A Colourful And Poppy Soloist Debut | YENA’s 1st Mini Album ˣ‿ˣ (SMiLEY)

Earlier this year on January 17th, 2022, former IZ*ONE member Choi Yena officially made her solo debut with her 1st Mini Album creatively titled ˣ‿ˣ (SMiLEY). The album included 5 tracks: ‘Before Anyone Else’, ‘SMILEY’, ‘Lxxk 2 U’, ‘PRETTY BOYS’, and ‘VACAY’ with the second track ‘SMILEY’ serving as the title track.

Overall, this solo debut is a strong one for Choi Yena. It is already led by the amazing title track ‘SMILEY’, and the four B-Side tracks definitely showcase more of YENA’s potential as a solo artist going into the future.

To start off this album, we have a ballad with the preliminary track ‘Before Anyone Else’. Usually, the ballads are kept towards the second half or the ends of albums, but honestly, I didn’t mind having a ballad as the first track. While it is a fairly slow ballad, it made up for YENA’s angelic vocals. It did feel quite consistent the whole way through, but sometimes keeping it simple works, and for me it did. A soothing and dreamy song is a great way to start this album.

Moving on to the album’s title track featuring another soloist BIBI, ‘SMILEY’. ‘SMILEY’ does exactly what the title says. It’s a poppy, uplifting, colourful song that made me smile and it has a place in my heart as one of the best K-Pop Soloist Debuts of the year. Maybe even ever in my opinion. It also has a place in my head, which it cannot escape from, the song is that addictive.

‘SMILEY’ steers down the pop-rock sound, with an energetic and upbeat instrumental that brings forth a nostalgic vibe of 2000s pop rock. YENA’s vocals were perfectly executed throughout the song, adding sweetness, and cuteness (to give ‘SMILEY’ a bubble-gum tinge to the track, which is always a plus in my book) and is such a great carrier of the melodies and hooks within ‘SMILEY’. The pairing of both vocals and instrumentation just makes me want to get up and dance and it is quite infectious. I also enjoy the autotuned pre-chorus, which acts like a mini momentum builder to the chorus and helps makes the centerpiece more explosive.

BIBI’s featuring in the song is quite interesting as it offsets YENA. But at no point does BIBI overshadow YENA, and the edginess that BIBI brings to ‘SMILEY’ helps balance out the song to prevent it from becoming oversaturated in sweetness and cuteness. Personally, I don’t think that was going to be a problem, but I see where BIBI’s feature is coming from. It also helped that BIBI’s sequence also used a higher tone, which compliments YENA’s vocals.

Another thing about ‘SMILEY’ that I really enjoyed is the message behind the track, which simply says to keep on smiling. Overall, ‘SMILEY; is a fun, addictive, and wholesome song that I just cannot get enough of.

In the music video, YENA’s character is a superhero whose superpower is to spread smiles everywhere. She does so after helping a boy get a balloon off the roof of the building, which is an important detail for later. After she spreads her happiness in the diner, she leaves to spread her happiness in the darkest depths of the planet. BIBI arrives to spread her darkness around, but I think she ends up being more interested in helping YENA by sending some of her power to help YENA combat the cold by upgrading her outfit with a bit of BIBI’s own dark taste.

Unfortunately, the cold is too much and YENA collapses. But we do see the SHADY becoming infected with YENA’s happiness and goes out to help her. It turns out SHADY was actually the little boy who appeared at the start of the music video and repays YENA’s action by helping her out. So, YENA recovers, continues to spread her happiness around the world (and turns into a rubber duck in the process) and returns to the diner at the start of the video to just rock it out. A fun, cute, and playful concept that I thoroughly enjoyed. So much in fact that it is now my phone’s ringtone.

‘Lxxk 2 U’ continues the rock sound from the title track, combining it with pop. The chorus was extremely memorable thanks to the melody and the energy that comes off it. What really stood out to me in ‘Lxxk 2 U’ was how the rock element complimented YENA, never overpowering or overstepping the artist. Even during the bridge where we got angsty YENA, the intensity of the autotune and rock increased sufficiently to give off that angsty vibe but kept it within the wheelhouse of YENA herself. Compared to the rest of the song, the bridge was a bit of a curveball, but it managed to work without departing too far from the rest of ‘Lxxk 2 U’.

‘PRETTY BOYS’ almost comes in as my favourite B-Side track on this album, perhaps even a tie with ‘Lxxk 2 U’, but narrowly misses out. I really enjoy the funky vibes from this track in particular and the retro direction that the instrumental took. It is pretty much on point with what else is going on in the industry at the moment. The repetitive hook throughout ‘PRETTY BOYS’ really made the song catchy for me. Combine that with the energy of the upbeat instrumental, you have a winning formula. However, when it came to her raps in this song, I wished the instrumental concentrated slightly, just to give those raps a bit more zing in this already upbeat track.

The album ends with a fairly straightforward pop track ‘VACAY’. There is some good energy that comes from this track that reminds me of summer, and I think this is a great song to have on repeat during those incoming hot months. One thing that I haven’t yet commended YENA on for are her high pitch vocals. And while she does extremely well throughout the album, ‘VACAY’ really showed off her tone and control. I also like how she manages to portray that summer energy in her voice as well.

ˣ‿ˣ (SMiLEY) by YENA is by far one of my favourite debut albums of 2022 from a soloist. Watch out IU, she’s coming for my Favourite Soloist spot. I was so happy to see Choi Yena make her solo debut ever since IZ*ONE disbanded, as she was one of my favourite members of that group. Choi Yena, FIGHTING!

04.08.2022