Baby, I'm Sorry for Nothing

B1A4 recently dropped their first album Ignition (which Michelle recently reviewed), and also released the MV for their title track, “Baby, I’m Sorry.” The concept for this album seems remarkably darker than their previous efforts, but what really got me to notice this song is the fact that it was written and produced by leader Jin-young–a rare occurrence for a title track. Naturally, my curiosity was piqued.

The song is about the sorrows of breaking up, and the members sing (and rap) about moving on from a past love who has already moved on from them, and the difficulties of so when one is not yet ready to let go. But they manage to put their trouble behind them, with the help of some dancing party time. The engrish of this song kills me sometimes, and I do wish Jin-young had at least gotten someone to check the English lyrics. I have seen translations that rephrase the line “We got the better” to “We got the best of it”, which I would further divine as meaning “We got the best out of our relationship”; this makes sense in context of the rest of the lyrics, but unlike most instances of engrish, where a line is usually just grammatically incorrect and one can usually understand the meaning being conveyed, the meaning of this line is a bit harder to decipher. I wish a way could have been found to be both meaningful and gramatically-correct, but I guess I’ll just have to content myself with the fact that the chorus at least rhymes. Engrish aside, though, I enjoyed the song; it was simple but effective, which is how I see this music video.

Cinematography: 4 out 0f 5

I love the effects used in this video; the smooth slow motion employed in the flashbacks with the girl juxtaposes nicely with the jerkier shots taken in the present time, and match the moods of the shots really well; and I absolutely loved the quick-cut editing that matched the music just before Baro started rapping. It’s a perfect example of how such a technique can be used effectively and in a non-nausea-inducing way (lookin’ at you, CCM).

I also liked the styling of the set, which may appear to clash with the more modern sound of the song–but I actually think it worked perfectly to give the MV, and the song, a warmer feel. My only trouble was with the dance version set; while it was great to have a change of scenery interspersed throughout the song, I felt that the cold white room was too much of a change from the rest of the MV, and that the result was actually quite jarring. I think if they hadn’t made that particular set look so drastically different, the MV would have looked just that bit more cohesive.

Execution/Choreography: 3.5 out of 5

Though I wasn’t too keen on the whole dance set, it did give us a look at their choreography; there wasn’t much of it in the MV, and what little was seen didn’t seem to be very complex, like greater importance was given to the singing than the dance moves. Watching their live performance served to further cement that belief.

Otherwise, the execution was great; each member emoted their joy with the girl and their sadness without her well enough (though CNU’s hair tugging and anguished expressions during the bridge may have been overkill), and the party scene at the end was well done.   The members interacted well with the lady in question, and those scenes felt a lot more natural than the post-break-up shots; some of the member were emoting more than the others (hi, Baro and CNU), and Jin-young wouldn’t stop smiling the whole time, but Gong-chan and San-deul aced both their scenarios.

Some people may feel that the party scene was underdone, considering that it was basically just a bunch of people packed into a room freestyling, but I liked that it wasn’t over-stylised; in fact, it felt more down-to-earth and added to the warmth that I was describing earlier. It was like B1A4 was saying “we don’t need a fancy nightclub setting with all the fixings, we just want to dance,” and that’s something I can appreciate.

Intellectual/Emotional Factor: 3/5

I think keeping things low-key allowed the song itself to take centre-stage. There weren’t any gimmicks or artsy allusions, and the camera tricks used were executed with a subtlety that I’ve been missing in my K-pop MVs. The song itself doesn’t say anything new or profound, but it tells its story well, and the MV conveys that story just as well. It’s essentially breezy, easy-listening pop music, and it doesn’t pretend to be otherwise. I realise that some people may think that they didn’t take the angst concept far enough, but I don’t think that they’re ready for that yet–I actually like that they took a concept like this and moulded it to fit their own image. And honestly, I’m just glad that it wasn’t all melodramatic and overly angsty.

Overall, I found this MV to be a  perfectly simple and well-made accompaniment to the song it was promoting. The MV had its moments, but it didn’t overpower the music and always ensured that the song was the focus of the video rather than the dance, or the visuals (though these boys are quite easy on the eyes…)

So those are my thoughts; what did you think of B1A4’s “Baby, I’m Sorry?”

(WM Entertainment, XanXhi5)