Mini Album Review: Sunmi - 1/6

I’mma just say it.

I wasn’t a fan of “Gashina”.

I was a fan of Sunmi’s energy and sense of freedom in the music video and performances of the song. But I wasn’t a fan of the song itself. And this is how I feel about a lot of what Sunmi has put out ever since Park Jin-young told the Wonder Girls to pack up their shit and take a self expensed Uber outta Gangdong.

So, I had no real expectations of Sunmi’s follow up to her single to “Tail” (which I liked) and her first EP since 2018’s Warning (“Curve” was a jam). And having heard Sunmi’s third EP ⅙, my stance on Sunmi hasn’t changed. I’m a fan of her, but her music still isn’t giving me what I know it has the potential to give. I’m probably alone in this, but... *shrugs*

I listened to ⅙ multiple times and each time I was left with no real lasting impression of the music itself. The songs on ⅙ are all fine, but nothing about them really sticks aside from the lead single “You Can’t Sit With Us” and “Sunny” - both of which are the only 2 songs on the album to not be produced by Sunmi’s partner in crime Frants, and to feature the talents of other songwriters such as sworn enemy of the BTS Army Melanie Fontana, and Ross Golan, best known as the host of the podcast And the Writer Is…. (Great podcast by the way).

“You Can’t Sit With Us” and “Sunny” not only feature nice crisp production, but have great choruses which anchor both songs and stay in your head after one listen. I'm still pressed about how Reboot did not get the accolades it deserved, and I still play that album. And "You Can't Sit With Us" in particular feels like a continuation of it. Every other song on ⅙ feels so flat by comparison. The album title track “⅙” has such a nice chilled vibe about it, but it doesn’t go anywhere. “Call” has a cool 90s Dance vibe about it, but the chorus just isn’t as big and euphoric as it should be. “Narcissism” sounds like a throwaway 2NE1 Blackpink B-side. And album closer “Borderline”, for all of the rock vibes and the angst, feels very tepid.

Sunmi is pretty chilled and her energy on songs tends to stay at one level, which is quite reflective of her personality. So the music needs to provide the peaks and valleys to keep things interesting. “You Can’t Sit With Us” and “Sunny” do that, as did songs such as “Gashina” and “Pporappippam” (which would’ve fit real nice on this EP). It’s a real shame that “⅙”, “Call”, “Narcissism” and “Borderline” come off so bland musically, when lyrically they are the most personal songs on the album, and the ones that speak to who Sunmi is separate from the K-Pop persona.

Even though Sunmi’s fans have coined a style of music after her called Sunmi-pop, I think fans are giving Sunmi’s music more credit than I think it deserves. I’m not saying Sunmi’s music is bad. But there’s nothing all that unique about it as a whole. I couldn’t help but think of other artists as I listened to ⅙. It’s not hard to imagine Everglow doing a song like “You Can’t Sit With Us”. Yukika doing a song like “Sunny”. Or Blackpink releasing songs like “Call” and “Narcissism”. And each of them would have done these songs as good as Sunmi, if not better.

One thing I will commend these songs for, is not feeling compelled to play into many of the typical K-Pop tropes. There are no trap breakdowns outta nowhere and no raps. It's refreshing. But the uncharacteristically basic song structures, especially in the case of "⅙" do contribute to the flatness of the songs.

⅙ features a lot of English for your regular K-Pop release. It's more than an odd line here or there; it's entire verses and songs. Album closer "Borderline" is sung entirely in English. Listening to some of the more English heavy songs was such a head fuck for me, because my ear is hearing English, but my head is like ’KOREAN’. It’s fucking weird, because I don’t even speak Korean. But Sunmi pushing more English into her songs makes sense and shows the acute awareness she has of who she is and her fan base. "Gashina" catapulted Sumni into worldwide recognition at a time when the hallyu had fully hit the US and Europe. Sunmi’s popularity in the US was at enough of a level that she was able to tour there; so she’s fully aware that she has a whole bunch of English speaking fans. And to Sunmi’s credit, she sounds great in English. Especially given her singing style.

Whilst I feel that Sunmi’s music is being oversold credit - one thing I feel Sunmi is NOT given enough credit for is how smart a K-Pop star she is. I don’t think anybody thought way back when, that Sunmi would be the one member of the Wonder Girls who would go on to have the biggest and most fruitful solo career. Sunmi is also one thing that there isn’t enough of in K-Pop. Spontaneous. Her entire career since day one of the Wonder Girls has been made up of decisions that nobody saw coming. Leaving the Wonder Girls right as they were about to blow up even bigger. Going solo. Re-joining the Wonder Girls. Leaving JYP Entertainment. Releasing a song like “Gashina”, co-written by Teddy Park. Then doing a song with JYP. Sunmi keeps you guessing. She reminds me a lot of 2NE1’s CL in the sense that she is a fully self aware K-Pop star who knows herself, her talents and the place that she occupies. And whilst Sunmi has always made quite bold choices with her music, ⅙ highlights for me that Sunmi herself and her approach to her career is more interesting than her music. Even with all that Sunmi has released in the past 5 years alone, her 2 most memorable solo songs for me are still “24 Hours” and “Full Moon”. And I’mma throw Wonder Girls “Rewind” and “Faded Love” into the list too, given that she wrote them and they were fantastic songs. But most would probably say that THE Sunmi song is “Gashina”.

Sunmi has a lot of musical freedom, which is something few K-Pop stars are granted, no matter how big they are. It took BoA a decade and 2 simultaneous careers in Korea and Japan before she was able to claim any sort of control of her music. I respect that Sunmi writes her own material, especially as so much of her character comes through in her songwriting. She’s also developed a great working relationship with songwriter and producer Frants, who also worked on the Wonder Girls’ Reboot album. But it’s really unfortunate that Frants and Sunmi wound up delivering the weakest songs on ⅙. After a string of singles, and something like “Tail”, which tapped in their collective weirdness and really spoke to Sunmi’s uniqueness, it’s disappointing that their efforts for ⅙ sound like anybody songs. And it’s also a little disappointing that this EP isn’t enough of either a refinement or a departure from Warning that I felt it should have been. ⅙ would have been far stronger as an A-side single with a B-side, as was the case with the release of “Tail”. “You Can’t Sit With Us” and “Sunny” would’ve been a great one, two punch. The other songs just drag them down.

I began to wonder why Sunmi hasn’t yet released a full length album, but then I wondered if she could, and if she’d be able to captivate with her material for a whole entire album. Sunmi seems the type to be content with being able to just drop a song or an EP here or there - hitting the studio when she feels the desire to. I just couldn’t imagine her holed up in a studio for months on end working on a 12 track album. I don’t even know what I’m basing this on. It’s just a feeling. But Sunmi seems the type that likes familiarity, but also relishes in new opportunities and sometimes being outside of her comfort zone. Sunmi clearly feels a kinship with Frants, their relationship of which breeds a space for her musically. But I do feel that if Sunmi were to ever work on a full length album, that she would be better off working with other producers in addition to Frants. I think it would be worthwhile working with other producers generally. After all, spontaneity is Sunmi’s true speciality. And ⅙ shows that she’s maybe become a little too complacent and safe with things as they are.

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Highlights:
■ You Can’t Sit With Us
■ Sunny 🏆
■ ⅙