Review

Song Review: Youha – Abittipsy

Posted on by 32 Comments

Former YG Entertainment trainee Youha debuted last year with Island, which honestly wasn’t anywhere near my radar. But… introduce synthwave production and you’ve officially got my attention! Similar to Yubin’s Perfume (also released today), comeback track Abittipsy (오늘 조금 취해서 그래) brings Youha’s sound right in line with K-pop’s retro synth craze. And, it does a fantastic job of it.

Abittipsy is short and sweet, coming in at under three minutes but making the most of its limited time. Right from the start, the throbbing electronic backbone makes its presence known, providing a constant underpinning for the track that lends it a surging – almost majestic – energy. This isn’t a new or novel production technique, but it’s one that almost always appeals to me. Call me predictable if you’d like. I just love this hearty synth sound.

Before Youha’s vocals take us into verse one, the instrumental hits with a gorgeous crest of bright synth textures. The rest of the song flirts between these two elements, beefing up the track during the chorus and pulling back for the verses. Again, this is nowhere near original, but it’s tried and true and ultra-satisfying. Youha delivers an assured vocal, building toward a cathartic power note that brings us into the final chorus. The melody is simple and uncluttered, but brilliantly traces the structure of the instrumental. If this is the kind of material Youha intends on delivering from now on, I think we’ve just found a new, compelling K-pop soloist.

 Hooks 8
 Production 9
 Longevity 9
 Bias 9
 RATING 8.75

32 thoughts on “Song Review: Youha – Abittipsy”

  1. Hahaha we underestimated your love for everything retro! Honestly, I feel like I need to make a k-synthwave playlist sooner than later! These last months have us spoiled for choice, really.

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  5. Here we are again, an hour later, another retro 80’s pop song.

    This one doesn’t work as well as Yubin’s because all it has are those four bars of synth, which repeat through just about the whole song with minor additions and subtractions which to me are just decorative elements grafted on top. And repeat. And repeat.

    Even the chorus sounds like the exact same four bars chord progression. (There are smarter people here who will be able to tell more readily and definitively – Gabriel?) I myself don’t like the song well enough to bother to figure it out.

    And its over by 2:42 because the four bar one idea song has worn itself out already.
    Also, since I tend to skip most of the current retro trend, I can’t tell what song it is copying which itself was copied. It’s a bit Blinding Lights, but probably something else.

    mid 7’s at best for me.

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    • I think the appeal of the song lies in the simple chord progression. It does not do too much, so the listener does not care to analyze it. In that way, it is a simple feel-good song.

      That said, I agree with your score. I prefer it when the 80s are channeled with creativity and uniqueness, something like Night D by Eill, or the more authentic Midnight Romance songs.

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    • OK I’m here

      So the start of it is actually I IV chords as I understand it:
      F♯ major, C♯ F♯ (power chord, omitting third which is A♯) -> I chord
      B, D♯, omitting fifth which is F♯ -> IV chord
      A♯, C♯, omitting root which is F♯ -> I chord
      B, D♯, omitting fifth which is F♯ -> IV chord

      However during the song some passing melodies can give the B, D♯ an F note, which turns it into a iii chord.

      This is a very guitarist writing to me so maybe guitarists on this site can correct me if I am wrong.

      I guess this kind of thing is already complex enough to have a pop song especially in US, my problem with the song is that with the anthemic bass I expected some Gaga-ish powerful sound paring with it, instead we have what we got, not ideal to me

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      • So in other words, it is just about a two chord song, F# major and B major, with occasional flirtations with F minor.
        And keeping those chords open or inversions or otherwise missing notes so that it sounds more mysterious when it really isn’t.

        … I just played those scales on the piano. Boy that’s a lot of black notes! That either makes it fun to play or a pain in the tuckus.

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        • I IV is pretty cool to me though.

          Like those modern harmonic theory books say perfect fourth is “consonant among dissonance and dissonant among consonance”, and I really like it, especially IVadd2 -> I

          I brought my memory back to “Free Somebody” which I thought the verse was that, turns out it wasn’t, it was Dadd2 -> E7 (V/V7) omitting B(fifth) which was I guess too cool for disco

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  6. The instrumental is just so full and anthemic. And that power note!

    I don’t think I’ll be tiring of this anytime soon – always worth celebrating when something this good comes out of nowhere.

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    • My apologies…. I don’t want to cause any inconvenience to Mymagoogle or any readers in the site… but this is just to surreal for me.

      “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpOKD_WCSHU” This is a cravity song, but sounds like a developed ONEUS song.

      “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx1D9w_byDY” This is a Oneus song, but sounds like a developed CRAVITY Song.

      I don’t know, this is just so weird to me…

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      • Can anyone on this blog tell us how to embed clickable links without the thumbnail showing? There is some magic way that I have never figured out.

        So many teasers out these weeks! Allkpop has most of the top of their postings filled with just teasers. The Golcha, skeptical if that will be an actual song content or just the intro music, in any case mho there are way too many teasers their people are doing. The cravity, also skeptical if that is the sound of the song itself, the vibe feels like last year SM’s boys+cars theming. The Oneus song, based upon that 30sec, not really looking forward to that, it sounds like noise so far.

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  9. I like the retro vibe. It’s something I would listen to in the summer with the windows down in the car. But it just too simple and straightforward for me. Which isn’t BAD- she does it wonderfully. That style just isn’t my taste.

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