The CLC girls have made their return today on February 22 with their 7th EP ‘Black Dress‘! They made an impact with their girl crush concept last year following the release of their past title track ‘Hobgoblin’ and now the resident Cube girl group looks like they’re carrying on with the strong women vibes with their latest comeback!
With ‘Black Dress‘, it holds a different tone in contrast to ‘Hobgoblin‘ and it certainly takes a more mature approach, the latter track could have potentially acted as an ‘initiation’ phase in the worlds created by the music videos, we talk briefly about the idea of the girls transformations below about how moving from sticking to the stereotypical ‘bad girls’ attitude for a more refined, sophisticated concept. CLC have successfully made their comeback back on the radar, but it also offers up the question over future concepts, to see how they have evolved as a group since their debut in 2015 with ‘Pepe’ has been interesting.
They do take risks with these girl crush inspired comebacks, which often don’t fair well domestically but it does catch the attention from their international audience for sure. While this doesn’t seem to have the same earworm feel to it, there’s certainly potential being shown here. The song picks up near the end, almost like the girls are echoing that they aren’t here to play around.
Given the title, the colour black is celebrated heavily in the M/V with the fashion fully embracing the strength behind the ‘Female Boss’ concept. If anything, it looks like the girls swapped the look of being rookie gang members in ‘Hobgoblin’ to mature, confident bosses, almost opening up the possible theoretical Mafia inspired concept. Following the scene where one member is seen to be cutting her hair, the idea that it symbolises the sense of being empowered. Such an example of a transformation is often used to portray a change that the person wants to make in their lives, perhaps on this occasion, it could be the girls maturing into women. In addition, the moment that the strands of hair is cut looks to act as a catalyst of sorts, with the next scene to follows displays feathers falling, which could further support the idea of a transformation happening. They give off the impression of emitting an aura of self-assurance, no time for hesitation here as they attack their target, which is emphasised during the ending clip. You can watch the full M/V below.
