41:39 // March 13th, 2025 // Feel Ghood Music
When talking about “subversion” and “authenticity” in popular music genres (for example, and I’m just pulling this out of my ass here, let’s land on “K-pop”) it is easy to make unfair comparisons and judgement calls without really understanding the full picture. Subversion to what? Authentic in comparison to whom?
Until you take that Kierkegaardian leap-of-faith into living your most true and authentic koreaboo life, measures of authenticity and subversion are better left to those in-house; and no one feels more equipped for this task than BIBI.
Ever since being signed to Korean hip-hop legend Tiger JK’s label, she has been very vocal about her mission to create out of her own vision, while being in an industry where that type of freedom is mostly taken out of the hands of artists.
It is not that BIBI operates outside the bounds of the culture of the Korean music industry (sonically or systemically), but she is one of those artists that are bold enough to grasp the freedom to move between taboo and norm at will. It is out of this movement that her latest project EVE: Romance emerges and takes shape.
One does not have to necessarily drill down into the detailed story concept of the record (although a little bit of a sci-fi-lite tragic love story about clones and how clones try to understand themselves is good for the soul every now and then) to have some of its core themes of identity, sensuality, rebellion, and self-love be easily understood throughout the album’s runtime.
BIBI has always had a flair for the cinematic approach to her art, drawing from her years of acting to create compelling (often bloody) music videos, and you sense that same cinematic approach in the album’s structure. EVE can be broken down into two distinct acts, with tracks 1-9 being Act I and tracks 10-14 being II. Not only are the acts thematically different from a lyrical perspective, but they are distinct regarding BIBI’s vocal delivery and the song-structures themselves.
Act I is a dynamic ride that oscillates between Pop and R&B, utilizing mostly bass, synth, and beats in various styles to become the backdrop for BIBI to play with vocal inflection and pattern on each track; whether it’s the roller-rink keys on “Apocalypse,” the live crash cymbals and latin inspired jazz of “Pygma Girl,” or the more modern K-pop tilted lead single “Derre,” the instrumentation here remains dynamic and tightly focused in order to become the platform on which BIBI’s many vocal eccentricities and accentuations take center stage.
She switches her tonality between light and airy “innocent” or playful sounding caricatures and her raspy talk-sing style that she employs to sound more seductive in order to create memorable moments: the drop into the second verse of aforementioned “Derre” with its playful adlibs, her increasingly raspy flow in “Hongdae R&B,” and the distorted talk-sung verse in noir film come-to-life jazz/trip-hop banger “Real Man” are all great examples of this.
We then get the transitional opulent city-pop ripper “Midnight Cruise” that begins Act II, which sees itself stripping away the pretense both in the lyrical and vocal department, and in the instrumentation itself. It’s an interesting stylistic choice to have the slower and more “natural” sounding songs all grouped together to end the album, but it was inherently the correct one. The theme of taking off the mask and being yourself is communicated quite clearly in the way that the quirky vocal inflections, playful flows, and sultry cadences all but disappear. Instead, you get a genuine sense of BIBI’s raw vocal talent and ability to invoke emotion without all of the (albeit much appreciated) flourishes. There’s a sense of self-acceptance that you get more from her delivery here than anything else, further driving home the main theme of the album.
“Bam Yang Gang” is a stage-play tune dripping with whimsy that focuses on word and syllabic play, invoking a delightful turn of Korean phrase that will bounce about your brain long after listening; the closing trio of “Hangang Gongwon,” “Bluebird,” and “Winter,” while all distinct amongst themselves, move between being traditional Korean balladry and acoustic-led reflective cuts.
It might seem jarring to go from a lyric in Act I like ‘Yeah I got cake baby yeah I got dough, bet you never had a bitch who had both’ from “Sugar Rush,” to the melancholic sweetness of the last three tracks, but the more intimate and raw vocal takes displays BIBI’s more natural singing talent (she sounds sublime on “Hangang Gongwon”), and sweetly closes the curtain on this ambitious project.
The world of K-pop/K-r&b is vast and less homogenous than someone on the outside of things might believe. It’s often known negatively for its superficiality and for its lab-made function to be as far-reaching as possible, but at the end of the day, artists like BIBI continue to show that you can work within the structure and still hold true to artistic vision. EVE: ROMANCE is in some ways a celebration of that, and I think we will be celebrating BIBI and her vision for many years to come.
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