Wednesday 15 October 2014

MV Review- Red Velvet's "Be Natural"


Red Velvet are here to give everyone a very nice distraction from the Luhan fiasco follow up single after ending their promotions for their bubbly debut song "Happiness", this time doing a complete 180 and doing a cover of the classic song from S.E.S.

L-R: Seulgi, Irene, Wendy, Joy. Gosh, aren't I helpful.
Musically, the song's...pretty much the same as the original, just with better and more modern production and different voices. Whether you prefer the original or this version, Red Velvet should be commended for their vocals; whilst "Happiness" wasn't great at showcasing their vocals this gives us a clearer picture of what the group is capable of and for rookies they're pretty darn good. Wendy takes the helm in the verses whilst the other three vocalists sing the softer lines (for some reason Seulgi only sings four solo lines in the whole song, one more than Irene and Joy) and all four come together during the chorus.

Just remember Irene has dark hair whilst Seulgi has brown!
In a strange move, SM Rookies' Taeyong makes an appearance to deliver the song's rather long rap, which really should have been cut instead of the second verse. Not that Taeyong is a bad rapper, from what I can tell he's pretty decent or at least better than most SM rappers, but it just seems unnecessary for SM to keep it other than to show off one of their trainees when they still need to show us what the Red Velvet members can do.

Thank god Wendy and Joy aren't hard to tell apart.
Unlike "Happiness", the video of "Be Natural" is kept very simple, with minimal effects and the dance being filmed all in one shot, with individual shots fading in and out over the dance shots. Again, this has obviously been done to show the group doesn't need to be flashy to look good, and they really do in those suits. Unfortunately it can be seen as SM cutting costs and keeping the video basic to save some money after their stock prices have dipped, as many people have pointed out.

Hopefully you won't find it too difficult to recognise Taeyong.
So yes, it's all rather nice but...I can't really say much more. I can certainly appreciate what "Be Natural" is trying to do, but it's not really anything amazing; many people aren't sure what to think about Red Velvet, and this probably won't convince them. Through both this and "Happiness", SM have successfully shown that Red Velvet can be flexible and handle multiple images and concepts very well, but now they need to convince us if they want Red Velvet to get to the top of the already brutal girl group battle.

L-R: Joy, Seulgi, Irene, Wendy. Congratulations! You can (hopefully) tell apart Red Velvet (until their next video)!

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