If you're not already keeping an eye on Ladies' Code, now might be the time to start. The girls had a bit of a leg-up going into their March debut with "Bad Girls" as RiSe already made a name for herself on 'Birth of a Great Star', Sojung had competed on 'The Voice Korea', and Ashley had a YouTube following, and they've done an impressive job of keeping the momentum of that initial boost going.
"Bad Girls" and "Dada La" from their debut album used the same jazzy, horn-blaring styles often used to show off big vocals in dance music (Brown Eyed Girls' "Sixth Sense", Ailee's "U & I", Lee Hi's "It's Over", et. al). "Pretty Pretty" takes that formula and T-ara-fies it with a healthy dose of quirky K-Pop disco paired with the kind of screwball-cutesy, family-friendliness that would make "Breathe"-era miss A or current-era B1A4 proud.
Super Changddai, who's done a number of tracks for the likes of A Pink and 2PM, brings some of his most interesting work to Ladies' Code, having personally written and produced four and cowritten/produced another one of the seven songs they've released so far. "Pretty Pretty", one of the songs he created on his own, sees Ladies' Code finally finding a personal identity. While "Bad Girls" and "Hate You"- which were both excellent songs, could have easily been hits for Lee Hi (in fact, they aren't that far of a cry from "It's Over" and "Rose", respectively), it's hard to imagine YG's wunderkind taking on something quite as wacky as "Pretty Pretty". With lead vocal Sojung already sounding a heck of a lot like Hi, Ladies Code needed to make a clear distinction between Lee Hi's music and their own, and "Pretty Pretty" is their first single that really sets them apart from other acts.
I'm a sucker for a good self-empowerment anthem, and "Pretty Pretty" definitely delivers on that front. It's is loud and confident, false modesty out the window as the girls belt out lyrics like "My face is sexy and my personality is cool, too," "From my head to my toes, I was always this pretty," even complaining that "Guys keep giving me gifts when I don't have any interest- guys, please just leave me alone!" What's more is that the girls manage to come across as cute and likeable through all of this, even when the material threatens to edge into ego-trip territory. That's a tough balance to strike, but they hit the nail on the head.
Like Brown Eyed Girls before them (and like another rookie-group-on-the-rise, SPICA), Ladies Code is navigating the difficult waters of a vocal group in a dance world. So far, every step is taking them in the right direction.
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