Review: SECRET's 'Yoo Hoo' Uses Minimalist Production For Maximum Catchiness, If This Song Gets In Your Head It Won't Leave [VIDEO]

SECRET's new single "Yoo Hoo" soared into the top five of Billboard Magazines K-Pop Hot 100 this week.

The song currently stands at number four, after debuting at number 31 last week.

The giant leap in popularity for SECRET's new single is most likely due in part to the popular video for "Yoo Hoo," an intoxicatingly funny romp on the tropical island of Saipan.

Although for all the attention that the video for "Yoo Hoo" has gotten, little attention has been paid to the song itself.

Produced by Kang Ji Won and Kim Ki Bum, the same team SECRET has worked with throughout their four-year career, the song's opening beat is strong.

It has thick enough bass and crackly enough snare to be sampled by the hardest rappers out there.

When the singing comes in, if you are watching the video, it barely registers.

This is not Aretha Franklin or Beyonce-style wailing here that forces your attention, and not long after the singing comes in, if you're watching the music video, the girls already have set sail.

Yet there is something about the sonic charm of "Yoo Hoo," that gets into your head.

Because the vocals are laid back and unforced they seem to creep into your consciousness slowly, even hours after you heard the song.

Like the accompanying music video, "Yoo Hoo" grows on you and then wins you over until you find yourself singing it in the shower and wondering where it came from.

Like any good pop song, "Yoo Hoo" works its way into your nervous system whether you like it or not.

A lot of the magic in the production of SECRET's new single comes in its simplicity.

Even at the song's climax, the accompaniment remains understated.

The girls don't need to sing soaring vocals. They don't need to scream like Delight or snarl like 4minute to break through the beat.

That's because there isn't much beat to break through.

Kang Ji Won and Kim Ki Bum instead keep their production restrained, avoiding the well-practiced ritual of digital layer after digital layer of processed or sampled instruments.

This is an innovation that might not dawn on the average listener on an intellectual level, but it will make them want to hear the song. It isn't exhausting to the ears.

If it gets a chance, "Yoo Hoo" will win people over.

Overly-glossy, layered pop, wherever it's from, is a lot like the first time you got your hands on a frosting gun as a kid.

What seems delightful at first, soon becomes regrettable and played-out as the sugar high fades.

In working within as stripped-down a sonic palette as there is in "Yoo Hoo," SECRET has released a song that is as appealing and addictive as the video's tropical location.

Check out the music video for SECRET's "Yoo Hoo" RIGHT HERE:

Tags
SECRET
Yoo Hoo
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