[Review] C’est La Vie – CRAVITY

Keeping to traditional, CRAVITY has returned to the stage with a follow-up release to February’s Love or Die. Also released as part of the group’s 7th mini-album, EVERSHINE, is the track C’est La Vie, which the group will be promoting as the second single from the mini-album. Yesterday, the group dropped the music video for C’est La Vie, which has prompted today’s review post.

For me, I thought C’est La Vie was one of the more mellow and plainer dance tracks off EVERSHINE (from what I can remember when I checked out the mini-album). So it is interesting to me that it was chosen to be the follow-up single for EVERSHINE. Presently, I don’t have a clear pick for what could have been a better pick (I will need to revisit the album to decide that). But C’est La Vie would not have been my first choice. There are some elements in the song give C’est La Vie some edge, such as the consistently pounding beat and the rougher post-chorus sequence that follows the chorus. The pre-chorus has a blissful vibe to it, and the accompanying rap surprisingly pairs well with said atmosphere. But aside from thaose aspects, the rest of C’est La Vie felt ordinary and doesn’t really speak to me as much. I think the chorus could have been bolder and defined and the verses didn’t have much going aside from that pounding beat I already mentioned. As a whole piece and considering my thoughts on the song above are quite balanced, I find myself indifferent to C’est La Vie.

The music video appears to be influenced by stories such as Peter Pan (via the presence of the kids and CRAVITY, whom I think are a version of the Lost Boys in the video) and Howl’s Moving Castle (via the presence of the older lady in the video, who turns into a Miyazaki anime-styled older lady giant that looks similar to the Witch of the Waste). Both of these stories touch upon the idea of life, which is fitting for a song titled after the French translation of the phrase ‘Such is life’. I like the fun and chaos that is brought around by the little kids and CRAVITY in the music video, especially at the start. At the peak of the video, TAEYONG and one of the young kids come together to take down the anime-style giant lady, and return the giant to her original form – the older lady we see earlier in the video, whom we see again at the end of the video with the kid.

The choreography looks good, based on the snippets that are included in the music video and a fan-cam I found of their performance at their fan-con. Their synchronisation during the first pre-chorus made that sequence looks cool, and I liked the intensity they give off during the post-chorus sequence.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 8/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 7.5/10