Netizens React To Music Critic’s Scathing Review Of BABYMONSTER’s Album

YG Entertainment’s new girl group, BABYMONSTER, recently released its first EP, BABYMONS7ER, marking the start of its journey as a seven-member group.

On April 3, writer Carmen Chin reviewed the album on the well-revered English music and culture website New Musical Express. She rated the album with two stars out of five. Out of the six tracks on the record, however, Chin’s criticism was mostly directed toward the title track, “Sheesh,” which she felt was way too closely molded on the sound of BLACKPINK and 2NE1, the two previous YG Entertainment girl groups.

The project’s title track and main attraction ‘Sheesh’ starts off well enough with an intriguing, minimalist piano instrumentation. As the song begins to pick up the pace, it all starts to feel oddly familiar, like we’ve been here before. Then, any and all promise ‘Sheesh’ has shown goes right out the window when the chorus arrives – you realise that YG Entertainment have done it again. They’ve given BABYMONSTER yet another BLACKPINK-esque song.

‘Sheesh’ is nearly identical – from structure to the call-and-response rap verse to the rallying outro – to many of BLACKPINK’s hits in recent years that it feels almost uncanny.

— Carmen Chin, NME

For the rest of the tracks, Chin mostly praised them, even calling “Like That” a “hidden gem” that showed the true potential of the BABYMONSTER members. Her main complaint from this debut album was that YG was reluctant to stop recycling its old formulas.

‘Like That’ takes its 2000s R&B influence head on and knocks it out of the park. It’s proof that the septet have all the makings of the next great K-pop girl group – if only YG Entertainment had the courage to step out of their comfort zone.

— Carmen Chin, NME

The review went viral after a user posted it on a Korean community website, and netizens came with their opinions on Chin’s critique.

• “It would have been a relief if it was similar to BLACKPINK‘s. But it was even more old-fashioned than 2NE1‘s.”
• “YG=Teddy.”
• “If they had changed it into an easy-listening song with BLACKPINK vibe, it might have been different.”
• “The song was really not that good. It is too far away from the trend.”

• “It’s true. The label of ‘female TREASURE’ is absolutely spot on.”
• “The music video was really like BLACKPINK’s… Is there nobody at YG Entertainment to come up with plans?”
• “It’s just that YG’s song quality is not as good as it used to be.”
• “To be honest, the song falls short of the expectations. The debut was delayed since the beginning of last year, so the hype has cooled off, and their planning was disappointing.”
• “It would be a good idea for YG to change its plans. To be honest, even for BLACKPINK, there was a lot of talk about the group’s direction being similar to 2NE1’s. That backlash only faded because of the members’ star quality and the high-teen concept of ‘As If It’s Your Last.’ BABYMONSTER is doing what 2NE1 did for the third time…”
• “I am so sick of the same YG style every time.”