Tuesday, August 23rd, 2016

HyunA – How’s This?

And we go to the judges for their score…


[Video][Website]
[6.22]
Jessica Doyle: She’s been talking about her own loneliness for years. In “Red”: Don’t you leave me, I’m the only one here. In “Because I’m the Best”: Even my friends are jealous of me, I know. (In “Do It”, which follows “How’s This?” on the album: You know my name, I’m a bitch.) A Hyuna song is never a straight invitation to come and play, but a taunt: you’re never going to be as sexy/dangerous/desired as she is; you’re never going to be the one to assuage her loneliness; and then she shakes her hips and smiles, inviting you to try; but concentrating on the hip-shaking just proves you’re going to classify her as a sexpot incapable of anything as deep as loneliness. (Don’t trap me in your gross standards, it’s boring.) It may be her genuine feeling; it may be the combination that sells, as she genuinely enjoys her work (as she pointed out recently, she’s been at this for a decade); it may be that the loneliness and the enjoyment of her work go hand in hand. Don’t think too much, the song goes, but I keep thinking this is the saddest dance song I’ve heard in a while.
[5]

Frank Kogan: I like the way HyunA sets herself up kind of — I don’t know — perpendicular to the K-pop work ethic. She puts in her hours, I’m sure. But she couldn’t care less about displaying rap or dance degrees of difficulty. Her movements are simultaneously a flounce and a lark, and her raps are usually pouts and chirps and also a lark. Yet she manages to dominate the room no matter what clamor and underwub her producers throw at her. And with “Red,” “Crazy,” “Roll Deep,” and now this she’s riding the most visceral sound in K-pop.
[9]

Thomas Inskeep: Hip-hop would-be “club bangers” can be mediocre all over the world. HyunA isn’t a particularly strong rapper, and this track sounds dated as hell.
[3]

Alfred Soto: The chimes, trap moves, and “whoa!”s are up to the moment, so if she asked me “How’s this?” I’d answer, “Not bad!”
[6]

Ryo Miyauchi: Hyuna snatches the Tyga/Chris Brown faux-Mustard slink and brass-friendly Mad Decent bass for a righteous party starter. “How’s This?” also sounds like a rebuttal to the macho cockiness associated with this sound in the U.S. She yawns at what they serve, and she ends up leading the dance instead.
[7]

Will Rivitz: A lesson the sleek, stylish mess that is “How’s This?” could have taken to heart: What gives a DJ Mustard or DJ Mustard-adjacent beat its power are the minor changes therein. On “2 On,” the bass is impactful because it waits till the chorus to thud in. On “Don’t Tell ‘Em,” the percussion slowly builds on itself — claps and kicks weaving in and out, snare rattle accentuating the most important transitions. In comparison, on HyunA’s newest, transitioning from an excellent pocket of Mustard to a horn line and moombahton center even Diplo would look down on isn’t the way to do it. I like a lot of music that’s too gaudy for most people on this website; this one’s too much even for me.
[3]

Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa: Is it a good thing when you have a very specific set of expectations of a new HyunA track, AND THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT YOU GET? I don’t know anymore.
[6]

Mo Kim: Over a double-dutch beat and a saxophone hook gasping for air, HyunA registers “How’s this?” less as a coy request than as a taunt: she’s daring us to keep up. Read that as fun, or sad, or somewhere in between, but when she yells at you to dance just before the synths shred the dance-hall scenery to glitter-stained bits, it sounds as vital as anything she’s released in what’s turning out to be a surprisingly illustrious solo career.
[9]

Jonathan Bogart: The continuing saga of the growing-up of the late-2000s wave of K-pop idols is as fascinating as, ten years ago, the same was true of the late-90s wave of US pop starlets. At this point, HyunA looks like she has it in her to be her generation’s Beyoncé, in that it’s already difficult to imagine her putting a foot wrong. Of course, there’s always the secret hope, and the accompanying fear that the agencies will never allow to happen, that someone will be the Britney.
[8]

Reader average: [7.5] (2 votes)

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6 Responses to “HyunA – How’s This?”

  1. KOGAN’S BACK ??? ???? ??? ??? ?? FULL OPTION

    (but I would quibble that Hyuna should share credit for the success of “Crazy” with Jiyoon and Gayoon)

  2. (bite me, comment form. let’s try this: for the question marks, read \uc6ec\ub9cc\ud55c \uc560\ub4e4\ubcf4\ub2e4 \uc790\ube60\uc9c4 \ubab8\ub9e4\ub294 \ub0b4\uac90)

  3. okay. the Internet does not want me to make that stupid joke. got it. *slinks off*

  4. WordPress’ commenting system is really picky about the characters it will allow. Proper Unicode can sneak by in the body of the post, but commenters have to stick to no-frills Latin.

  5. I’d say Hyuna is much more the Britney and Hyolyn more Beyonce, but that’s just me.

  6. weakest song on the album, but still pretty good.