Chang Ha has released a new EP today called Offset with all new music to share with the world which means it is time to share what I think of every track on the album and tear it into little pieces. Of course since Chung Ha is known for being a dancer and not a singer, that will slant this review because I’m not judging her dance skills. Just how well she can put an album together.
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Chungha Offset, Track by Track:
- Offset: She starts off the album strong with a 1:15 minute song that has more of an R&B sound to it at the beginning that turns into a dance break. The main thing that I’m going to focus on here is the quality of her tone when she does her runs on this track. Because all she sings through the whole track is “Yeah” and then makes some sort of weird sound before it switches to the dance break part. Her runs are not very strong. She has a little bit of unfocused air that comes out when she sings that gives off what we call in the singing world “white noise” that tampers the quality of the sound. Several singers have it, and it usually happens when you are in a range that you aren’t 100% comfortable with. It’s relatively easy to correct by just restricting how much air you put out when singing a note ever so slightly. The issue with it is that it takes a lot of focus to correct consistently until it becomes muscle memory. This will become a reoccurring theme here, this white noise in Chung Ha’s voice, because a number of the songs seem to be out of where she is most comfortable with her singing.
- Roller Coaster: This is a 100% Dance track, and in my opinion it has a bit of a 70s vibe to it, like something you might dance to in platform shoes and flood pants or a leisure suit. Yet again here, I think the song is a bit high for Chung Ha’s vocal range because she has to sing the whole song in what we call “head voice”. It redirects the sound to a different part of the mouth that allows you to hit higher notes than you would in what is called “chest voice” which is typically used for lower notes. Chung Ha’s chest voice is quite strong, and you can tell that it is her comfort zone. I know the feeling. And this song is more challenging for someone who I would consider to be a mezzo-soprano and not a soprano because it is high enough that she has to sing the whole song in her head voice, and that is where the white noise comes from. She hasn’t spent the time with a vocal trainer to work out how to get rid of that white noise, and you can hear it throughout the entire song. I think it severely weakens the quality of what they made the title track of the EP.
- Do It: This is the song that I probably would have picked to be the title track of the album. Chungha is much stronger on this track as a singer, the entire song is written in her comfort zone so she can belt out as much as she wants, and she does it quite well. If a company wants the best for their company and their artists, they should always choose the tracks where they are highlighted the best. The only reason that I can think of that FNC didn’t choose this track as the title track is because it has a reggae feel, and companies usually like to release those in the summer as their lead tracks. If that is the case, they should have just waited until summer to release the track and make it a title track.
- Bad Boy: This song has a big band feel to it, and I kinda dig it. Is it title track worthy? No, but it is fun. Would this have been a better title track for Chungha then the one they had picked? Yes. I can picture Chung Ha singing this song and dancing her little heart out with a bunch of male dancers. It would be awesome. Yet again, this song is where Chung Ha feels most comfortable singing, and she pulls off the song.
- Remind Me of You Her singing in this track annoys me. The white noise is so thick that it severely hampers the song. She needs to push more air through and control her breathing better if she is going to be able to pull off a ballad like this, especially because this song isn’t very high, it is just not in her comfort zone. After listening to this song, I think that when it comes to ballads, she needs to work with a vocal trainer to help her focus her voice better before I will approve of her as a ballad singer. On top of that, she doesn’t have any emotion in her singing, and she is just singing the whole thing straight through. If you are going to attempt to be a ballad singer, you have to get the emotion in there, and she just doesn’t have it.
K-Points: 161/5
It’s not bad, it’s not good, this is just middle of the road for me. I think that Chung Ha lacks the training that I think she will need for me to consider her as a serious singer, as when I used to perform back in the day, I spent weeks, sometimes months trying to perfect a song, and if you want a serious career in the industry, I expect her to do the same. Now, could this have all been her company FNC’s decision, absolutely. If that is the case, I 100% condone this type of behavior. If you are going to give your singers songs that they are uncomfortable with, you need to make sure you give them an instructor who can help them feel comfortable in the range that you want them to be in.
Do you need to buy this album? Absolutely not. Should you stream it? Yes. If you are going to stream it, I highly recommend that you pull down Do It and Bad Boy, as they are by far the best tracks on the album. I will be doing an un-boxing on this album once it is released, so hang tight for that. As for Chung Ha in the future, I know she is young and has lots of improvement to do, so I look forward to seeing if she can improve her voice, and get rid of that white noise you hear in her voice. IT will take a lot of work, but I really hope she does that.
That’s it for now K-Nuggets!
사랑합니다!
–Rachel
