Debut Re-Evaluation: Kara – Break It

Nick

June 14

K-Pop debuts can be tricky things. At times, they're the best song a group delivers. Sometimes, they're the only song a group delivers!

But, debuts can also be huge wtf moments in an artist's career. In this feature, I'll be looking back at debut songs through the prism of time, re-evaluating how well they hold up and how representative they are of an artist's eventual singles run.

Debut Date: October 15, 2009

Review:

When most people think of Kara, they rightly imagine their string of dynamic, era-defining Sweetune hits. However, like many groups of their time, Kara had to go through a few growing pains to arrive at their signature sound. Their 2007 debut album The First Bloooooming is an interesting time capsule, stuck between two generations of K-pop.

Kara debuted under the same company as the ultra-popular Fin.K.L, meaning they had a ton of expectations to live up to. Title track Break It opted for a strong image, harnessing the angular dance-pop and powerful vocals that were a hallmark of the time. It could have easily been released seven years earlier during the height of Fin.K.L's career, and this familiarity might have blunted its overall effect.

This is also the only album featuring original member Kim Sunghee, who left the group a year later. The debut was mildly successful but far from the blockbuster the agency had probably hoped for. It's fascinating to imagine how a Kara discography might sound if this style had taken off for them. After all, it would only be a year until they hitched their wagons to the soon-to-explode Sweetune train.

As a song, Break It is solid but unspectacular. It sounds pretty dated now and fails to find the sonic standouts that buoy similar efforts from this era. The girls deliver a hearty, R&B-influenced performance. We hear the first iteration of the stacked harmonies that would go on to become a Kara signature and the instrumental pulses with a straightforward pounce. But overall, this is more of a curio than an iconic hit.

Does the song hold up?
Probably not to anyone but the group's die hard fans and admirers of this era.

Is the song stronger or weaker than most of the artist's title tracks?
It pales in comparison to their unbeatable Sweetune-produced run.

Does the song represent the artist's music going forward?
Not at all.