Last spring, Mamamoo’s Solar dipped her feet into a more upbeat dance sound with the club-ready Colors. In general, the Mamamoo members have done a nice job experimenting with their solo material. And when you’ve got vocals as strong as they do, you can get away with interpreting just about any genre. This sense of freedom continues with the upbeat retro blast of new single Want.

I’ve been listening to a lot of late-80’s dance pop at the moment, so this song arrives at an opportune time. Its instrumental takes much inspiration from that era, stuffing itself full of bounding rhythms and brassy accents. It’s a jubilant, exciting sound that feels quite massive in the sonic context of K-pop at the moment. Solar’s vocals are equally as strong, overcoming and cutting through the wall of sound to give the track plenty of personality.

Sadly, I’m not as enamored with Want‘s melodies. The chorus opens promisingly, but quickly devolves into a sing-song refrain that feels too slight for the production. What Want really needs is a bit more bite to prevent it from sounding like a fizzy, throwaway soundtrack to a silly montage in a drama or movie. The second verse comes close to delivering this before reverting back to “jazz hands” cheesiness.

Grade: B-