Talk About S
Talk About S is the second solo extended play by South Korean singer and actress Gain. It was released on October 5, 2012, and distributed by LOEN Entertainment. The album is a contrast to her solo debut EP due to its delightful and brighter sound, "more varied palette" yet still intacts "the pervasive seductiveness" which was first introduced in Step 2/4. As executive producer, Jo Yeong-Cheol and :ko:이민수 |Lee Min-soo enlisted collaborators such as KZ and Yoon Jong-shin to create the EP, featuring a total of five tracks.
Upon its release, the album debuted at number one on the Gaon Weekly Albums Chart, making it the singer's first one to do so. With a total sales of about 10,000 copies, it remains her most successful and best-selling album to date, surpassing her previous EP Step 2/4.
Two singles were released from the EP, with its lead track ultimately becoming her most successful solo single to date. An unreleased track from the album, "Nostalgia", was available as a digital single on November 30, 2012.
Background
After the release of Brown Eyed Girls' digital single "The Original", it was announced that Gain would be releasing her second mini-album in October 2012, titled Talk About S. According to Gain during an interview with Nylon in February 2013, "S" could be referred to sex, sexual or even secret, therefore "S" is a combination of those interpretations as it is "the start point for so many other words". It was also revealed during the interview that she would go "further" in this mini-album as the album was prepared with an R-19 rating due to its sexy concept which received mixed reactions from netizens.Composition
Talk About S takes influence from dance-pop and electropop, while it also interpolates other genres, such as jazz in "The Gaze", which features singer-songwriter Yoon Jong-shin, whom is also a co-producer of the song. Aside from the executive producer Jo Yeong-cheol, frequent lyricist Kim Eana and producer :ko:이민수 |Lee Min-soo, the album also features productions from :ko:정석원 |Jeong Seok-won, Postino, KZ and Junjaman, whom had previously remixed Brown Eyed Girls' single "My Style". Lyrically, the album focuses on themes such as love, sex, and relationship.The album opens with "Tinkerbell", an IDM track features a "damaged, half-deleted" Latin guitar while running through synthesized wobbly Low-frequency oscillation chords with many "violent jump cuts", blowing riffs and a four-bar break. The lyrics, using characters such as Tinkerbell and Peter Pan as metaphors, describes "a coy invite to a midnight tryst". It also featured Gain's breathy, airy vocal style which was requested by the producer. The second track "Tiredness" is a dance-pop with R&B influences with a melodic piano, keyboard and background riffs during the chorus.
The third and also lead track, "Bloom" is described as a "delightful Madonna throwback" with a funky riff, while talking about a girl became a real woman through love. It was also compared to IU's "Good Day" due to having the same composing team. The fourth track on the album "The Gaze" which features Gain's breathy voice, is the album's only collaboration with a jazzy influence and laid-back feelings, described as "the lethargic, tender bedroom moment", while the last track "Catch Me If You Can" is an upbeat dance-pop song with bright synths and horns.
Another track "Nostalgia", a cover of :ko:요조|Yozoh's song which features Eric Mun of Shinhwa, the same rapper of the original track, is an acoustic pop song with a mellow melody which is reminiscent of K-pop during its previous decades.
Singles
"Bloom"
"Bloom" was announced as the lead single for Talk About S after the album's track listing announcement. Written by Kim Eana and produced by Lee Min-soo, "Bloom" received positive reacts after its release. Its accompanied 6-minute-long music video was released on October 5, 2012, featuring Gain performing a pole dancing. The song became her first number-one on the Gaon Monthly Singles Chart. The song is Gain's best-selling single to date with almost two million digital copies, and also her co-highest charting single on the now-defunct Billboard Korea K-Pop Hot 100, peaking at number two."Nostalgia"
A previously unreleased track, "Nostalgia" was released digitally as a thank-you gift to her fans on November 30, 2012, accompanied by a short music video, using the outtakes while filming the music video for "Bloom". Upon release, "Nostalgia" debuted and peaked at number fourteen on Billboard Korea K-Pop Hot 100.Promotion
To promote the album, various teasers were premiered online as a countdown prior to the actual release of Talk About S, also revealed the track listing of the album. The first teaser for "Tinkerbell" was released on September 25, 2012, followed by "Catch Me If You Can" on September 26, "Tiredness" on September 27, "The Gaze" on September 28 and finally "Bloom" on October 4, one day before the premiere of its full version.Gain made her first comeback stage on Music Bank on October 5, 2012, the album's release date, followed by performances on Show! Music Core and The Music Trend, performing the title track while the opening track "Tinkerbell" was performed only on the first and the third show. She then went on to appear in many television programs to promote the album, such as Strong Heart and You Hee-yeol's Sketchbook.
On November 21, she performed both "Bloom" and "Tinkerbell", as well as "Tiredness" for the first time on Good Day Hope Concert. She then performed "The Gaze" for the first time on You Hee-yeol's Sketchbook with Yoon Jong-shin, which was notable for including the pole dancing during the album promotion and the tango routine as a reminiscence of her debut album, and also for a small incident during the performance when she caused the piano man to get a nose bleed.
The promotion was wrapped up by her performances at 2012 Mnet Asian Music Awards and the 2nd Gaon Chart K-Pop Awards.
Critical reception
Upon its release, Talk About S received generally positive reviews from music critics. Jakob Dorof from Pitchfork Media called it "excellent" while praising Gain for using her solo career "to test the limits of both Korea's mainstream music and morals". He also picked "Tinkerbell" as one of 20 songs on the essential list. Jung Bae from Hello K-Pop, while describing the album as "stronger", stating that it doesn't "come close to matching the brilliance" of her debut EP. He described the album's title track as "irresistibly charming" and "genuine", while praising the performance of both Gain and Yoon Jong-shin on "The Gaze" and the "frenetic rhythm" of "Tinkerbell". Samantha Her & Alona from KMusic stated that despite the album "does not live up to the fans’ expectations", it was "good enough to be kept", while praising both "Bloom" and "The Gaze" as stand-out tracksAllkpop gave a more mixed review on the album, stating that the album "falls flat" of its expectation, however choosing "The Gaze" as the album's stand-out pick and also praising her vocal ability. On a somewhat more positive review of Seoulbeats, the EP "seems lacking in terms of cohesiveness", adding that it was "a lot more processing and vocal alteration", picking "Bloom" as the least favourite song of the writer.
Track listing
;Notes- The title of track 2 literally means "Meet Her".
Charts
| Chart | Peak position | Sales |
| South Korean Gaon Weekly Albums Chart | 1 |
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| South Korean Gaon Monthly Albums Chart | 9 |