Wednesday, February 7th, 2018

Momoland – BBoom BBoom

New-ish K-pop girl group lands somewhere around a ffive ppoint eeight…


[Video][Website]
[5.88]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Momoland’s most successful single to date is a Shinsadong Tiger-produced throwback a la T-ara and Orange Caramel, so much so that all the banal “is this trot?” discussions are flooding my memory as we speak. The hip-hop breakdown is a nice touch, but it doesn’t contribute much to the song besides its surprising existence. Momoland’s 2017 singles were above average takes on two styles of music that very much define the new crop of girl groups. With “BBoom BBoom,” they’ve simply hopped onto another trend, abstracting their identity even further. Numerous people will think they’ve “finally found their footing,” but all this excitement surely comes in part from nostalgia and the fact they’ve sidestepped an oversaturated market.
[5]

Ryo Miyauchi: Standard K-pop, with Momoland zeroing in on their love-sick nervousness plus the onomatopoeic hook that sums it up. But what turns “Bboom Bboom” from good to great are the twists it takes us through, from the made-to-dab aside to that jarring trap breakdown, which isn’t so much a curve ball but a straight descent into another song entirely.
[6]

Alfred Soto: Beyond the hip hip beats and break and the acoustic guitar fake out, “Bboom Bboom” doesn’t boom boom like I want; the track has the rococo complacence of a tapped-out ethos.
[6]

Micha Cavaseno: Watching stratification occur in real time is, depending on your perspective, either incredibly fascinating or exhausting. The emergence of many K-pop girl groups lately has been met with a whiny reluctance and disdain, people longing for the days of memorable songs that, if you go back and check, have aged as gracelessly as milk. In “BBoom BBoom,” many veteran K-Pop fans have found solace, shrieking “At last! An actual Bop!” after wrinkling their noses at some of the cornier groups. Yet it is not, in fact, a bop. It vaguely sounds like it could’ve been one of the more saxobeat-tinged affairs from the likes of Orange Caramel, T-ara or 4Minute from yesteryear, but the chorus is unremarkable, and the rap breakdown is decent but deprived of explosive punctuation to offset the verses’ half-hearted gallop. A strange example of how wild it is to watch perception and nostalgia betray fans of such a forward-thinking realm of pop.
[4]

Katherine St Asaph: PHRASES THAT PROBABLY WOULD HAVE BEEN GOOGLEWHACKS 15 YEARS AGO (When Such a Thing was Possible in Breadth of Search Results and Musical Mashups): Trance saxobeat.
[5]

Will Adams: I was fine with the Orange Caramel-esque electro disco until the saxobeats came in and set it back a few years. The trap breakdown is plopped in the center carelessly as if it were a panicked attempt to keep things sounding fresh, but it ends up watering down the song even more.
[5]

Katie Gill: This is some bright, bubblegum goofy nonsense over a weirdly chiptune electropop backing with fun synth flourishes and a hip-hop break that comes out of nowhere, grinds the song to a complete halt, and then is forgotten about entirely. Nothing about this song should work, and yet I’ve listened to it on repeat like five times already. It’s downright bizarre in certain aspects, but its fun, peppy, and cute-as-heck sound saves it.
[8]

Iain Mew: Sweet and tangy (orange) caramel set off with a chewy trap centre — distinctive and delicious.
[8]

Reader average: [7.2] (10 votes)

Vote: 0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

5 Responses to “Momoland – BBoom BBoom”

  1. The rap section in the 2nd verse is terrible and wholly unnecessary.

    The chorus is kinda genius tho

  2. It’s definitely not great but if it wasn’t there, the song would definitely just be a lesser [most T-ara songs written by Shinsadong Tiger] in my mind. Or at least, even more so than it already is.

  3. I’m just sad that the screenshot isn’t Nayun’s moment of plungery triumph.

  4. the dab scene would’ve been too obvious, huh

  5. i’m so sad i didn’t blurb this because i love saxophones and sticky things so this is like a solid 8 from me