Last year, KARA gave us their most demanding, dramatic single to date, "Pandora". After a series of solo singles and some time in Japan, the girls are back to grow up a little more with "Damaged Lady", and they aren't playing around.
Hara's rap in the first few bars of the song made it sound like maybe the girls had changed up their sound for this comeback, but it only takes a few seconds to switch into the racing Sweetune production that we all know to expect from them by now. "Damaged Lady" is yet another stab at the genre-mashing trend of 2013, but a limited number of sections and Sweetune's signature 80's gloss over the whole thing give us a song that is still undeniably undeniably KARA, from the breathy verses to the unison wailing on the chorus. Electric guitar hits and high pitched, screechy (in a good way) synths dirty up the prechorus, giving the song some bite between the gasping verses and in-unison wailing of the choruses.
The one thing that this song is missing is a really grabby hook. We don't have the "La la la"s of "Step" or "Mister", for example. We don't even have a really catchy dance move- the pulling-the-ring-off-the-finger move seems to be the point choreography, but it's not a standout move like some of their past dances. And other than the couple of random, inexplicable shots of members in suits and short wigs, there's not much to talk about as far as costumes go. With a lack of in-performance talking points, there's not much for hosts to talk about on variety shows, which is probably part of the reason we wound up with the 'Radio Star' fiasco.
"Damaged Lady" is good, even if it's one of their more forgettable singles. Let's hope they follow up with something a little more exciting so that we can all stop talking about Hara's love life for five seconds.
Full Bloom
RELEASED
September 2nd, 2013
LABEL
DSP Media
SINGLES
Damaged Lady
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