MAMAMOO’s “You’re The Best” is actually sorta the best

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MAMAMOO are back with “You’re The Best“, the title track off their album, ‘Melting‘, and it helps ease the pain of 2016 in music so far.

Unsurprisingly, MAMAMOO have gone with an upbeat instrumental with jazz influences for their lead single, which automatically biases me towards them due to my love for brass. And while I didn’t enjoy “Um Oh Ah Yeh” until it grew on me when I heard it like a month later on the radio, “You’re The Best” scored immediately thanks to the track’s fun nature, seamless cohesion, and through their use of repetitive “chanting” to break what could’ve been a mess of one-upping vocals.

MAMAMOO used the “chanting” effect (dunno the exact word for it) to setup the song in the verses, and then again in the build to the hook in an exquisitely executed pre-chorus that initially goes up a key in pleasant vocals and the drops to the rougher phrases shouted over clapping. That trend continues on the hook, where the repetitive usage of “uh uh uh uh” and “ah ah ah ah” were a well-crafted way to make the song catchy. The arrangement admirably resisted the temptation to just let MAMAMOO start loudly/lazily belting, and were rewarded with a chorus that still has plenty of energy but also has a more listener-friendly addictive edge to it.

As usual, the bridge and the outro for MAMAMOO were no-brainers, because upping the volume and using their vocal prowess is what comes natural to them, but the clever use of vocals to supplement the rap parts help navigate what is usually a bit of an odd inclusion in their songs. If I had to nitpick and choose something I didn’t like, I guess I’d like to hear them kill a single that didn’t use this type of musical style.

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The music video had a basic plot of the group having fun with/pursuing a hotel worker while on vacation, but at least the visuals worked, which is the main point anyway.

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And they had enough time for light moments as well that kept it reasonably entertaining but not distracting from the track.

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Overall, “You’re The Best” drew me in almost immediately and it’s difficult to find areas to critique the release. If “Um Oh Ah Yeh” was like a typical girl group song that MAMAMOO just added their own flavor to, then with “You’re The Best”, MAMAMOO have done the song people have been asking Ailee to do for years, and they executed it as well as could be expected. Bonus points for the “Mr. Ambiguous” and “Piano Man” references in the lyrics (and ‘Pride Of 1 CM‘ in the MV), as well as talking about how blood type doesn’t matter (cause it’s the dumbest shit ever).

And yes, I apologize in advance if this endorsement causes them to flop horribly on the charts.

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Perhaps most importantly, MAMAMOO proved my theory that a t-shirt and jeans are generally a lot more sexy than so-called “sexy” outfits, even if those jeans are cut way too fucking high just so that they don’t get banned by Korean censors for showing too much midriff or whatever.

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Also, this fucking sea of radishes will never not be amusing.

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