After completing their "We" trilogy in March and releasing promotional single 7days Tension in May, Weeekly has made their comeback after just slightly over 2 months. People who know me know that Play M Entertainment's rookie girl group is one of my favourites and all their titles have been fire (even when simply advertising Davich Optical's contact lenses), with their cute and youthful yet fresh and unique schoolgirl concept stealing the hearts of Daileees (fandom name) and casual listeners alike. With their fourth and latest EP "Play Game: Holiday", the group generally maintains their signature vibe whilst injecting in a dose of maturity, so let's take a look at their title track Holiday Party.
Meaning: If previous title After School was about having fun after school, Holiday Party is about having a party during the holiday (no duh). In some ways, the latter song could be seen as a continuation of the former, both lyrically and conceptually, especially because Holiday Party does bear more mature connotations (more on this later). As the lyrics suggest, the girls are planning their own "secret party" and wanting to party like "it's a holiday", where they'll "be loud and play until the morning".
Another line goes, "even on a boring day, it's a holiday when we're together", emphasising the close relationship the girls have with one another and perfectly encapsulating an idea that was carried over from After School, where they sang about having super close friends that almost felt like extensions of themselves. There's really nothing much else to say about this song, the title itself is more than enough explanation. Most importantly, the song's vibe definitely still fits into the bright and fun sound that Weeekly has made their bread and butter, effectively convincing viewers that these girls are truly enjoying themselves.
MV: I'll be tackling this segment in two ways, first by examining the MV's production aspects and second by looking at the narrative. Now I've said this before but anything with Weeekly in it puts a smile on my face and this statement continues to hold true. As per the lyrics, the girls are planning some kind of party, specifically one that takes place off Earth (don't forget this). The group is really cute throughout the entire MV, playing all kinds of party games like mini-golf, piñata-whacking, foosball and generally just having a whale of a time. This is perfectly in line with Weeekly's cute and innocent concept, since these are just some young girls having fun and the MV showcases that perfectly. Much like with many of their previous MVs, Holiday Party's sets are painted in bright colours, with pinks, blues and purples abound, and very interestingly, there's a lot of added special effects as the girls interact with their surroundings. Things like little clouds, hearts or even onomatopoeia like "bam!" whenever the girls do something add to the MV's personality and really do make things super adorable.
I think it's important to mention that with all 3 of Weeekly's previous title choreographies, they've used various props to make everything far more unique and vibrant, such as the skateboard in After School or the huge cubes in Zig Zag. Holiday Party has none of that or at least the MV doesn't show that, with the girls pretty much just performing a typical K-Pop choreography. This marks a clear milestone in the group's development as they explore more things and grow as idols while still maintaining the vibrancy and youthfulness that is Weeekly. Just like with their previous MVs (and in all their live stages), the girls have lots of different expressions in their "storyline" scenes and as I've said in older posts, it fully immerses you into their performance and plants a stupidly huge grin on your face.
I mentioned in the previous segment that Holiday Party's MV is kind of a continuation of After School's and if you take a closer look, you'll start to realise that all 4 of their titles' MVs could be connected to one another. As far as I understand, the only recurring imagery throughout all 4 MVs are laptops, nothing much else to explain there but of course, there's more. At the start of Holiday Party's MV, we see a book titled "The Weeekly Story" on a table, a reference to Weeekly's pre-debut teasers and on the wall, we see a clock showing the time "12:12". We've seen this same clock in After School's MV and while initially this seemingly means nothing, it's actually a nod to leader Soojin's birthday, which is December 12th. This also furthers my theory that Holiday Party takes place right after After School, with both MVs having scenes taking place in the same room.
Like I said earlier, this MV shows the girls prepping for a party off Earth, specifically on Mars and before their trip, they're contacted by a being known as Dona. Dona is actually a snail, likely the same snail that has appeared in both Zig Zag and After School's MVs. Lastly, in After School's MV we saw the girls entering a wormhole door, which reappears in Holiday Party, with the girls entering the door and being transported to Mars, where they have their fun. A little bit of a stretch? That's entirely possible but take it how you will.
