The roll out for Chungha’s first studio album Querencia has stretched across eleven months, showcasing a variety of sounds and styles. This extended run of singles has been quite successful, offering a little something for every taste. The album itself takes advantage of this. It’s divided into four distinct sides, each driven by a specific mood. And at twenty-one tracks, you’re bound to find at least one highlight. Unfortunately, title track Bicycle is not that highlight for me.
Bicycle sounds like a noisy boy group track, and I don’t mean that as a compliment. I’m concerned about K-pop’s increasing instinct to place noise ahead of melody. Bombast without substance is just bombast, after all. Bicycle opens with a bang, presenting a wall of guitar distortion. This feels like the only original texture within the track. Everything else is driven by the same limp, soulless percussion that’s become synonymous with this DIY, everything-comes-from-a-sample-pack pop era. How satisfying could Bicycle have been if its lurching beats were replaced with something funky and organic? Invite a skilled percussionist to add some flavor to the track. Right now, it all feels canned.
A memorable hook might have overcome this instrumental mush, but Bicycle is content to coast on catchphrases and melodic scraps. Ninety percent of the track is sing-talk nonsense. Chungha briefly segues into hip-hop during the second verse — an improvement over the attitude-fused bluster that precedes it. At least her rap feels rhythmic and intentional. Everything else is a joyless compilation of “Get out of my way,” “ride it, ride it,” “vroom vroom vroom” and “you know how I like it.” Despite Chungha’s undeniable charisma, Bicycle feels incredibly dull.
| Hooks | 6 |
| Production | 6 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 6 |
| RATING | 6.25 |
This song feels incredibly disappointing for a soloist of her calibre….Really sad given how strong her 2020 was
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This has none of the Chung Ha charm. Its alright, generic tough girl kpop with splashy costume changes. Or, yes I can hear boy band too. Boy solo. Its a pass for me.
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she definitely saved the worst for the last 😐 the album is pretty nice imo, Bother Me is my pick for best b-side.
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Masquerade as Hidden Treasure? 🙂
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Oops, I mean Buried Treasure 😉
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When I was growing up, the girls in my neighborhood didn’t want to be associated with a bicycle.
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Was it the Queen video?
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While Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls” / “Bicycle” combo would clearly apply here, I was referring to labelling a girl who slept around as a “bicycle” because “everyone got a ride” on her.
I humbly ask for your forgiveness. I will take time to reflect on my bad joke and return as a better person. /90° bow
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In addition to that – a bicycle is not very sexy to begin with. Women are often associated with/associate themselves with (riding) sleek cars or motorcycles – y’know, things that look cool and expensive and are fast and powerful. Riding those gives you a thrill (..is what I suppose, I have never done it).
A bicycle on the other hand.. as a frequent bicycle rider I can confidently say there are few ways of transport that are less sexy. It’s not very exciting, it takes a lot of effort, and you don’t look hot hunched over the steering wheel pedalling against the cold wind.
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Oh, I don’t know about that. I was once riding a couple of 10-speeds with a girl that was wearing really short cut-offs and a loose crop top on a muggy, sweaty day. We were riding on a public road, so she was in front. We reached a small hill, so she had to stand up to use her body weight to pump the peddles, which in turn meant that her and the bike were rocking side to side like some over-exposed fleshy metronome. I.. ..I.. ..dammit!
Shower time!
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For shame! (Here I will add again that apparently only in the greater NYC area where I grew up is the chorus to the NCT song Punch a really really bad locker room phrase.)
I haven’t really thought about whether the act of cycle riding is sexy or not, but the after cycle riding is definitely not sexy at all. My husband who is otherwise a tidy guy sweats a lot on his cycle rides, so much so that I give him a wide berth when he gets home.
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Drats! Apparently, I need “summer vacation in a house of mirrors” levels of self reflection.
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i’ll commend it for taking notes from rina sawayama, especially using the guitar riff like xs does, but it lacks the charm that it should. i think it’s moments like the all english sung part of the song that don’t work for me. i appreciate the effort though and hope that it’s perfect with someone else instead.
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Rina’s album was hailed as one of the best last year, and rightly so
I enjoyed it very much myself!
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Same
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I miss BoA……
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No one gets my toes tapping, my fingers drumming, and my head bobbling like her. “Beat of Angel” indeed!
