The Singles Jukebox

K-pop freestyle guitar explosion!

[Video][Website]
[6.12]

Madeleine Lee: Like “Navillera,” “Fingertip” presents a more muscular version of GFriend’s established sound by pushing the swirls of strings to the background and letting the wailing guitars and laser synth blasts step to the front. I just wish the synths didn’t sound so cheap.
[6]

Edward Okulicz: It’s 2017 and GFriend are shrieking over a track fit for Sinitta in order to be heard over completely incongruous guitars. I am not repulsed by this at all.
[8]

Jessica Doyle: It’s Iggy Youngbae continuing the work of “Navillera“; it’s a song in the vein of “Navillera” based on the concept of finger guns; it’s “Navillera”-esque and based on finger guns and featuring a brief moment for Umji to get in a vital “Ow!” and almost-rap. So why am I not running around going Song of the Year, etc., etc.? “Fingertip” feels a little too well-executed, controlled; what made “Navillera” so compelling (I mean besides its opening nod to “The Chaser,” which comes off less like borrowing and more like fair warning that we are in the presence of greatness) was its tilting on the edge of collapse, like the song couldn’t possibly justify everyone singing so high for so long, until it did. By contrast, “Fingertip” doesn’t have any weaknesses to turn into strengths.
[7]

Iain Mew: Funk crammed as full as it can go, it feels like the decision to never stop for breath is out of necessity, because the whole thing would easily fall apart otherwise. As it is, it’s exciting and exhausting in equal measure.
[6]

Micha Cavaseno: I keep waiting for GFriend to finally put out a song that isn’t boring, and getting a lame 80s mall-pop song that wouldn’t make a Taylor Dayne deep cut and being told ‘this is a single’ doesn’t fulfill that criteria. GFriend are probably the most interesting K-Pop group in that they’re an obvious throwback to the earlier boom period of the genre in the past decade, in that they’re slight, fizzy, and far too light.
[2]

Thomas Inskeep: Big and Vegas-y like some of the best Spice Girls singles. Think along the lines of “Spice Up Your Life,” only slightly less manic. 
[6]

Alfred Soto: That wash of synths and guitar overstatement and faintly Latin beat reek of freestyle, for which I’m delighted GFriend are up to inhabiting, never mind singing. I feel this song down to my toes.
[7]

Ryo Miyauchi: The synthetic sheen over the retro wah-wah funk lets off such a glamorous glow, but the group outshines without losing sight of their catch under the blinding lights. As they take aim like gun slingers, they tease this sly cockiness like a player knowing she controls the game. Eventually it becomes clear they’re only sparing their catch, their heart wrapped around GFriend’s finger all along.
[7]