Soyou’s solo career is flourishing, and her latest single, “The Night” is a welcome salve for cold winter nights.
2017 has been a standout year for female soloists in K-pop, and the singer continues her prolific solo track record after Sistar disbanded in June. On the track, lush instrumentation mingles with an old school hip hop beat. Her raspy voice is well-suited to bending the notes of her “ooh”s in a jazzy way.
The soft midtempo song offers up a slice-of-life love stor,y where Soyou sings about a love interest, “I think he got drunk boy.” In the music video, she shows off her everygirl charms by dancing around her apartment, overcooking her ramen and spitting out her soju in anticipation of a date. There’s a fun shot outside her window where the camera tilts to the right, and she teeters to the next window as if subjected to the camera tilt’s gravity shift.
Rap duo Geeks matches the song’s vibe with a relaxed flow, wrangling unexpected imagery into the lyrics, like a clock picture of Salvador Dali. Soyou previously collaborated with the rappers on “Officially Missing You, Too” in 2012.
Soyou’s solo career strikes a much calmer tone than the uptempo bangers from Sistar. She chose to stay with her label, Starship Entertainment, after the quartet split. According to Soompi, she gave her reason for staying on an episode of Radio Star: “I work well with my current agency. They get things that I don’t say out loud.” Fellow Queen of Summer Hyolyn has also had a fruitful 2017 as a soloist after leaving the company to found her own label.
Watch Soyou’s music video for “The Night” below.