Review Summary: gimme that candy floss / call your dentist
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with baking videos. As cool as seeing a beautiful cake being put together from scratch might be, being confronted with the fact that this ‘scratch’ comprises twelve metric tons of butter and sixty kilograms of sugar can feel a bit uncomfortable. Apply this analogy to
IM NAYEON (no apostrophe, please): it’s a delightful 20 minutes of sugary catchiness, and as long as you don’t spend too much time thinking about the specificities of its ingredients you’ll find yourself enjoying a delightful rush.
NAYEON’s debut solo project shares much of its DNA with her primary group Twice: there’s enough funky grooves, bouncy synths, and 80’s-flavoured melodies to keep any dancefloor bobbing and bopping. Yet,
IM NAYEON affords the singer a unique position in the spotlight; one she accepts with grace. Her voice contains the perfect amount of sugary breeziness for irresistibly catchy songs about all things sweet (‘Candyfloss’, ‘POP!’), and is capable of dipping into slightly darker and slicker territories to fit the jazzy textures of more low-key bangers (‘All or Nothing’, ‘Sunset’). Smoothly switching between Korean and English, NAYEON is at her very best on the highlight ‘No Problem’; a memorable three minute explosion of high energy pop goodness. Even if an awkward feature slightly derails the track, it’s easy to overlook such flaws due to the sheer charisma of every surrounding element. Sure,
IM NAYEON is all glossy sweetness and may lack nutritional value, but does that really matter when the final product is this easy to sink your teeth into?
