After their debut in November last year, High Up Entertainment's first girl group (and group in general) STAYC have made their first comeback with second single album "STAYDOM", with title track ASAP. While their debut title SO BAD gave listeners a concept bordering on a mix of retro and girl crush, ASAP shows us a very different side to the girls, something that's almost cutesy in nature. Does it work out for them? Let's dive in and find out.
Meaning: In the same vein as SO BAD, ASAP is yet another love song where the girls sing about wanting someone to appear in front of them as soon as possible (hence the song's name), someone who can understand them despite their flaws and together they can experience a "beautiful love". Once again, just like their debut title, ASAP could also represent the girls singing to both present and future fans in order to increase their fanbase of SWITHs (fandom name). In all honesty, this kind of "love song" idea is thrown around K-Pop fairly often so hearing it once again is nothing new.
MV: I mentioned up top that ASAP's concept is vastly different from SO BAD despite having similar ideas and this is most strongly reflected in the MV. While SO BAD had lots of darker sets with set designs mostly focusing on having lots of bling and grandiose elements in the background, ASAP's MV is very bright, very pink and very fun. It befits the cuter style of the song, with hearts materialising out of thin air and lots of references to falling in love. I also find it quite interesting how certain shots in the MV are very on-the-nose with the lyrics that they match with, such as Seeun expressing distaste when chocolate, lollipops and an ice slushy machine appear around her while she sings that she "doesn't like always being sweet" or when J is literally trapped in a claw machine while she raps about "not being picky". I find it very cute that they went with such literal imagery and it adds a lot to the feel of the song.
In general, if I were to compare this to SO BAD's MV, I would say that the sets for ASAP were a lot plainer in nature. Yes, they're very vibrant and very out-of-this-world, what with giant claw machines or huge cartoon words floating in the air, but with SO BAD we had very grand sets, with the girls dancing against the backdrop of an open terrain with a galaxy in the sky. Comparing that to ASAP, you can tell that they're trying for a lot more of a "grounded" approach if you will, probably befitting the sound and concept of this comeback. It's a good move on the MV director's part to go with these set designs and it works well.
As usual, the MV is interspersed with the usual dancing group and individual shots, with the girls this time having big smiles on their faces as compared to the more chic vibe they adopted for their previous MV. They look really happy and like they're having a lot of fun, and it works even better because it fits their youthful nature (since all the girls are 20 or younger). I think in some ways it's nice to see them look like they're having fun with what they're doing, especially in such a mercenary industry, and it helps that their visuals are insane while doing so.
Styling: Much like what I did for my review of Weeekly's After School, I'm a little apprehensive to approach this segment because the group's maknae line are minors in South Korea (Seeun being 18 while Yoon and J are 17). While the "unnie" line of Sumin, Sieun and Isa are considered adults in South Korea, they're still minors where I'm from so I'll manouevre around my styling breakdown a little more carefully.
I've been doing a lot of comparisons to their debut title SO BAD and this segment will be no different because the contrast is seriously huge. With SO BAD the girls adopted a darker, more mature vibe and this was reflected in their styling, being decked out in more mature outfits if you will, lots of dark colours with some bling here and there, which made the girls seem a lot older than they were. Don't get me wrong, there were also bright pink outfits in that MV but it didn't detract from their concept. With ASAP, the girls' outfits make them feel a lot younger. In most of their dance shots, the girls have two specific outfits, both of which are generally quite dark but one has more bright colours speckled throughout. Taking a look at the rest of the MV, many of the members' individual shots have them dressed in brighter colours, colours that aren't featured as part of their outfits in the dance sequences. Either way, I find their styling to be generally quite fitting for the concept that the song is going for. Is it appropriate for their age? Probably not since some of the dresses/skirts are pretty short but again, it's nothing too different from what teens their age dress like.
Something else I thought was pretty interesting is how all the girls have changed up their hairstyles pretty drastically, especially Sieun, Seeun and J. The girls debuted with almost all brown or black hair, with leader Sumin having the most adventurous style with some blonde dye but with ASAP, all the girls have their own colours to them, and I think it's very fun and vibrant. Sieun now has totally orange hair, J has dyed her hair pink-ish and Seeun has a hime cut, switching between yellow and blue highlights. I won't really mention the other three girls because they didn't change all that much. I think it suits them very well and again, befits their youthfulness.
