One of this K-pop generation’s biggest mysteries is how Oh My Girl went from being a leading girl group to an act that barely gets promoted anymore. WM Entertainment has really dropped the ball with this one, and that fumble has extended to their musical choices. This spring’s Real Love was a breezy little bop, but far from the group’s best. And now the agency seems to have squandered YooA’s potential as well.
I adored YooA’s 2020 debut. She’s the perfect K-pop solo star: quirky voice, unlimited charisma and fantastic dance skills. A song like Diver capitalized on all of these qualities. But, my expectations for her long-awaited comeback began to dampen with the pre-release of Lay Low and Melody. Both b-sides felt slight and uninspired, and sadly those qualities extend to title track Selfish.
Selfish is what you get when you take a few (annoying) musical ideas and run them into the ground. It’s a very repetitive track, and its repeated elements are grating from the start. The song’s “I want you babe, I want you” hook is placed up front and thrust upon the listener over and over. I’m ready to raise the white flag of surrender after the first go-around, but Selfish decides we need a shout-chant post-chorus to finish things off. Neither of these segments are a wise use of YooA’s considerable skill. And by the end, it seems even she has given up – offering a halfhearted “Zoomzooozooozooo” in place of a bridge. Truncated verses hint at greater potential, but overall Selfish is a disappointing return.
| Hooks | 6 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7 |
Grade: C-
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
YEEEEppp about right, this is trap without trap beat, in a bad way
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honestly liked this a lot! reminds me of ‘hush rush’ from last month and red velvet’s ‘don’t u wait no more’ (which makes sense because all three are dem jointz productions)
i guess i just have a soft spot for quirky, off-beat, slightly off center pop music! personal preference
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but do i have criticisms? yep, especially the fact that the prechorus/bridge feels too good to be in here
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ok i better clarify that it’s the SECOND* part of the bridge. no more zum zum zum zum zuhs in kpop. ever.
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Seriously stupidly crazy bad dropped the ball on Oh My Girl.
I want to hear the remix of this song. The actual song, notsomuch – it has the repetition of that hook too much. But a _remix_ would pull and push on that hook like taffy and let it breathe better and easier. Here, as is, it is just 3 minutes of “I want you boy I want you” like a bad youtube ad that you can’t skip.
My bad, I was raised on New Order, the legends of layering to make hooks last for 8 minutes without dropping the beat.
‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDCeGZ3n8jY
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I’d offer you “The Perfect Kiss”, but people might start to talk.
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It makes me cringe. I don’t know why they made her repeat those phrases and onomatopoeia so many times (what the hell is zumzumzum?), really annoying. Poor YooA, she’s wonderful, I love the concept of her as a mermaid or forest fairy, why did they turn her into a zimzalabim.
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It may not be amazing, but at least Melody has charm.
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Except she didn’t repeat it so many times, it was all copy and paste from the same single time. And she is only going to sing along to a fraction of the repeats.
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this was such a disappointment compared to her previous album, and to think we had to wait 2 fucking years for another release from her…
btw are you gonna review fifty fifty’s lovin me? i saw you posting about it on twitter
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I mean, what the hell is THIS?! It feels like a spit into the face of YooA’s talents. The song’s first few seconds immediately repelled me, and I never wanna hear this piece of shit again. What kind of pills is WM Entertainment on?…
As usual, Nick’s rating is too high, flat 6 at best for me.
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I rather like “Blood Moon” – it’s got a slinky, sexy, R&B sound that I enjoy. 4/5 stars (really like).
I don’t like Melody quite as much – it’s a little more groovy and less slinky? But I still like it. 3/5 stars (like).
I didn’t save any of the other tracks, including the title. They just didn’t do it for me.
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YooA may like this, but it’s not for MeA.
P.S. Still wub joo YooA!
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I KNEW you were going to hate this the moment I heard what is/became the bridge in the MV preview lol.
it’s…..certainly a collection of sounds, let’s say that! The other two pre-releases are fine but nothing in these 3 songs convinces me to try out the last unheard one. Better luck next time YooA
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I think it’s more frustrating to know Dem Jointz worked on this.
