ITZY - In the morning

With their last comeback having been in August last year with their third EP "Not Shy", JYP Entertainment's rookie girl group ITZY are back with a brand new concept. Having stuck with the teen crush concept for their first three titles before progressing to a more hip-hop sound, the girls are now trying something completely different with their latest EP "GUESS WHO", with their title track In the morning. How does it hold up compared to their previous titles? Well, I have some choice statements to make about that. Let's dive in and find out. 

Meaning: If you're familiar enough with K-Pop outside of music alone, you'll know that many groups often play this party game known as "mafia", a social deduction game where a group of players have to deduce who amongst them is the titular mafia, all while people are eliminated in between turns by the unknown mafia. The game ends when everyone's dead or the mafia's cover is blown and it can be quite nerve-wracking if played right. Some people might know this as "werewolf" but many others might think of it in the form of the massively popular mobile game Among Us, which has a similar concept, except the mafia is replaced by an "imposter". There're lots of variations to the rules of said game such as increasing the number of mafias or the number of different roles in a game but the general idea is always the same. 

Why am I rambling about this? Well, that's because this is basically what ITZY's latest title is based on, with the full Korean title of the song literally having "마.피.아” (ma-pi-a), which means mafia, in it. There's evidence for this throughout the song as well, with the pre-chorus line "it's the nighttime already", a reference to the statement that's often used to signal the start of a new turn in the game, and there's literally the post-chorus line "who is [the mafia]" sung multiple times. Don't believe me? Look no further than the second verse, where Yuna raps "acts better than an actress, a fox that tricks the wolf", again a direct reference to how the in-game mafia needs to deceive the other players so that they don't get found out. That's really all there is to the title track's meaning. 

On a side-note, ITZY themselves have revealed what their EP name "GUESS WHO" means, with it referring to how the members show different emotions and personas in their songs while exploring their musicality. This is of course the real world explanation for it and could very well be the case (I haven't listened to their B-sides so I can't say for sure) but the name itself could be another reference to how players are meant to guess who mafia is. 

MV: Like ITZY's previous MVs, there isn't a story for In the morning, with the MV being a combination of individual and group shots of the girls, both to showcase their visuals or their choreography. I would say the MV fits the idea of the song well, with lots of dark set pieces. Just on a side-note, one of Lia's solo shots has her in a greenhouse set and I can't have been the only one to think it looked the same as one of the sets for Girls' Generation-Oh!GG's Lil' Touch MV. Even the set pieces that are brighter and more colourful give off a somewhat sinister vibe, as if they're hiding something. If you think of it that way, it definitely matches the concept of mafia that the song is aiming for, since the mafia would be hiding their true identity behind an innocent front. One of the first shots in the MV has Ryujin disguising herself amongst some mannequins, with a keyhole-like filter panning around the set and trying to find her. Again, something that's very mafia-like and fits the concept they're going for. 

Something I do want to mention is that there're many instances where the MV is shot super weirdly and I think that boils down to how the camera stays static many many times. I think I'm more used to seeing dynamic shots where the camera either gradually zooms in and out or pans slowly, so it was a little disconcerting to see many still shots throughout the MV. There're lots of jump cuts throughout as well and every time it goes from one static to another static, making those particular shots seem quite jarring. We also get lots of scenes where either some or all of the girls disappear and reappear in the shot as if they're teleporting. I don't really know why they went with that because again, it feels jarring but if I were to come up with an explanation, I would say it's meant to symbolise how the mafia in the game comes out of nowhere to eliminate the other players, so in that aspect, the jarring elements of those particular shots fit. 

Styling: For their group dance shots, the girls primarily wear two outfits throughout the MV, one white and one black, and they look awesome in both. While I do prefer the black outfits, I think that there's a bit too much latex in them and it's quite obvious. In fact, only Ryujin doesn't seem to have any latex in her black outfit so that's a pretty weird creative choice. In terms of texture coordination, the white outfits come out on top because they match one another better. Either way both colours accentuate the girls' visuals very well, and the contrast between light and dark again fits the concept of the mafia trying to masquerade as an innocent while getting rid of other players at the same time. 

