“I Love My Body” marks the start of (MAMAMOO) Hwasa‘s P Nation era, which also appears to be the start of her Meghan Trainor era (specifically “All About That Bass“), both in theme and sound. The verses of the song in particular sound like something Trainor rejected almost a decade ago, but to be fair to Trainor, even she usually had a catchier hooks to work with. I dunno what’s going on with Hwasa’s, but it lacks any melody and the hook basically just sits there collecting dust. And whatever is going on at P Nation, what they do might literally only work with Psy himself based on their output so far.
Anyway, the idea is obviously solid, as tackling Korea’s absurd beauty standards is worth doing. Plus, I’d like to think it’s a bit of a response to the right-wing weirdos trying to concern troll for college kids. But to broach this theme and march out looking as yassified as I’ve ever seen her and with a troupe of dancers that are downright skinny makes it border on absurd to me.
Even cynically speaking, if you’re going to try and corner this market, I figure the least you could do is pay it some lip service in the music video with more diverse body types or something.
Between the message not hitting right and the lack of quality in the song itself, “I Love My Body” is probably her worst comeback yet, and probably not a coincidence it comes under P Nation.