Hearts2Hearts: A Hot Debut

“I love the way you love the chase.” SM Entertainment, a world-renowned entertainment company, has come back with a new eight-member girl group, Hearts2Hearts (H2H for short). Their two-song debut album, The Chase, has gained popularity quickly, but how great really is their debut?

SM Entertainment (“Star Museum”) is famous for their girl groups æspa (yes, it is spelled lowercase) and Red Velvet. SM has developed their own universe, called SMCU (SM Culture Universe), which is home to the world of Kwangya. æspa navigates Kwangya and fights villains, such as Black Mamba, on a quest to reach the world of Kosmo, home to the SMCU gods. æspa fights through their æs, which are digital versions of themselves living in Kwangya who are created from their liked content on social media. On the other hand, Black Mamba is created from humans’ insatiable desires found through social media. She wants to cut Kwangya off from the real world to prove that æs can exist on their own. To follow æspa’s story, watch their episodes.

The eight members of Hearts2Hearts were cast by SM through auditions throughout several years, with a few scouted in ordinary places, such as a convenience store. The training period of each member varies from two years to seven years. With such long training periods, members started as early as the age of 11. H2H’s album has rapidly gained popularity, and they have been invited to perform at popular Korean shows such as Inkigayo and MusicBank. Let’s see just how good their songs really are.

The Chase

The title track of H2H’s debut album is a total bop. “The Chase” talks about a journey of love and freeing oneself. It could also be a metaphor for the musical journey Hearts2Hearts is about to embark on. They talk about navigating a new adventure while taking over their own world. This song also highlights classic elements of a love story, with lyrics like “I’ll make you say my name” and “Our love is so sweet / It pops like candy.” This is a good concept for a debut song and leaves a strong message for listeners.

“The Chase” has an extremely catchy chorus tune and is cleanly done. This song is packed with SM elements, such as a post-bridge and an ending chorus slightly different from earlier ones. The song structure is similar to æspa’s debut, “Black Mamba.” The choreography is clean and synchronized with iconic moves and memorable formations.

Overall, “The Chase” showcases each member’s talents with strong vocals and an SM style. I adore the vocals and adlibs that Carmen brought throughout the song. Stella’s part in the bridge is stellar (see what I did there?) and sweet, while Ye-on brings beautiful harmonies to the song with her smooth voice. Juun and Jiwoo work together well during their parts, and Ian (pronounced “Lee-an” in Korean) shows strong leadership while performing. A-na and Yuha both deliver their parts perfectly and display their exceptional dancing talents.

Butterflies

The debut album’s second song contrasts well with “The Chase.” “Butterflies” speaks of a dream-like love, with unfamiliar scenes and navigating this new journey together with one’s lover. The song describes calm scenery to explain strong feelings and contains many dreamy elements to emphasize the fantastical romance.

The group sings together more, and the song’s rhythms and melodies are a different style from H2H’s title track. This song is much slower and feels like a river, the melodies flowing together perfectly. The dance, while simple, is hard to master gracefully, and Hearts2Hearts performs it wonderfully. The formations are, once again, unique and smooth, as expected from SM. The vocals are developed beautifully, also a feature of SM, which pays extra attention to vocals. I also love how SM created a sped-up version, which adds a fun twist to the song.

Overall Debut

I can tell that the group and their staff worked really hard to give their listeners a wonderful debut album. This is a pretty strong debut, but I do have to say it doesn’t leave as powerful of an impression as æspa’s “Black Mamba.” The lyrics could be distributed more evenly among the members. Additionally, it's not quite clear what H2H’s concept will be, but we can all expect a concept unlike æspa’s. Listening to the two songs of this album, the overall group concept could be a beautiful journey of love and finding one’s place in the world. For SM’s first girl group with more than four members after the worldwide success Girls’ Generation, Hearts2Hearts certainly left a good first impression.

The Group Itself

Each member has a unique visual and talent. The songs so far don’t have much rapping, so we have yet to see any rapping specialty. All members showcase strong vocal and dancing skills, and we can watch them steadily improve as the group continues its journey. Personally, I love Carmen’s vocals and Jiwoo’s stunning Nævis-like visuals. (Nævis is an AI member of æspa.) While eight members is quite a lot, each member is able to shine through with their own unique abilities.

Overall, SM has brought another high-quality group to the growing competition of the Kpop industry. From stunning visuals to smooth dancing to angelic vocals, Hearts2Hearts has all the elements of a successful girl group. Their fans, S2U (named so because there is “S2” in the middle of “Hearts2Hearts,” while the U symbolizes the fans), have gotten a taste of the members’ talents and are all expecting more wonderful songs, along with a distinct concept, from H2H in the future.