Tiffany has long been one of the few girls in Girls' generation who can hold a song, but not a great deal about her ever showed any promise as a solo break off act from the group. Sure, she can speak fluent English and she gets a fair amount of sections in songs. But nothing about her has ever been bold or audacious enough for me to see her in the light of a solo star. Which is why it came as a surprise to me that she put out a solo EP.
On one hand, SM entertainment have made this work. Tapping into a sound that will be very familiar to anybody who has been tuned into US pop over the past 2 years. On the other hand, the throwaway nature of the songs and nothing really sticking cements the thoughts I had in regards to why I never once saw Tiffany as a solo star. Nothing about her nor her music is memorable.
Being one of 8 members in a group whose music seems deliberately catered to not really have any one member stand out - Tiffany had a real chance to make a statement and establish herself to an audience who are not Girls' Generation fans, whist ensnaring those who are. The sound adopted on this EP certainly would have allowed her that. But instead what we are left with here is an EP which is as glossy and well produced as you'd expect from SM Entertainment, but features nothing beneath the surface. Tiffany does not matter on any of these songs. Hand any of the material on this EP to Taeyeon or Seohyun (and that's about it for members in the group who can actually sing) and the songs would be no better or worse off for it.
Everything about I just wanna dance is safe. Nothing on it will surprise nor shock and all of the songs sound like something you would hear from Girls' Generation at some point anyway, which is probabaly the main point of this release anyway.
What I do commend this EP for is being focused in its sound and being a cool representation of the age of the artist singing the them. Girls' Generation often regress back into sickly cute songs which are not indicative of their ages or who they actually are. Tiffany's EP is much more reflective of her age and represents her well as a young woman. However, nothing about this EP truly defines Tiffany as a person or an artist. The songs still feel like a case of her being a vessel as opposed to really being the DNA of the songs. That said, the songs aren't bad. The first 3 tracks "I just wanna dance", "Talk" and "Fool" adopt the 80s sound of Carly Rae Jepsen's Em-o-tion, but with much more subdue hooks. "What do I do" is the best cut on the album and the stand-out song. A large part as to why I like it is that I can immediately imagine Crystal Kay on it. Though Western Pop heads may get Ariana Grande vibes from it. This song also features an English version, just to sweeten the deal.
I just wanna dance is not a bad EP. But it goes to show that no matter how good material is, sometimes it needs a spark or a strong persona to truly elevate it to a point where you can't separate the artist from the song.
Tiffany doesn't matter on this EP the way in which she should have.
Album highlights:
■ Fool
■ What do I do ★ J's fave
■ Yellow lights
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