Spica play Russian Roulette @ MBC Music Core

 

Russian Roulette is fast, furious, and mature

SPICA, a rookie K-Pop group, release a new single titled Russian Roulette. This single is fast, furious, and mature. This isn’t your typical been-there-heard-that rookie fare. It is, to put it in understandable terms, simply the most audacious song to come out of K-Pop so far this year.

SPICA is a welcome break from the string of unsatisfactory girl group debuts that K-Pop fans have been subjected to since last year, and “Russian Roulette”, coupled with “Intensely”, washes away all of the disappointment that the fans had come to expect as a matter of course.

As a debut track, Russian Roulette is flawless. It does everything that a good debut track is supposed to do: establish an identity, prove their talent, and make the audience hungry for more. SPICA is currently batting 3-for-3 on the above points, and it will be interesting to watch them grow into seasoned, established vocalists in the future.

Here we have a debut that doesn’t look down upon its audience (Never mind that SPICA’s actual debut was with Intensely – a group’s second-ever track, released just days later the first, still counts as far as this author is concerned.) No more run-of-the-mill bubbly electronics, no more cutesy aegyo, and no more “rhythmic-talking-dressed-up-as-a-pale-shadow-of-rapping”. Russian Roulette is a legitimate song in the most traditional sense of the word, a track that wouldn’t pale next to some of the more hallowed songs in recent K-Pop history. SPICA doesn’t waste time going through the traditional hey-we’re-rookies-so-we’re-going-to-take-some-time-to-get-our-bearings phase; they jump right into being mature, confident, and sexual. Yes, sexual.

To use an analogy, Russian Roulette would be a svelte woman, with long, flowing locks and a sparkling black cocktail dress, puffing away on a Cuban cigar illuminated by a low-hanging chandelier. The song exudes sensuality, it reeks of maturity, and it absolutely delights.

The sheer confidence oozing from every second of Russian Roulette belies that of their rookie status. This isn’t surprising, however, as the majority of members in SPICA has had prior experience in the Korean music scene. Jiwon was a T-Ara member for a short time, and Joohyun was featured in Heo Young Saeng’s Let It Go. Although SPICA may be a rookie group by name, their members certainly have the experience to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the more experienced and respected idols in the field.

SPICA‘s vocal performances are also a welcome breeze of fresh air; their voices are rich, powerful, and – as expected – confident. If there’s one disappointing attribute, it is that it’s hard to pick out an individual voice from the crowd – in other words, the girls all sound, more or less, the same. This could be just a side effect of listening to rookie members with undeveloped personalities, and this author is willing to hold back on that criticism until SPICA releases a full album showing off “many different sides of themselves” (as taken from the Rookie Group Interview Handbook, Section C, line 83.5: “One must always include the line “I want to show many different sides of myself”). [allkpop]

Spica – Russian Roulette [mv]

Lyrics song : Russian Roulette

Artist : Spica

So what, so what, so what – just stop
Choose – uh – If you leave like this, I will…

Hey baby, I’ll count to three and pull – bang bang bang
It’s time to test my luck, let it begin
If you say you’re not scared, that’s a lie – your heart is stopping
If it’s not you, I will die anyway
Things like this, things like this are not a big deal to me
When you said painful hearts and painful words are meaningless now
It ripped apart my heart – bang bang bang bang bang

*
I’ll hold back, hold back till the end
The smearing tears in my blood-shot eyes
I need to hold onto you even if it’s like this
With your hand, oh, aim – bang bang bang bang bang

Coldly, coldly, I feel it with my skin
Roughly, roughly, my breath is getting quicker

The last moment where everything is on the table
If it doesn’t work, it’s over
I have nothing more to lose
I can do things that are more extreme than this
What about this? What about it? I overcame much more toxic words before
Don’t hesitate and bang bang bang bang bang

* repeat

Can you feel me, me being like this?
I’m afraid that I will lose you
I’d rather have my breath stopped
Than to lose you right now

My throat is tightening, my heart is numbing
You, you – why are you hurting me like this, making me go crazy?
Please hold onto me, finish me

Block me, block me, just this once
My blood tears that are black and melting
I will let go of everything and trust you
With your hand, oh, aim – bang bang bang bang bang
arek suroboyo

Related articles

• [Review] SPICA – “Russian Roulette” (allkpop.com)
• SPICA makes their debut with “Russian Roulette” on ‘Music Core’! (allkpop.com)
• SPICA makes their debut with “Russian Roulette” on ‘Inkigayo’! (allkpop.com)
• SPICA makes their debut with “Russian Roulette” on ‘M! Countdown’! (allkpop.com)
• SPICA unveils the full MV for “Russian Roulette” (allkpop.com)
• [NEWS] SPICA’s “Russian Roulette” Banned by MBC (koreanupdates.com)
• 120208 Super Junior’s Lee Teuk Shows Support for SPICA (sup3rjunior.com)
• SPICA (스피카) – 러시안룰렛 (Russian Roulette) (cassiojyj.wordpress.com)
• Intensely… Russian Roulette. (kythestar.wordpress.com)
• Living the life la spica….. (northernmum.wordpress.com)
• Grab the Look: SPICA’s “Russian Roulette” (allkpop.com)