Everglow- La Di Da review

Kpop six piece girl group Everglow return with their fourth comeback with the single and video for ‘La Di Da’. Following on from their previous effort ‘Dun Dun’ I’m beginning to suspect these girls maybe don’t like actual words as titles?

However, the similar titles is where the similarity ends this time. Previously Everglow had seemed to me to be yet another kpop girl group that exists in the middle ground between success and the unknown which had taken obvious pointers from Blackpink before debut. With their energetic, no nonsense attitude to their heavy drops, to their hip hop influenced dances and rap verses, Everglow was in danger of becoming a group I had written off as lacking an identity worth investing time in, despite liking each member. However, thankfully, this time they have eschewed their copycat concept for something unique. La Di Da takes pointers from The Weeknds smash hit ‘Blinding Lights’ to create a dark, synth pop production, with minimalistic verses building up to a wicked synth drop chorus (Yiren’s ‘Everglow forever let’s go!’ is the best attempt I’ve seen at a kpop group name dropping their fandom in a song.)

Lyrically, the song fits into quite a normal trope in the current Kpop climate- namely, their ‘haters’ won’t hold them down. It’s not the reinvention of the wheel of the song writing world, but they deliver the lines with enough sass that it is at least believable. In particular the charisma oozed by main vocal Mia on screen and the coolness main rapper and leader E:U embodies (I love the duality of her pocket sized adorable demeanour and the fact she has the deepest voice in the whole group) are particularly commendable- they’re two to watch for this generation for sure.

The music video, for which the production of I presume has been affected by the COVID pandemic, takes inspiration from Sin City by blending elements of live action and animation, with the black and white scenes having bright flashes on red, creating a stunning visual effect. These are inter shot with solo scenes of the girls in high fashion, brightly coloured looks, still with darker ominous lighting, allowing them to smoulder and show their individual charms. The overall affect is a noir film style result, without so much as a story but a concept; these girls are here to kick ass. The girls all look absolutely stunning with the sleek outfits combined with their long, windswept hair creating a Hollywood vixen effect. However, the stand out scene to me comes courtesy of rapper and vocalist Aisha’s laser scene in the second verse- her visual has always been the most stand out in the group to me, and the fact she has legs longer than the M40 furthers my view of her as the spiritual successor to 9Muses.

Speaking of standouts, a controversial theme that has followed Everglow so far is their favouritism to one member, namely main vocalist and dancer Mia. Their previous singles suffered from the cardinal sin of making one member the entire focus, with her receiving more lines and screen time than several other members combined. Dun Dun in particular relegated the other girls to back up dancers, whilst she received a whole singing verse, the chorus, half a rap verse and a solo dance break. Thankfully La Di Da has rectified this issue- not only does each member have a coherent and separate solo scene but they’re also given actual lines- members Onda and Yiren who had formerly been demoted to chants and background vocals are actually heard! Whilst Mia still receives the most lines, it feels more even- lead vocalist Sihyeon is given similar alternating lines in the chorus and bridge, revealing their voices to have a nice harmonic blend- the slight nasal twang of their vocal performance giving some nuance and character to the song, which is unusual in an industry as robotic as kpop.

Mainly a performance based group, Everglow suffers from having an even number of members, meaning one member is often hidden during choreography- however this is offset by a lot of hand movements and focus on the facial expressions and hairography allowing the girls to block themselves effectively so everyone can be seen. That, complete with floor based leg moves highlights the girls performance abilities- there is no weak link here.

Overall La Di Da shows strong growth for a group still in its early years, with the combination of slick visuals and beats offset by the girls cute appearance and playful chants in the chorus creating a uniquely niche concept of girl crush, whilst retaining a youthful sneer befitting with the girls ages and target audience. This suggests it has been an authentic evolution as opposed to the idea of a group forced to fit into a concept that is en vogue, and the gradual implementation of a more even group split as opposed to the focus on just a singular member suggests Everglow has hopefully began to find their niche. I hope they continue down this road in the future and deliver us more bops.

4/5