Styling: Weeekly debuted with a schoolgirl concept, with their first two titles seeing the girls dressed in matching school uniform-like outfits. After School took a step away from that by giving the members outfits similar to what girls their age would wear when going out and having fun with their friends. In general though, these older outfits are all clothing that befits their age since all the members are pretty young (only 4/7 girls are considered adults in South Korea), even if After School had some of the girls in crop tops and whatnot. While Holiday Party as a song isn't a huge change from their older tracks, Weeekly's styling has changed quite a bit by becoming more mature than before.
For starters, previous titles generally had the girls with darker hair, usually brown or black with occasional highlights here and there. After School was the first time any of them had different coloured hair, with Jaehee going blonde and with their latest release, even more members have dyed their hair all kinds of colours. Jaehee has gone from bleached blonde to a sort of pinkish platinum colour, Jiyoon has gone for orange, Monday has opted for a bluish grey hue with some pink highlights, Soeun is full-on dark blue and Zoa is now a redhead. Idols having abnormal hair colours isn't a new thing, in fact it's fairly common in K-Pop but this is definitely a big change for Weeekly and a step up in maturity. While I do think that most of them look great in their hairstyles, Soeun's bangs are a no-go. I've made my general dislike of bangs as a hairstyle known to all and unfortunately, hers just aren't making the cut. It looks odd and when combined with her blue hair, it just looks as if she's wearing a wig.
Clothing-wise I'll focus on their three dance sequence outfits because those make the change in style more obvious. Right off the bat, most of the girls are in crop tops and pretty short shorts, far shorter than anything we've seen them in prior. For the girls who're in long pants, they're of course wearing ripped jeans. I would also say that when coupled with the choreography, it's quite clear that the outfits are giving off a far more provocative vibe. The second dance outfit is more reminiscent of what Weeekly wore in After School's MV, clothing suitable for their age while still being slightly more mature, and we see the girls dressed in varying shades of pink and black, which match really well with the vibrant pink background set. Our final dance outfit is pretty similar to the first except this time all the girls are in jeans. Nothing much else to say here other than it cements the increasing maturity of the girls' styling.
Overall though, while becoming slightly more provocative, Weeekly's Holiday Party outfits are still suitable for their concept and age. Simply put, they still give off the idea that these are just young girls out to have fun and party. I mentioned in my After School review that I expected their styling to change as the girls become more experienced so props to Weeekly's styling team for following up on this.
Song: With debut title Tag Me (@Me) and first comeback title Zig Zag, Weeekly gave us infectiously fun and fast-paced pop music. After School was a lot more chill, adopting old-school R&B beats, while 7days Tension had all the qualities of an advertisement jingle, giving listeners a real pick-me-up. Holiday Party is somewhere in between all of these songs, giving off more relaxed vibes than Tag Me (@Me) while not being as slow as After School. If anything, I would say that Holiday Party is not the most unique of their tracks, having a slightly quirky sound reminiscent of cignature's debut title Nun Nu Nan Na, another cutesy whimsical song. Interestingly, I think that Holiday Party perfectly utilises both sides of Weeekly well, by contrasting the cuter members like Jaehee or Jihan with the members with stronger vibes, most notably Monday and Soeun, especially because the general feel of the song is a little more mature. This is also something I mentioned when reviewing After School.
Of course, I do have some gripes about this song, first and foremost being that it opens in the weirdest way possible. If you recall After School started with an instrumental that I will literally describe as "bubbly" and Holiday Party tries to do the same thing except this time the producers have included this really weird vocalisation. I don't know how to describe it through words but give the song a listen and you'll understand what I mean. Other than that, the song is pretty good but the chorus isn't really my style and feels a little flat as well as being a huge change from the direction the rest of the song was going in. It's probably because After School set the bar so high that anything else that comes after is just going to sound worse in comparison but overall, Holiday Party is still quite fun to listen to and you can't help but groove along with them.
