One song. Every day. Alphabetical order.
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Rough (from Snowflake – 2016)
Previous Thoughts: “From the intricate string sections to the dramatic guitar solo, you can really sink your teeth into the instrumental. From a production standpoint, it’s pretty much flawless. Everything feels so dense and layered, yet doesn’t obstruct the actual song from moving forward.” (full review)
Updated thoughts: This was one of the first songs I ever wrote about on the blog and even though I gave it a “9” back then I was far too critical. Though I consider Navillera to be my personal favorite GFriend track, this is objectively their best. It’s utter perfection from start to finish: melodically rich, dripping in personality and nearly operatic in its drama. It’s hard to believe there was a time when a song like this could become one of the preeminent hits of its year, but Rough was unstoppable in 2016.
The brilliance of early GFriend was their ability to forge a signature sound and nudge it forward just enough each time to feel fresh without being a complete departure from what their audience craved. Rough marks a natural conclusion to Glass Bead and Me Gustas Tu, taking the sounds from those two classics and deepening them enough to feel mature and forward-looking. This makes it the finale to one of the strongest trilogies in all of K-pop.
| Hooks | 10 |
| Production | 10 |
| Longevity | 10 |
| Bias | 10 |
| RATING | 10 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
this song gives me goosebumps. it’s intense and dramatic but also incredibly beautiful and the production is phenomenal. really one of the best kpop songs of all time.
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iconic is one of those words that people throw around all the time, but rough is truly iconic
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One of the greats. No two ways about it.
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Man I love this song.
Umji’s part at the very end is always goosebumpy 🙂
One of the charms of early GFRIEND is this deep sense of desperation in all of their voices. You hear it here, but it’s also present on tracks like Navillera (SinB, for example). It’s compelling.
Also Yerin’s little squeak she did on her prechorus parts whenever they did this live was really cute.
I think the ballad version of this is more “deep”, but musically it isn’t nearly as good. Rough’s melody is a standout on its own, but the rest of the music is what makes this song legendary in conjunction with it.
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The way the second half of the chorus builds all this desperate, frantic tension is unparalleled. I don’t think I’ve ever made it all the way through this song without getting a little bit weepy.
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I really don’t have more to say that hasn’t already been said. I love this song, love GFriend, and am so happy to have them back if only for a bit T_T
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QUEEN. kpop classic. kpop masterpiece. kpop legend. just a amazing music.
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