CHUNG HA – 'STAY TONIGHT'

Tracklist:

1. Stay Tonight

Chung Ha has just dropped a new pre-release single ahead of her comeback. It's called "Stay Tonight."

The first thing you notice is that it's quite seductive. She definitely suffuses the main verses with a hint of longing. I love how she does that.

It all leads to an explosive chorus. The calmer aspects give way to Chung Ha's voice going stratospheric. The girl has a great set of lungs, and she shows them off here.

There's an interesting bridge, as well, that shows up more than once. She dials it down and the song becomes staccato. That's fairly effective for building tension too. And kudos for straying from the metronome.

You're probably wondering if I like it. I don't just like it -- I love it. It's got everything a pop song needs to have and even managed to surprise me. I have to give it high marks for that.

MV REVIEW

Even though it starts out as a girl in the box style video, it gets better about 2 minutes in.

And it's not terrible, it's just a little lacking in the beginning. The backup dancers almost helping her to a standing position -- I've seen that (most recently in (G)I-DLE's comeback). The rays of light slicing through the smoke -- I've seen that before too. So Chung Ha doing it too is not bad, it's just unimaginative.

About 49 seconds in it starts to get good. We see some fairly original sets. All the while we're treated to some pretty impressive dancing. The choreo is kind of what saves it thus far.

And as I said, 2 minutes in is where it gets really good. Crowd surfing over her backup dancers, red light washing over everything, a sequence where she's practically in a fish tank... It's the little details that seem to stand out.

And even the sequences that I wasn't impressed with were still not bad. She tends to bring a touch of class to everything she's in, and that is a wonderful thing.

Score

MV Relevance.......9

MV Production......9

MV Concept..........9

MV SCORE: 9.0

Songwriting..........9

Composition.........9

Impression............9

ALBUM SCORE: 9.0

OVERALL............9.0