TITLE: María
ARTIST: Hwasa
LABEL: RBW Entertainment
RELEASED: June 29, 2020
As Sugar Baby likes to point out, I’m such a boy group stan. But I do love me a female soloist. Even though Hwasa is part of a girl group, I do like Mamamoo (older mamamoo except their problematic behavior.) Let’s see what she does with her first mini.
María – Title Track
Unfortunately, I’m immediately comparing it to TWIT and both songs have the same vibe for me. It’s like they said lets recreate TWIT but make it Latin. I’m not saying that it’s bad, but it feels expected. It’s also not as addicting as its predecessor. I do like the back end of the chorus, it has a nice drop beat. The tempo change at the musical break felt unnecessary and could have just been for the MV instead of the full song. Speaking of the MV, I have no idea what the concept is here but I do know that Hwasa should ALWAYS have her brows filled in.
Intro: Nobody Else
I really like how it really highlights her vocals and doesn’t really sound like another Mamamoo song.
Kidding
This was not what I expected when I first played the song. The beginning is this light jazzy start and then it goes into this more eletro R&B melody. Hwasa does this more monotone singing throughout which I almost forget to pay attention to. The chorus is my favorite part. Thank you Zico for that weird ride.
WHY
This is a ballad that I didn’t really expect. It’s sweet and traditional and shows Hwasa vocal range. But the chorus is dark and synthy. I really like the song’s concept. Why don’t you love me? is repeated over and over in the chorus. I get it girl, I say it all the time to people who don’t know I exists.
I’m bad too (feat. DPR LIVE)
I love this. Yes, it’s another Latin infused R&B Pop song but it’s fun and the inclusion of DPR brings it to another level. I didn’t know they had a friendship like this but whatevs, cute song.
LMM
I’m a sucker for a string track. Hwasa put on her Adele and sang the hell out of this. It’s so soul bearing and the musical accompaniment just heightens it’s dramatics.
TWIT
This was released last year as a single and was added to the CD version of this mini. This track took everyone by storm and had bird sounds everywhere for months. I like it more than Maria for sure but I guess this is just gonna be the kind of sound that she has now.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It’s not surprising that the golden girl of Mamamoo came out with this sort of sound. I tried to sum up my thoughts about this but I found myself being meh about it. It’s just meh.
PRODUCTION: 2/ 5
VOCALS / RAPPING: 3/ 5
VISUALS / CONCEPT: 2/ 5
OVERALL: 2.5/ 5
Least Favorite Track(s): Maria
Favorite Track(s): LMM
Unbothered Unnies 