That said, I will question some of their styling choices. I'm not really a fan of the hime cut (which most people will recognise on TWICE's Momo during the FANCY era) because I don't think it looks very good and Seeun is no exception to this. I don't think that particular style works very well on her and doesn't look as good as her previous style. Sumin and Yoon also have some pretty weird looks in their individual shots. I genuinely did a double take when I saw Sumin wearing earrings with two ponytails of hair attached to them (which were the same colour as her actual hair for this comeback) because I can't believe they would go with such a look. Yes, it's unique but unique doesn't necessarily mean good. It boggles my mind that someone looked at that and thought that it was a good idea to keep it in. It reminds me of that silly meme I saw in the past of a girl having her detached ponytail reattached to the rest of her hair via rings and it was equally dumb.
Yoon is another member that gets some questionable styling choices. She's been called a real life Barbie or even the second coming of Afterschool's Nana (I sort of see the resemblance) but the stylists aren't doing a good job of accentuating that idea. First off, I've made my dislike of bangs known to everyone, there're few that can pull it off well and Yoon isn't one of them. Granted, I'm used to seeing her with them since she's been like that since debut but I think she would look way better without them (just like Nana). Another thing, Yoon's always made to wear wigs in the MVs. She had a bright blue bob in SO BAD and now she's given a long blonde wig (with bangs no less). It does seem like they're playing up the "real life Barbie" element more but I don't understand it. If she really was being pushed as the group's visual (which she undoubtedly is), you shouldn't have to give her these strange wigs even if it is her trademark. Fans seem to like this though which doesn't make sense to me so whatever.
Song: As I've mentioned up top, ASAP is very very different from SO BAD. The song is veering a lot more into cutesy territory and the instrumental captures that very well, being very catchy and really gets you grooving. Producers Black Eyed Pilseung have done a good job of ensuring the girls shone in their individual parts, which is no easy feat considering how unlike some K-Pop groups, the six members of STAYC all sound very different from one another so with such contrasting vocal colours, it's difficult to meld it altogether and still sound good. Here's the funny thing, I'm generally not a fan of songs where the chorus is mostly music (although there're a few exceptions to this). ASAP isn't one of those songs BUT I think my favourite part of the song is the post-chorus. It's seriously catchy and the dance moves for that part also match very well. That instrumental is already stuck in my head and I really like the almost whistle-like sound to it.
On a side-note, I talked about vocal colour in the previous paragraph and so I want to touch on maknae J, who's probably the group's main rapper (although this hasn't been officially confirmed). I probably said this in my SO BAD review but she has the lowest voice I've heard from a female K-Pop idol and it's super unique. Considering that she starts the song for ASAP (not including the girls' catchphrase "STAYC girls, it's going down"), it really captures your attention. That husky and deep quality is something you don't expect from a girl group and it always throws me for a loop, even when I already know what's coming. All in all, ASAP is a really groovy and catchy bop, and it fits their new concept to a T.
Line distribution: ASAP has to have one of the fairest line distributions I've seen so far and it's a good representation of how lines should be split amongst a six-member group while fitting their respective positions in the group. As of now, STAYC has only confirmed main/lead positions for their vocal line, with Sieun being main vocal while Isa and Yoon are lead vocals. Naturally, these three have the most lines in that order, Sieun coming out on top with slightly less than 24.2%, Isa with 18.8% and Yoon with around 17.6%. These three members shared the chorus, which would undoubtedly give them the most lines and it makes a lot of sense considering that they're the vocal line.
Sub-vocal Seeun comes in 4th with around 15.4% and considering many people wax lyrical about her visuals plus the fact that she gets lots of killing parts in the song as well as having the last line (both for this and SO BAD), I think it's alright. Rappers J and Sumin are at the bottom with 13.5% and 10.6% respectively, which actually isn't that far behind first place Sieun. These two shine in their own aspects, especially because they have the lowest and huskiest voices in the group, so it's fine to give them fewer lines because they'll have a lot of impact with their voices. They also get a couple of killing parts in the song. This might actually be one of the fairest line distributions we've gotten in recent K-Pop and is something that STAYC should continue doing, hopefully the producers they work with in future will continue this trend.
Final thoughts: STAYC might not be from the largest company around but they're definitely here to stay. It's still a little too early to say if they'll achieve monster rookie status but considering their group's unique style plus strong vocals, I think they'll continue to have a bright future. Their past two titles have had very different concepts so I'm really looking forward to seeing what they have in store for the future, so much so that I wish their next comeback would come ASAP (pun absolutely intended). Thanks for reading.
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