Line distribution: Previously, it was theorised that Weeekly would make their comebacks on successive days of the week, having debuted on a Monday, made their first comeback on a Tuesday and then their second on a Wednesday. Of course, that trend has been broken since Holiday Party came out 2 days ago, a Wednesday, instead of Thursday like everyone thought. Another idea was that with each title, the member representing that particular day of release would then be the most prominent member in the song, something that held true for Tag Me (@Me) and Zig Zag but didn't happen with After School. Funnily enough, despite not following the release day trend, Thursday's representative and lead vocal Soeun has the most lines in Holiday Party at 22.6%, albeit tied with main vocal Monday.
This makes total sense, since the pair are considered Weeekly's best vocalists and are often given chorus lines as well as high notes, which was indeed the case for Holiday Party. It's also important to mention that both are main dancers and Soeun is one of the group's centers, as such, they're definitely going to be more prominent. Unfortunately, since between them they've taken more than 45% of the song, the remaining 5 members don't get that much. Jihan comes in 3rd with 11.8% and if you've followed Weeekly, you'll notice that she maintains a top 3 spot most of the time when it comes to lines. This isn't just because she's lead vocal but also because she's one of the group's visuals. On top of that, her cutesy voice is very suited to the group's concept and as such, it makes sense for her to be pushed front and center.
Close behind her is leader Soojin and maknae Zoa who are tied at 11.7%, a good amount of lines considering they're both sub-vocals. For Soojin, she gets an entire verse and part of the bridge to herself, something you might not see with other K-Pop sub-vocals. Taking into account that she's another of the group's visuals and main dancers as well as their center, she definitely deserves the lines she got. As for Zoa (who might be my bias, I can't decide), she also gets part of the bridge and showcases more of her rapping ability (since she's main rapper). As another of the group's visuals, she gets a lot of solo shots and is actually the last face you see in the MV, giving you a visual attack right before the song ends. I love it and the amount of lines she gets here is good for her.
Now we're getting into more disappointing territory with our last two members. Jiyoon is 6th place with 10.9% and that came as a huge surprise to me because of her lead vocal status. As I watched the MV, I couldn't help but wonder to myself where she was because I could barely register any of her lines. Yes, she doesn't have the fewest lines but she definitely deserves more, especially because she continues to get snubbed despite her amazing vocals. Last but not least we have lead rapper Jaehee at 8.7%, a huge difference from top dogs Soeun and Monday. Despite the fact that she gets so few lines, I didn't really feel her lack of presence lyrically because she got an entire verse to herself as well as a ton of MV screen time so it's really not that bad.
As I've said in older posts, a fair line distribution doesn't mean that each member needs an equal amount of lines but rather an amount of lines that befit them. That's why even though it seems unfair, I honestly think Holiday Party's line distribution is alright because each member got their own chance to shine for the most part. Members that didn't get as many lines got more screen time and closeups, such as Zoa or Jaehee, and although I felt Jiyoon really should've gotten more lines, I can live with this distribution.
Final thoughts: I've made the bold claim in the past that I can't hate a Weeekly title track and while that is something I continue to live by, Holiday Party shook my resolve a little bit. Don't get me wrong, it's still a good song that's a joy to listen to but at the same time, I worry that the group's sound will end up sounding too similar to other groups out there. Weeekly has the distinction of having one of the most refreshing concepts in K-Pop, especially in the sea of girl crush concepts so I genuinely hope that even after their music grows and matures, the girls will continue to embody their own unique style. I said that After School could get them their 1st win and it didn't happen so maybe with Holiday Party, a song that could be said to be more mainstream, maybe Weeekly will finally get their hands on that trophy. Thanks for reading and remember to stan Weeekly y'all.
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