[Review] Shh.. – IU (ft. HYEIN (NewJeans), JOE WON SUN & Narr. by Patti Kim)

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted my review for Holssi. In that review, I promised a review for another side track off IU’s sixth mini-album, The Winning. That song in question is Shh..., which features IU (of course), HYEIN from NewJeans, JOE WON SUN and Patti Kim (as a narrator). Following this review, I will combine all the pieces (including a brief review of one final track) to form an album review post for The Winning. Definitely long overdue, but better late than never.

Shh.. is quite a unique track that piqued my interest when the mini-album was first released. My interest in Shh.. has simmered since then, as the mini-album did fall out of rotation. But this has nothing to do with the track itself; other comebacks replaced the mini-album in my playlists and listening rotations. The uniqueness of Shh.. stems from the sound profile it had tapped into, a slow, jazzy R&B style brought to our ears with some rock band instrumentation. This combination was quite prolific and oozed so much charisma musically. IU’s familiar vocals fit into this jazzy style so well, and I enjoyed the vibrancy she brought to her own track. If I were hearing the track for the first time and playing a game of ‘Guess who sang the song’, I think my mind would have been drawn to IU as she is the only artist in KPOP who would probably be daring to release a song of this niche and do it so well. Shh.., it doesn’t only feature IU, however. Shh.. also features HYEIN from NewJeans, JOE WON SUN, and narrator Patti Kim. Most are probably familiar with HYEIN because she hails from the popular girl group NewJeans. I quite like the freshness and youthful tone she brings to the song. JOE WON SUN and Patti Kim are probably the more unfamiliar names – the former is a soloist who was also once part of a Korean rock group, Roller Coaster. The latter is a retired Korean singer who was popular back in the 1950s and 1960s. JOE WON SUN’s vocals had an incredible nasal sound, bringing so much character to Shh… Patti Kim’s narration ends Shh.. with an airy and suspenseful tone, which makes it all the more intriguing and forces me to investigate the track further.

The collaborative nature of Shh.. continues into the music video, as well! Alongside IU, we see Tang Wei in the music video. Now, I will not pretend I know what the music video is about. So, I have relied on some interpretations I found on the Internet to help develop my own understanding. Essentially, the video speaks to the complex relationship between a mother (played by IU) and her daughter (played by Tang Wei). The versions of the pair we see in the video do not co-exist with one another but are instead a depiction of the two coming to terms with their relationship. There is a lot of emotion when the pair meet on the streets/in the car, and IU and Tang Wei’s acting throughout the video (but particularly in the car) was very profound. While catching up, the pair shows each other that they have each ‘hidden’ each other throughout their life, for one reason or another, as mentioned in the text on the orange background. For Tang Wei, she had hidden her mother in a warm place, as depicted in the video, under the floorboards. The warmer colours under the floorboards depict love, and the fact we see a younger version of Tang Wei with IU in this scene shows how much the daughter loves the mother despite whatever has happened between them. Conversely, IU confesses during the music video that she has hidden Tang Wei before. The location where IU had hidden her daughter in the car’s boot is colder and isolating. This probably depicts that the mother had done something to the daughter that filled her with regret and sadness. At the end of the video, the beginning of IU/Tang Wei’s story recurs, but with another mother and daughter pair. I feel like a lot is happening in the video regarding storytelling and emotions. Still, the way it is depicted is really artistic and feels entirely meaningful for those who can relate to the relationship being shown.

Song – 10/10
Music Video – 10/10
Overall Rating – 10/10