Review

Song Review: Kwon Eunbi – Dejavu

In the seventeen months since we last heard from Kwon Eunbi on this blog, she’s switched agencies, leaving poor Woollim Entertainment home to Drippin and Golden Child’s Jangjun and… no one else. She’s now signed with RBW, an agency that can be very prolific but tends to flatten their artists’ sounds in generic ways. New single Dejavu maintains Eunbin’s dance-forward style, but subdues it to fit within today’s trends.

Dejavu has a pulse, especially when it hits its chorus, but it still feels like the instrumental is churning underfoot rather than sweeping up and hitting you full-on. You can blame the muted synths and strings for this. They’re not particularly idiosyncratic, ripped right from a 2020s nu-disco sample pack. Similarly, Dejavu‘s melody flits here and there, climaxing in a gentle hit of serotonin. However, it all passes by with little effect. No single hook sticks out, choosing instead to trace the lines of the pleasant but innocuous instrumental. Like so many songs released this year, Dejavu is completely fine, yet I already know I’ll struggle to remember it in a month’s time.

Hooks 7
 Production 8
 Longevity 8
 Bias 7
 RATING 7.5

Grade: C

8 thoughts on “Song Review: Kwon Eunbi – Dejavu

  1. If Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night Away” and FIFTY FIFTY’s “Cupid” had a baby, it would be this song. I like the strings in the chorus even if the rest of the song is a dime-a-dozen modernization of disco pop.

    8.25 (8,9,8,8)

    Liked by 3 people

  2. Kwon Eunbi is an excellent vocalist for sure even though its her other ‘assets’ that make her famous, but the track did not make use of her strength at all. This is the same ‘subdued’ dreamy vibe song that somehow managed to haunt the kpop industry all this summer. Its serviceable at its best and forgettable at its worst.

    Like

    • i’ll choose to ignore that first statement but i really agree. ive been a rubi since forever and one thing with eunbi’s voice is that she’s able to bring about drama in a way that’s hers. the agency/a&r budget switch is incredibly clear when you compare this with her previous releases like underwater&the flash&sabotage under woollim. i hope she gets better material 😦

      Liked by 4 people

  3. Woolim was cooked but they were choosing better songs for her. Like, she opposed Underwater at the time, but it became her most successful song and it started to climb the charts even before that water fest (she picked Glitch however). If I guessed right, it matches her personal taste in music but as someone has said, it’s like releasing the same song for the 1000th time

    Liked by 3 people

  4. Even if it’s not a bad song, it is very disappointing when we know what Eunbi can do. It’s really “Déjà vu”! Fromis_9 did way better with producer collapsdone (“DM” typically).

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