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“I ride it. I ride it. You like it when I read it”.
No. Shut up.
Chung Ha exudes great charisma, what the hell was that? It sounds extremely obnoxious.
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It reminds me of Ariana in 7 Things. Not a great compliment
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Wait a minute….it’s called 7 Rings, isn’t it
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Haha, yes it is 7 rings. And yes it does remind me of 7 rings not in a good way unfortunately…..
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My mind went to this exactly. Both are great at pop music when they use their vocal power and charisma to their advantage- both (in my opinion) do not pull off a sensual image well with this rapping.
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It just doesn’t sound like a Chungha song. It doesn’t make use of her talents, the lyrics are cheap, there’s no hook. She should have released the album after Stay Tonight tbh.
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As a Chungha fan that hasn’t felt disappointed until this point…man. So much lost potential. Definitely a high-budget music video, but no budget put into the song itself.
Flying on Faith or Masquerade are both possible Buried Treasures in my humble opinion 🙂
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I see why it was chosen for title track status, but it really is one of the worst songs on the album.
I’m LOVING the album, by the way. A very ambitious project which only falters in about 3 or 4 tracks. Masquerade, Flying on Faith, Bother Me, Lemon… are fantastic additions to the mostly great singles. I feel like Stay Tonight, Dream of You, Play and X fully blossom in the album context. She deserves the world!
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Oh and the Guaynaa song is crazy in the best way!
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Yeah, I agree. It’s actually one of the worst songs when there are so many other better songs.
Oh well, I suppose this track attracts American listeners …?
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I cannot understand how a team that just released Stay Tonight, Play, and Dream of You could seriously think this was a good follow up. Like this is supposed to be the cherry on top but it’s just blah. This reminds me of Taemin’s following Criminal with Idea. Yeah, not a fan. But hey Chungha has been doing so great for so long it’s about time someone drops the ball-they’ve been juggling bop after bop for too long.
I hope this is just a fluke cause if 2020 has taught us anything Chungha is one hell of a performer and she can do so much better than this
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Of all of the songs I wonder why this was chosen as the title?
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Cuz Murica!
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So disappointed after her flawless 2020
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Honestly… I wouldn’t be surprised if this was first given to AlexA. Cuz it doesn’t fit ChungHa at all. Funky and Sexy is ChungHa’s territory, bombast and dramatic is AlexA’s. Atleast the album is massive.
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I saw this coming when i knew the name of the song. This isn’t Chungha, i’m not interested. I’ll give the album a listen though
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I was really hoping that distorted guitar would’ve been what the track built itself around; I enjoy it everytime it pops up. The ” Get out of my way, yeah!”, on the other hand, is SO ANNOYING, and not the type of thing I would’ve ever expected in chungha’s music. For that alone, I think I might skip this song ever time it pops up on spotify. If they changed it to something else, I doubt it would save the song but at least I could’ve used it as moody background music
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Gotta love the feminist cry of “woman needs a man like a fish need a bicycle” and Chungha’s like “nah man, give me that bike”
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I was not expecting to read what I just read. This article is quite harsh and, if anything, debased Chungha’s talent. I find that the track, Bicycle, is a different style that she has not previously explored. To associate her with this stigma that K-Pop is about “placing noise ahead of melody” is ridiculous considering that her previous tracks differ. If anything, I think that this song is dynamic. Powerful.
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If you read all the replies, many here (myself included) are Chung Ha fans. However, a lot of TBL regulars also believe that you can really like a performer/group and still dislike a specific release. It would be an unfair betrayal to an artist to just blindly adore everything they drop.
Additionally, no one is condemning her for being experimental. Many regulars here praise originality. However, was it really wise to use a song that is way outside of her usual repertoire as the titular track? The title track is the central tent pole for the rest of the release. It needs to be the hook that draws you in so you’ll be interested in exploring the rest of the album.
If I had never heard of Chung Ha before, and was introduced to her latest album with “Bicycle” as the calling card, I would’ve moved on and probably never looked back; which is a genuine shame, because then I would’ve been missing out on one of K-pops top artists.
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Nick, will you do a buried treasure for this album? It has a few songs that I think are really great and catchy af (Masquerade, Bother Me, Demente, Lemon..)
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I have my eye on a track that I’ll probably write about later in the week 🙂
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Rina Sawayama’s XS dollar store version
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