With over 2,300 songs on my iPhone’s “K-Pop Singles” playlist, I thought it would be fun to add a bit of unpredictability to my song review posts. So as a result, we have the “Random Shuffle Review” feature.

The rules are simple. I fire up my playlist, press “shuffle,” and whatever song plays first gets the full Bias List treatment!

Year Released: 2014

There was an era where Brave Brothers-produced material was everywhere in K-pop, and AOA rode that ubiquity to incredible success. The group debuted all the way back in 2012, but in many ways Miniskirt represented their true breakthrough. It’s also the first in a 2014 trilogy of singles that culminated in the excellent Like A Cat. With this in mind, Miniskirt almost feels like a teaser of what’s to come. Despite its eye-catching zipper dance, the song itself is pretty restrained.

Anyone who is the least bit familiar with the Brave Brothers sound will have an idea of how Miniskirt sounds. In fact, his next two major K-pop singles (Sunmi’s Full Moon and BTOB’s Beep Beep) followed a similar mid-tempo bounce. He has a way of crafting instrumentals that feel like melodies unto themselves. Miniskirt’s production is quite repetitive, riding along a simple synth loop and layers of cooing vocal hooks. However, it provides the perfect groove for AOA’s flirtatious performance. Most of the track is delivered in a breathy vocal style, but never feels passive. The blasts of brass in the chorus are a welcome touch, and give needed spark to a relatively straightforward song structure. AOA would go on to knock me out with the aforementioned Like A Cat and 2015’s Heart Attack, but Miniskirt was the start of something special.

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