Song Review: OURBIRTHDAY – Squeezy

OURBIRTHDAY make their official debut today under JYP subsidiary INNIT Entertainment. This follows a truly diabolical pre-release that dampened my hopes for their eventual sound. Thankfully, Squeezy is a small step up. The song largely jettisons the annoying sing-chant approach of Hungry for a funkier, old-school approach. This doesn’t mean that Squeezy is any huge artistic achievement. It relies heavily on novelty, especially during its nursery-rhyme chorus. Something about a bunch of K-pop girls chanting “Squeezy, easy, yeah, squeezy, yeah, kick that” just doesn’t make for a particularly engaging centerpiece, but the rest of the track has a fun, lighthearted funk sound that reminds me of early Seventeen. A chorus built on vocal melody would really make the difference here, adding weight to an otherwise flimsy approach. Alas, vocal melodies are hard to come by these days so we must simply be relieved that Squeezy‘s hook isn’t too annoying. Instead of dwelling too much on the bad, I’ll focus on Squeezy‘s limber bassline, which does much of the heavy lifting during the verses. This sonic throughline, along with stabs of organ, forges a retro breakbeat that deserves a better song. Ho...