Despite a few suggestive teaser videos over the past couple of weeks, IU is still very much Korea’s sweetheart on her comeback album, Modern Times. And thank god for that. While I was all prepared for a potential Park Ji Yoon “Coming of Age Ceremony” makeover, the sound and image IU’s had since “Good Day” are so immaculate that it literally makes me want to denounce homosexuality and fight for her hand in marriage, and deep down I’m still not quite ready to let go of that just yet.
Her new single, “The Red Shoes,” can sound a little discombobulating on first play if your brain is pre-wired to the symponic dance-pop of “Good Day” and “You & I,” but after a few spins it sounds like another signature Kim Eana and Lee Min-soo IU production in all the best ways. It’s like an old showtune, incorporating big band, swing, and Broadway-style jazz — IU even tries her hand at beboppin’ and scattin’ with a few post-chorus lines about oompa loompas.
Like most IU songs, there’s a sense of wide-eyed whimsy and enchantment present at all times, but it’s less childlike this time around. She’s essentially playing the same role as she did before (the lyrics to “The Red Shoes” see IU pining and searching for a lost summer love), but she’s doing it with a little more life experience under her belt. If she’s the Taylor Swift of Korea (and she most definitely is), then Modern Times would be her Speak Now.
The music video, like all music videos that come out of LOEN Entertainment, is gorgeous and beautiful and theatrical and amazing. Every time IU releases a new MV it ends up being one of the year’s best, and “The Red Shoes” is no exception. (Although, nothing will EVER top “End of Every Day.”)
In summary: IU retains her high rank in my “top five pop stars in the world today” list, and you should put her in yours, too.
For anyone disappointed by the lack of sex appeal in “The Red Shoes,” then IU’s duet with Ga-In, “Everybody Has Secrets,” should satisfy you. The Cuban-flavoured midtempo sounds like it should be playing during a montage of two attractive strangers dirty dancing in Costa Rica before heading to the beach to make passionate love at sunset. Ga-In’s husky, voracious vocals pair perfectly with IU’s princess high voice, as if the Brown Eyed Girls sexpot were duetting with Narsha on some kind of “Hot Shot” sequel.
Ga-In owed IU this collaboration after stealing her sound for the best pop single of 2012, “Bloom,” so I’m glad she finally paid her debt. Now all we can hope for is a full music video that lives up to the erotic promise of the teaser. Rihanna’s “Te Amo” could never.
P.S. For those wishing to orgasm to IU’s voice, listen to “Between The Lips (50cm)” and be forever aroused. Also, bow down bitches and accept IU as the supreme goddess of planet earth and the heavens above.