CLOSER

SOMI turned “Beautiful Girls” into a stuttering house track, dressed like the world’s prettiest nightclub emergency, and then let the video bring suspicious AI-looking furniture to the party.

JEON SOMI wants somebody closer, but the song keeps cutting, looping, and pulling away. That tension is the good part. The unfinished feeling is also the problem.

The song first: nostalgia wearing a new rhythm

“CLOSER” grabs attention by using a melody listeners already know. Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls” is baked into the hook, but SOMI does not perform a straight remake. The production chops the familiarity into a house track. Instead of sunny heartbreak, we get tension, repetition, and a beat that seems to stumble forward on purpose.

The interpolation is effective because the emotional premise still fits. Kingston’s song turned infatuation into melodrama. SOMI turns it into fixation. She is not politely asking for intimacy. She wants distance removed now, and the stuttering production makes that desire sound restless.

Her voice works best when the arrangement gives her a clear melodic line. SOMI has a bright tone with enough bite to keep pop sweetness interesting. In the verses, the production sometimes treats her like one more texture. In the chorus, she takes the center and the song improves immediately. The familiar melody gives her something solid to push against.

I understand why some listeners called the track empty. The instrumental leaves deliberate gaps, and the structure does not fill them with a bridge or a dramatic final section. Sparse production can create suspense. It can also sound like the producer forgot to return from lunch. “CLOSER” keeps flirting with both possibilities.

The runtime makes the problem worse. At 2:38, the song ends right when it could have changed shape. A bridge would have justified the restraint. A final chorus with fuller percussion, a new vocal layer, or one reckless ad-lib could have turned controlled tension into release. Instead, the track remains close to payoff without touching it. Yes, the title makes that funny. I am still annoyed.

Does the Sean Kingston reference help or trap her?

Interpolation is not automatically lazy. Pop music has always borrowed, answered, sampled, and rebuilt. The question is whether the new song creates a reason to exist beyond recognition. “CLOSER” does. The house rhythm changes the emotional temperature, and SOMI’s delivery is cooler than the desperate sweetness of the original.

But the borrowed melody is also the most memorable part. That creates an identity problem. Listeners leave humming something they first heard in 2007. SOMI supplies the style, the new pulse, and the visual world, yet the nostalgia receives the easiest applause.

This is where a stronger bridge could have protected the song. Give SOMI one section with no familiar melodic crutch. Let her write the line everyone quotes. The track needed a moment that belonged only to her.

The video looks expensive, beautiful, and occasionally generated by panic

Visually, “CLOSER” leans into chaos. SOMI moves through glossy rooms, strange objects, warped spaces, and fashion shots that feel disconnected until the disconnection becomes the concept. She looks fantastic. That is expected. She has the rare ability to make both doll-like styling and messier editorial looks feel natural.

The problem is that surrealism needs rules, even when the rule is nonsense. Some images feel designed around her. Others look like filler between stronger setups. The criticism about apparent generative AI was immediate because several backgrounds and visual details have the smeared, over-composed quality viewers now recognize. Whether every disputed frame was generated, composited, or simply processed too heavily, the result triggered the same response: people stopped looking at the story and started checking the furniture for extra fingers.

That is a creative failure even before the ethics argument. Once viewers suspect a shortcut, the illusion collapses. Instead of asking what a visual means, they ask whether a person made it. The conversation moves away from SOMI, the song, and the actual production crew.

The video does contain strong practical-looking material. SOMI’s styling creates multiple versions of closeness: glamorous, distant, playful, and slightly dangerous. Mirrors and constructed rooms support the song’s unstable intimacy. She often appears surrounded by things but emotionally alone, which matches a track that keeps asking for less distance.

SOMI is doing more work than the concept

SOMI’s screen presence prevents the MV from becoming a moving Pinterest board. She knows when to stare directly into the lens and when to make the performance feel casual. Her expressions keep changing the emotional meaning of the same lyric. One look is invitation. The next is a dare.

She also understands physical rhythm. Even without a giant choreography section, her shoulders, turns, and walking pace follow the clipped beat. That matters in a house track. A performer who ignores the negative space makes the song look slower. SOMI lets the pauses become attitude.

Still, I wanted the video to choose a clearer emotional direction. Is she trapped by obsession? Is she controlling the strange world? Is every room a different attempt to reach somebody? The images suggest all three, then move on before committing.

What fans liked, and why the criticism was so sharp

Fans who loved “CLOSER” heard a return to the brighter electronic lane associated with “Fast Forward,” “The Way,” and “What You Waiting For.” The house production feels international, and several listeners thought it could travel especially well in European pop spaces. The hook is immediate. SOMI is magnetic. Those are real strengths.

The negative response focused on three things: the short runtime, the interpolation carrying too much of the identity, and the apparent AI imagery. None of those complaints is invented by people determined to hate her. They all point to choices made around a talented performer.

The harshness also reflects frustration with SOMI’s release history. She has long gaps between projects, so listeners expect every comeback to feel fully developed. When an artist returns frequently, one imperfect title track can be absorbed into the year. When fans wait, two minutes and thirty-eight seconds feels less like efficiency and more like somebody rationing dinner.

I am softer on the song than many early reactions. The house treatment is smart, and the hook works. I am harder on the video because SOMI deserved visuals that would not make the audience debate whether the production valued speed over craft.

Details worth keeping

• The stutter: It makes desire feel impatient and keeps the interpolation from becoming karaoke.
• The empty beat: At its best, it creates tension. At its worst, it exposes how little song is left.
• The multiple SOMI moods: Styling does narrative work when the sets refuse to explain themselves.
• The camera contact: She makes “closer” feel addressed to one person instead of a general audience.
• The familiar melody: It is the entry point, the hook, and the song’s biggest identity risk.
• The suspected AI imagery: It became the story because viewers could not stop seeing it. That is not a win.

What I would change

First, add a bridge. Not eight seconds of atmosphere. A real bridge with a fresh melody and one lyric that tells us why this closeness matters. Second, build the last chorus instead of repeating it at nearly the same emotional level. Third, replace every visually questionable generated-looking shot with a practical set, miniature, projection, collage, or handmade animation.

SOMI is especially suited to playful physical concepts. Give her an impossible room built by artists. Let walls move. Let furniture slide. Let the camera reveal the trick. Surrealism becomes more satisfying when viewers can feel human decisions inside it.

I would also let one section become ugly. The video is so committed to beautiful chaos that nothing truly disrupts her. Desire is messy. Closeness can be embarrassing. SOMI has enough personality to carry a scene that is funny, awkward, or emotionally exposed.

Final verdict

“CLOSER” is catchier than its weakest reviews admit and less complete than its best hook deserves. The Sean Kingston interpolation is not the problem. Depending on it without giving SOMI an equally unforgettable original section is the problem.

The MV gives us excellent SOMI, strong styling, and a handful of memorable images. It also gives us the strange modern experience of squinting at expensive pop visuals and asking whether the background chair understands anatomy. I hate that this is now part of watching music videos.

I added the song. I replayed the chorus. I still wanted another minute. If the goal was to leave me wanting “CLOSER,” technically they succeeded. I do not think that is the defense they intended.

Receipts and places to keep digging

THEBLACKLABEL: official music videoDaily+5.2KTotal views23.2M · r/kpop: official MV discussion · r/kpop: Chaotic & Confused album discussion · r/kpop: two-week follow-up discussion and credits · Soompi: comeback rollout · Production listing and MV crew credits · r/kpop: teaser discussion and interpolation reaction