wickymicky’s Top Ten Kpop Songs of 2021
6: Tri.Be - Rub-a-Dum
Another rookie group? Jeez, how many rookie groups does this list have on it, anyway?
This isn’t their debut song, that was Doom Doom Ta in February. I really liked that song, but you never know what a group is truly gonna sound like or what to expect from them until their first comeback. I knew LE from EXID was one of the producers for this group, and that was super exciting, and yeah I liked Doom Doom Ta a lot, but when I saw that this song was going to be called Rub-a-Dum I... kinda rolled my eyes lol. That’s a pretty goofy title. idk, I just wasn’t expecting it to be one of the best songs of the year. I guess you can’t really predict something like that just based on the title, haha.
Everything that Doom Doom Ta does well, Rub-a-Dum does better. And in a more interesting way, too. I love that this song is kind of experimental, from the busy and very varied production to the unconventional song structure. This song straight up only has one verse. It goes Intro > Verse 1 > Prechorus > Chorus >.... Bridge > Final Chorus. There’s no second verse. When the first chorus ends, the bridge begins. I feel like it’s because they want you to luxuriate in that chorus drop as much as possible, so they spend the least amount of time outside of it as they can. The Bridge-Final Chorus section is a little confusing too because there’s a sort of Bridge-Part-2, or a Prechorus that’s different than the first one, or something... the part where they sing the same melody as the sample of the children in the intro of the song. Which, by the way, is such a great touch. To set that up in the intro and then pay it off right before the final chorus... that’s really nice. There’s so much going on in the instrumental and it’s all so fast-paced, I love it. And yeah, I feel like you can really hear LE’s production style all over it, which is great.
To be honest, I think everything that makes this song good is really apparent on first listen. There’s not a lot more that I feel I really need to get into here. I could talk about how Hyunbin and Mire are one of the better rapper duos I’ve heard in a new girl group in a couple years, with Hyunbin in particular having a voice that really stands out amongst girl group rappers and reminds me of someone like LE who I imagine she probably takes quite a bit of inspiration from, or how Soeun’s deeper voice is so interesting and is placed in their songs at great moments that contrast with other members’ voices or the instrumental, or even how the beat of this song is just impossible to sit still to, but like... if you listened to the song then you know all that already <3
links to the rest of the list: 10 - After School (Weeekly) 9 - Love So Sweet (Cherry Bullet) 8 - Odd Eye (Dreamcatcher) 7 - Eleven (IVE) 6 - Rub-a-Dum (TRI.BE) 5 - Holiday Party (Weeekly) 4 - Ring x Ring (Billlie) 3 - Zombie (Purple Kiss) 2 - ASAP (STAYC) 1 - First (Everglow)
