If you’re a Girl’s Day fan, then you understand the excruciating wait it took to get here. Nearly two years after their last release as a group (their solo endeavors have kept them incredibly busy), Girl’s Day is back with their fifth mini-album. Titled Girl’s Day Everyday #5, the EP is, more or less, a continuation of their Everyday series that left off somewhere in 2014. While that doesn’t say much about the album, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what you will find listening to Girl’s Day’s latest.

The music on this album showcases a very sophisticated side to the group, one that hasn’t been focused on quite to this extent before. As the album streams along, graceful vocals are woven beautifully through melodies that are both engaging and often engrossing, two things I never would have expected to hear from a Girl’s Day record.

To get a good sense of this, turn to songs like the icy ballad “Love Again” and Sojin‘s solo track, “Kumbaya”. The former is perhaps the closest Girl’s Day has gotten to effectively drawing out an emotional response without over-performing. It’s melancholic enough in its design and sung with such vulnerability that it’s difficult not to be drawn into its world of angst.

Sojin achieves just as much on her own in “Kumbaya”. The song is a story about unrequited love, specifically about the desire to salvage a relationship by finding common ground: “Sometimes I hate you,” Sojin sings softly, “but I search for higher ground.” It’s an elegant song with a delightful arrangement that highlights both Sojin’s voice and her lyricism.

And yet, with such depth, it’s unfortunate that the up-tempos on this EP don’t ever reach their full potential or live up to the high-energy tracks Girl’s Day has proven to do exceptionally well in the past. Of the three on here, “THIRSTY” is executed best, as it delivers an Ariana Grande-esque R&B vibe quite successfully. But it’s the lead single “I’ll Be Yours” that is the least interesting. While the song has a set of charming verses and features the members’ vocals at their fiercest, not only has this brassy anthemic style been done many times in K-Pop but done so far better by groups like SISTAR and MAMAMOO. “I’ll Be Yours” doesn’t bring much to the table that we haven’t heard already, nor does it act as an accurate representation of the heart of this album.

This EP is, if anything, surprisingly sophisticated. Girl’s Day has served mature sounds before, dating back to their first album Expectation. But there is a fierce sense of growth underlying the music on #5 that has added an infold of depth to what we’re used to hearing from Girl’s Day.

If you can get past the fact that this EP isn’t as larger-than-life as a lot of Girl’s Day’s previous albums, you’ll find yourself wrapped up in the sounds of a girl group that has opted to approach their music a little more delicately this time around and with a fine-tuned awareness of their strength as singers.

7.6

Genre: Dance, Ballad | Release Date: 3/27/17