Considering that GFRIEND were my favourite girl group at the time of their disbandment, I’m quite surprised that I never got around to writing about either of Viviz’s two singles, Bop Bop or Lovedade. Neither track really did much for me but the affiliation to my prior bias group really should have warranted a few words. But regardless, this radio silence towards the girls is officially coming to an end now. And while Pull Up doesn’t really do much to further my interest in Viviz, it does serve as a slight improvement over their previous efforts.
Now, it should be noted that I, very likely, subconsciously hold all these releases to a higher bar. I loved almost all of Gfriend’s title tracks and though I understand that losing Sowon and especially Yuju is a pretty big shift, it’s hard to not have expectations. In saying this, Pull Up is a notable upgrade in many regards to the groups past few efforts, painting a chic, stylish sheen over an equally addictive performance. The soundscape, though not wholly original, is a wonderful playground for the girls personalities and some exciting turns. The disco funk elements alongside a nice brassy post chorus do much to excite and does harken back to some real second gen standouts. It’s all quite fun and maintains a certain level of engagement and stability throughout which makes Pull Up a real nice and engaging listening experience throughout. I particularly enjoy the hook that caps of the chorus.
However, the one thing that’s really holding me back from truly falling in love with Pull Up is just the over saturation of the sound it’s peddling. This percussive, stylish sound used to be one of my absolute favourites a few years ago but an overuse of it in modern k-pop tracks has resulted in many of these tracks coming across as very samey to my current ears. This is probably just a ‘me’ problem but couple that with one of those pseudo anti-drop choruses that almost every song seems to have now days and I just can’t really get into it. Sure the centerpiece is far from bad, even pretty enjoyable at times but for some reason I just can’t fully get on board the train. But while this may not be the knockout effort I was hoping for from the girls, it’s quite possibly their best work yet, something which nodes well for future efforts.
Verses: 8
Chorus: 7
Production: 8
Performance: 8
Final Rating: 7.75 / 10
KBopped 