aespa have done a fair amount of covers in their career, and they haven’t exactly chosen obscure material. There’s a danger in covering beloved classics, which is my cue to encourage you all to listen to the original Regret Of The Times and Seo Taiji & Boys’ entire 90’s discography. It’s amazing how many genres they were able to pull into their orbit. It was “mixxpop” before mixxpop was a thing.
When it comes to Seo Taiji songs, this has never been among my favorites and that actually makes it ripe for an update. aespa keep the general grunge rock feel and give it a glossier makeover. Their version highlights big percussion, giving it a slightly more hip-hop arrangement. The chorus here feels much brighter than the original, which is a testament to both the girls’ vocal tones and the driving production. You can feel the song occasionally slipping into modern tropes — especially during its second verse — but overall the arrangers did a solid job updating Regret Of The Times without tying it to closely to this era. If anything, the song comes across as more scattershot than the original, and the 90’s version was already pretty generous with its sonic shifts!
Hooks
8
Production
8
Longevity
8
Bias
8
RATING
8