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I would just gotten rid of the “I want you babe” part after the first go around since it’s already included with the chant. The bridge is definitely lazy imn a way that makes you say “don’t need a bridge, don’t need a”. All that said I really enjoyed everything else so I’m not sure for much I might return to this
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I really want to know what happened with WM that they went from regularly promoting them when they were just bubbling under to acting like they don’t exist. It’s giving yg treatment of blackpink but it’s certainly isn’t as lucrative for them. There’s nothing i miss more than getting a quirky track from oh my girl just when I needed it. Six of the girls renewed (all minus the one I didn’t really care for that much (no hate, but she had my least favorite tone)) so I’m hoping they’re looking to change that. They become idols to make music and perform after all
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The conspiracy theorist in me wants to believe the change in promotion has something to do with the partnership with RBW. But, WM is still operating under its own management so who knows?
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I truly think it might be a bit of both. After their Queendom success WM seemed to have already decided to just coast on OMG’s CF popularity and other money-making channels outside of releasing actual music, and I wouldn’t be surprised if RBW had no plans to change this. They also immediately let all of WM’s female trainees go after the acquisition, so who knows if they’re setting them up to be an exclusively male artist label or what.
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Whoa I didn’t know they did that. I was expecting WM to release another girl group in the next couple of years
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They let most of their male trainees go too. They called for both male and female trainees with their most recent audition round a few months ago.
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It’s not a partnership, it was an acquisition, making WM a subsidiary. The difference is that RBW calls all the shots, with 70% of WM’s stock. Rumour has it that RBW forced WM to sign something where they can’t debut any new groups for 3-5 years, which led to all their trainees getting fired. I also heard they got rid of WM’s creative team.
After what happened with NU’EST, I don’t trust ANY companies that acquire others.
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That’s not true; that was just rumors spread by panicked WM artist fans who relied on Google/Papago translations. RBW acquired WM for 7 billion won plus a 3 billion won earnout agreement conditional on WM earning a 5 billion won net profit by the end of 2023 (source: https://m.mt.co.kr/renew/view.html?no=2021101814111637773). No one knows for sure why they let go of most of their then-trainees, but it’s speculated that they decided to focus on their currently signed artists in order to net that 5b, because maintaining trainees and debuting a group costs a lot of money and it would take a long time for a small company like WM to recoup the loss. It was probably better to let those trainees go and find a home elsewhere than to dungeon them for who knows how long. As for the creative team thing, I’ve never heard that but it sounds like another rumor.
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Thanks for the reply and the source (sorry for the super late reply). Always up for educating myself. Hope you had a Happy New Year!
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Selfish is a grower, but it definitely clicked around the 5th listen.
I agree that it’s not AS good as one might have hoped, but still a quality release. Dem Jointz did a good job, no wonder it reminds people of Hush Rush.
I’m also floored that Nick didn’t appreciate Lay Low and Melody. They are bops!
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I think WM has some kind of contract with Ryan Jhun they can’t get out of. Between OMG, Yooa, and Chaeyeon, I’m so tired. Clearly they’re not going to get another Dolphin from him.
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it’s cute actually but lay low is better
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Is history repeating itself? 4-5 years ago they did that to B1A4 because they wanted to promote OMG.
Now they are focusing more on ONF and leaving OMG in whoever hands…
They are good at sourcing good vocals and training new groups but they lack a long term vision to map their future…
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Never knew I can like and dislike a song so much. I liked everything about the song except the chorus which was grating af. But her voice and enounciation was sublime
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I love it, but I see why people wouldn’t like it, the “zumm, zumm” part isn’t my fave, ( i feel like a killer bridge would have been great there)and I know it is repetitive, but this falls in the list of repetitive k-pop songs I actually dig. (cause I don’t like all) probably bc i just naturally like Yooa’s voice. Blood Moon is a bop! Fave song on the album.
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