It’s been interesting to watch LE SSERAFIM’s trajectory shift over the years. They debuted with a sleek, stylish sound and a tight team of collaborators led by the once-great production duo Score and Megatone. But as time has gone on, the group’s music leaned further toward novelty, seemingly designed for memes and short-form content. This can be a fun approach if the songs themselves are as strong as their thirty-second highlight clips, but too often their recent output feels like a viral idea that just happens to have a threadbare song wrapped around it.
Such is the case with new single BOOMPALA, which samples and interpolates the iconic 90s dance hit Macarena. This is a sample I never needed in a K-pop track, even if I appreciate the song’s Latin house groove. But despite my aversion to the idea, I could see something like BOOMPALA being a hugely enjoyable summer hit in more creative hands. Unfortunately, the execution here is less than thrilling. The song’s best parts rely too heavily on the Macarena interpolation, which is surprising since the original is a deeply irritating track. Still, I love (re)hearing those synth stabs during the chorus as BOOMPALA‘s barely-there melody riffs successfully over the familiar chord progression.
However, this is faint praise. The song doesn’t do anything interesting with Macarena and slowly morphs into a straight-up cover as we reach the finale. They could have done SO much better with a “less is more” approach. BOOMPALA‘s one additional idea is its heavily-repeated titular hook (teased relentlessly prior to the song’s release). These monotone spoken-word segments inspire little excitement, simply killing time and keeping the groove going. Then we have equally inessential verses that employ the same repetitive sing-talk flow we’ve heard a million times over in derivative K-pop song after derivative K-pop song. In summary, BOOMPALA is essentially the Macarena with a ton of aimless talking and a Google sponsorship. Very little to see here. Move along. Or “boompala” along. Or whatever.
Hooks
6
Production
8
Longevity
7
Bias
7
RATING
7