The Singles Jukebox

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Alex Clifton: I can’t think of many pop stars who can begin with an acapella vocoder section and then turn the song on its head into something funkier, but Taeyeon’s got a magic touch. “Something New” feels free and light in a way that loads of artists strive for but few actually accomplish, innocuous on first listen but then becoming an earworm you don’t mind. It doesn’t go too hard for a drop at the breakdown nor does it feel frivolous: rather, it strikes a delicate balance and sounds like the kind of summer song I’ve been searching for.
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Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa: It’s Taeyeon going Velvet Rope. What’s not to love? 
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Ramzi Awn: The harmonies on “Something New” invite you to sit back and relax. The bass oozes summer sidewalks, and Taeyeon boasts a minimal hook to cinch the deal.   
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Julian Axelrod: One reason I’ve always had trouble getting into k-pop is the language barrier. The backstory and surrounding ecosystem fascinates me, but the songs don’t hit me on an emotional level. But a banger’s a banger, and that bass line transcends language, culture and the space-time continuum.
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Jessica Doyle: We’ve talked about SHINee grieving publicly, but Taeyeon hasn’t made a secret of how much she’s lost and how it’s affected her. (My understanding is that EXO’s Sehun and Red Velvet’s Yeri haven’t had the same luxury of openness.) The lyrics are credited to Ji Yu Ri, but it’s hard to imagine Taeyeon singing As soon as you wake up / You look for something new out of habit / Unaware that it is more lethal / The more engrossed you get in it as if the words had no meaning for her. Over here I know exactly what habit she’s talking about, and the fear and hope of declaring I don’t care, I will act like me, and the melancholy in her voice: that all that self-assertion might not protect her, or her loved ones, or her audience, or anyone from drowning. That it might be necessary but not sufficient. I want to send the message back to her. You know? She’s been through a lot and I want her to be okay.
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Ryo Miyauchi: The elegant funk struts classy yet its looseness downplays the estimated price tag. The buttoning down extends to Taeyeon herself, who sings about a breakaway from ennui as a casual affair, and the bashful romantic of “Something New” suits her more naturally than the synth-pop ice queen of “I Got Love.” Maybe next time she can also channel that brief Imogen Heap-style intro for a full-on dream-pop single.
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Katherine St Asaph: An “Bohemian Rhapsody” intro, then a funk-revival strut much like last year’s still-excellent “Deadly Valentine.” Shame the chorus is so under-written and, worse, so relatively menace-free.
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Will Rivitz: A friend introduced me to this song by saying she “felt the bassline in her large intestine,” and if there’s a better way to describe “Something New” than an immediate, unconscious, visceral, and gyrating reaction to its lower frequencies I haven’t yet found it. I’m not particular about funky basslines, to be sure — despite this site’s disdain for it, Charlie Puth’s “Attention” was the only song I listened to for a good two weeks last summer — but even then, there’s something special about this one.
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Alfred Soto: They had me with the bass line and piano — who can fuck with a “Heartbeat” variant that doesn’t creak with necrophilia but still sounds as perverse as necrophilia? 
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