I remember when I first started my blog in early 2020, I proclaimed the holy trinity of OH MY GIRL, WJSN and GFRIEND to be my absolute favourite girl groups. Now while that was absolutely valid back then, two years are a long time within the industry and If you were to ask me now, I don’t think I would have the same answer. Now, GFRIEND obviously wouldn’t be apart of it any more since they (were forcefully) disbanded but what about the other two? WJSN have been doing fine but OH MY GIRL on the other hand have experienced a rather notable tumble down my personal bias list. And I don’t think any other release could better explain why than the single of their second full length album, Real Love.
Now let me get this out of the way, Real Love is not a BAD song by any means. The bouncy, jazzy instrumental is incredibly enjoyable, conjuring a real retro fitted atmosphere that lends well to both the concept and the performance. The girls sound great as usual and we really get to see the groups increasingly versatile range of vocal tones during the tracks short but sweet run time.The chorus swells with some gorgeous backing strings and a healthy dose of trumpeting synths, two things that are bound to make me happy. It’s all nice, inoffensive, fun.
And that’s where the main problem lies. Real Love is just too stripped back for its own good. And while this would have worked well for a mid album b-side, It really doesn’t manage to hold its weight as title track. There’s nothing here to grab onto, nothing to really make it stand out. It’s a similar pattern to the groups releases since 2019’s Bungee where each of the songs, despite being strong in their own right, lack the kind of identity that made the groups 2015 – 2019 (upto SSFWL) run so magical. To put it simply, Real Love‘s main fault is that it’s just kinda boring? It’s a track that doesn’t really know what it wants to be, harbouring a bouncy beat reminiscent of the groups recent work whilst at the same time trying to craft a melody more akin to their more ethereal efforts. And as such it faces a severe identity crisis and one that results in another underwhelming comeback in a year that’s already had its fair share of them.
(this better not be their last comeback WM)
Verses: 7
Chorus: 7
Production: 7
Performance: 8
Final Rating: 7.25 / 10
KBopped 
They’ll most probably have a re-package, but I wished that we got Hwang Hyun working for them instead of Ryan Jhun. Could have resulted in a stellar comeback.
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I hadn’t even thought of that! That would be an absolute stellar combo and one that I need NOW.
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