Mamamoo Is Back With A Mini-Album Of Moody Ballads
Everyone has been taking stock of their lives and their relationships over the past year – and musicians and artists are no exception. We’ve been seeing pandemic-influenced self-evaluations and existential explorations emerge more and more in music over the past six months or so, and the latest offering comes from Korean girl group Mamamoo.
After a year focused primarily on solo releases from each of the group’s four members, Mamamoo are back as a group with a new mini album, WAW (short for “Where Are We”), and a music video for title track “Where Are We Now”. Perhaps best known for upbeat bops like “HIP” and “Dingga”, this time it’s emotional ballads taking centre stage – not only in “Where Are We Now”, but also the other three songs on the album, “Another Day”, “A Memory For Life”, and “Destiny Part 2”.
“We’d put a lot of ballads as b-side tracks on previous albums, but this is the first time it’s been all ballads, including the title track,” the group said in a recent interview with The Seoul Economic Daily (via Soompi). “We’re looking forward to showing a more mature image, as well as Mamamoo’s harmony and chemistry that we’ve been developing for a long time.”
Harmony and chemistry are the perfect words to describe “Where Are We Now”, a ballad full of soaring, goosebump-inducing vocals in which each member’s voice complements the others’ beautifully. The music video features them in every single mode: from casual outfits in an RV to formal dresses in a forest setting. They’re moody but stunning visuals; matching the vibe of the song.
The song itself is very much about Mamamoo at this moment in time. “It contains the stories of Mamamoo that we’ve been sharing for seven years,” Solar said in a video teasing the song’s release, translated by a fan. “This song tells the story of where we are now and where we will be.”
So, where is Mamamoo now? They don’t offer a definitive answer in the song, or the record as a whole – it’s the questions that matter here, which only time can answer. After seven years together, the group are looking back at where they’ve been (“All the wonderful times we shared/I was so grateful”), considering the present (“with you in this beautiful star”), and wondering about the future (“where’s the end? Do we even have an end?”).
“There’s a line in the song that goes, ‘one day in a long journey’,” Mamamoo told The Seoul Economic Daily. “Right now we are in one day of that long journey called life. We’re grateful that we can be on this journey together with the members and with our fans, MooMoos.”
The journey continues in the coming months – this album is the first release in Mamamoo’s “2021 Where Are We Project”. Next up is a documentary, which the group worked on at the same time as the album, and they’re also preparing for a concert.
“The documentary is constantly in production, so you’ll be able to see it soon,” the group said. “The concert will take place when the situation is more stable for everyone, so we’re preparing a lot of different things. The goal is for the summer, so please look forward to it.”
Written by Jenna Guillaume, an entertainment journalist and author of YA rom-coms What I Like About Me and You Were Made For Me. Follow her at @jennaguillaume.
