too much.       The song opens with some grindy electric guitar, an element I have to admit I'm a fan of in general. It reminds me of a science fiction dystopia film at night in the rain during a chase, which is a specific image for me that isn't at odds with the music video.      The verses lose that guitar, turning into more of a generic trap sound that unfortunately loses my attention, but turns...
Read more