Apart from the group shots, the girls have their own individual outfits in their solo shots and they all look pretty good in them. I think my favourite outfits shown are Yeji's white dress (also because her hair is down and anyone who knows me knows that I think hair down Yeji is best Yeji) as well as pretty much anything Yuna was wearing in her solo shots. In terms of styling, I would say that this was definitely Yuna's era and she was killing it the entire MV. In a similar vein to what I just mentioned about Yeji, I do wish she had her hair down more apart from just those few solo scenes, not just because she looks way better with her hair down but also because the other hairstyles she has in the MV don't accentuate her visuals very well. I understand why they went with hair up styles to reduce hindrances when performing but even taking that into account, I think there were far better hairstyles they could've gone with. 

Song: The most obvious thing about this song is how different it is from ITZY's previous titles. While DALLA DALLA, ICY and WANNABE were leaning into the bubblegum pop genre, with Not Shy delving a little into hip-hop, In the morning is very rap-heavy and has a vastly darker sound. I don't really know how exactly to describe it but I would say it sounds very trap and somewhat like modern Western music. The opening instrumental gave me very similar vibes to Ariana Grande's 7 rings, with a fairly slow beat interspersed with sharp notes. The best parts of the song are undoubtedly the pre-choruses shared by Lia and Chaeryeong, and Lia's bridge. See the pattern? Both of these parts are the "sung" lines and are super melodious. They add a lot of colour to this otherwise dark song. 

Unfortunately, that's where my praises end. I really didn't like this song for a variety of reasons. People who know me know I generally dislike songs with primarily instrumental choruses because I feel that it loses the opportunity to showcase the vocal prowess of K-Pop groups and while In the morning doesn't fall into this category, it's bordering on that because the chorus instrumental is so loud that it almost overpowers the lines themselves, which might I mention aren't very powerful at all. Another thing I was turned off by was the excessive rap. Although I'm not really into rap-heavy songs in the first place, it's usually ok but the problem with In the morning's rap lines was that it was so boring. They felt very monotonous and almost as if the girls were just talking without much rhythm, making it extremely off-putting to listen to. 

I also think the lyrics could've used a lot of work. Granted, I understand that the song was based on the mafia game and so the entire song is basically one big reference to it but the lyrics are just so unbelievably lame. Park Jin-young (henceforth referred to as JYP) wrote this song himself and there were a good number of people tearing into him after it dropped, saying that he needs to stop producing K-Pop songs forever. While that might be a little harsh, I do agree that this is definitely not ITZY's best title track, not by a long shot. 

Line distribution: A bright spot about In the morning is that it has a super fair line distribution. Even though it's expected since ITZY is a small 5-member group, it's still nice to see each member get an amount of lines that fit the song's arrangement. Considering how rap-heavy the song is, it makes total sense for main rapper Ryujin and lead rapper Yuna to come out on top, with a little under 22.3% and 21.5% respectively. Main vocal Lia comes in smack in 3rd place with slightly over 20.6% and what makes me happier about that is that she has the best parts in the song. Although Chaeryeong comes in 4th with around 18%, she also shares most of the best parts with Lia and also shone a lot with her powerful dance so I can overlook it. Leader Yeji brings up the rear with 17.6% and even though she's last place, she's really not that far behind first place Ryujin. Being a lead rapper herself, Yeji had quite a good number of rap lines throughout and also had some chorus lines. Combine that with being front and center in many dance sequences and you'll see that even though she has the fewest lines, she more than makes up for it. 

Final thoughts: Part of me thought that I would be part of the minority that didn't like this song but my confidence is boosted by seeing more negative reactions by others. In the morning isn't the worst K-Pop song I've ever come across but when you compare it to ITZY's previous title tracks, especially WANNABE (which I consider to be their peak thus far), it falls horribly flat. I already wasn't the biggest fan of Not Shy because it was also quite rap-heavy so In the morning magnified all my fears and became a worse product as a result. I wouldn't go so far as to say JYP should NEVER write songs again but he should definitely take heed to the criticism for this comeback, and I hope that ITZY can return with stronger and better title next time round. Thanks for reading.