SM Entertainment’s experiments with supergroups have caused mixed reactions. When the K-pop megalabel debuted with SuperM — a group that combined some of the best talents of all generations of K-pop — with a pompous “Jopping”, they clearly intended to attract a modernized global audience. Despite being ambitious, it may have been counterproductive in some places, since it relied more on the concept than on the result.
Fortunately, the company was much more savvy with GOT The Beat, a division of the Girls On Top rotating supergroup, which includes lead singer BoA, Taeyong and Hyeon from Girls’ Generation, Seulgi and Wendy from Red Velvet, as well as Winter and Karina from aespa.
The debut project GOT The Beat skillfully uses their strengths, creating a confident and clearly structured work full of pleasant surprises. The mesmerizing refrain in the title track “Stamp On It” serves as a reset button as the band switches genres with incredible speed, like “I Got A Boy” by Girls’ Generation. Despite the fact that the song “Stamp On It” is not overloaded with the musical whips of the SNSD song, it is still well executed, the musical subtlety is as intricate as it is delightful.
Meanwhile, the trap and the bass-rich “Goddess Level” pump adrenaline into the veins. Soaring vocals heighten the tension, and a ridiculously catchy saxophone melody emphasizes the chorus, the musical equivalent of an arrogant smirk.
Perhaps the women from GOT The Beat have years of hits behind them, but the self—confidence that this album radiates is not at all repulsive – it even charges familiar sounds with an attractive intensity. The participants are beauties wrapped with barbed wire on the “Rose”, which compares the fatalistic beauty with the thorns on the said flower. Behind the luxurious, sensual R&B, the band alternates low rap and sweet, deadly harmonies. “I don’t need to take your love. No, no, don’t you know? You’d better leave,” they declare in chorus, vocal harmonies amplifying the threat.
And GOT The Beat is still caustically straightforward, even as they explore a more lighthearted sound. In “Mala”, very similar to Red Velvet, melodic vocals, flute melody and heavy bass create an intoxicating mix. The kaleidoscopic arrangement attracts and pushes, holds the rap verses tightly and frees us from the choruses when the participants ask us to lose control, just in time for the flute to tie it all together.
The prestige is due to the deliberate decision to build most of the album’s songs around outstanding leads, such as the saxophone in “Goddess Level” and the flute in “Mala”. Even in stuttering songs, interesting clues help. “Alter Ego” becomes a bit predictable in the second half, but the bass-rich breakbeat retains momentum. GOT The Beat uses “Dreamcatcher”-style environmental metaphors in this track to emphasize the power of small, deliberate actions.: “I bring doom, I bring blessing / This choice is at my fingertips / On dry, achromatic earth / The only hope to plant (it depends on me)”.
GOT The Beat, however, stumbles on “Outlaw” with its overloaded arrangement that tries to do too much of everything at once. Even laudable vocal diversity suffers from elements striving to overpower each other.
The strong sound of “Stamp On It” made the debut of the GOT The Beat project convincing, but the question of identity remains. How can this supergroup become the sum of its extremely talented parts? How does the individual skill of the participants contribute to a collective vision different from the views of their own groups? The answers may become clear only when SM starts using the Girls On Top rotation format, but until then, GOT The Beat still deserves praise for a job well done.
Details
- Release date: January 16
- Record label: SM Entertainment
