[Review] [Music Video] SPICA – Potently

• Concept
• Visuals
• Flow

I don’t normally bother reviewing rookie group music videos, primarily because most of them suck or they end up irrelevant in less than a year. For SPICA though, I’ll make an exception, because they figure to stick around for a while if their debut effort is any indication of what the future holds.

Generally speaking, I try to be upfront about any potential bias, and going into this music video, I expected them to blow ass like most rookie girl groups that are just being pumped out to capitalize on the trend. Needless to say, my hopes were low. Also worth noting was the fact that I loved the song and that’s not supposed to influence the music video, but I did think it set the tone effectively.

Anyway, as I said, it took me a while to give them a chance, but when I finally did they changed my perception of them completely, coming in with a mid-tempo type of song with a serious tone instead of a poppy bullshit song that every other girl group debuts with.

I mention the music because it helps set the theme for the music video, which is dark and gloomy in its own right. While the girls themselves don’t look ugly or anything, they don’t appear in the music video because their label mate Hyori acts for them. It never hurts to have Hyori as the visuals for your music video, especially when she’s highlighting the udders.

The production values are solid, but the entire music video revolves around one set and it concentrates primarily on Hyori and a superficial love story. It’s a pretty intelligent and convenient (since Hyori was free) way to get around a low budget operation from a company that hasn’t hit the big time yet and a group that hasn’t made a name for itself.

Given the simplistic nature of the music video, it’s hard to give it exceptional ratings, but in a world where every girl group promises to be different through expressing different charms, it comes off more than a bit ironic that the girl group who actually comes off different than the others did so without even appearing in their own debut music video.