“Not an Easy Girl” was Lizzy’s first digital single, released in the summer of 2015 when there was still a bit of hope for Orange Caramel and After School. Featuring Jung Hyung Don (best known as one of the former hosts of “Weekly Idol”), it’s a pleasant foray into trot music. I’ve linked the music video below. Go ahead and give it a listen!
Just to clear something up at the beginning of this review, Lizzy now uses the name Park Soo-Ah to promote as an actress and entertainer. Since this song was released when she was still promoting as Lizzy, I’ll use that name in the article, but I’ll tag this review with both names to reflect that. In the future, if she releases music as Park Soo-Ah, those reviews will only be tagged with Park Soo-Ah.
The music video for Not an Easy Girl features Lizzy and Jung Hyung Don edited into the 1961 movie Seong Chunhyang, about a love story between members of the nobility which goes awry. According to some Youtube comments, it’s actually a better viewing experience to watch this music video on a lower quality setting such as 144p or 240p, since it makes it harder to tell that Lizzy has been green-screened in. There’s also speculation that this may have been a cheaper alternative to filming a completely new music video, since Lizzy’s agency at the time, Pledis Entertainment, was having financial issues.
Not an Easy Girl is somewhat of a standard trot song crossed with elements of mid-2010s idol pop. The most notable influences from standard pop music are the prevalence of brass and horns in the instrumental, and the inclusion of a rap verse. While traditional and contemporary trot music can and often do feature brass instrumental layers, there tends to be more of an emphasis on string instruments than is present here.
One key detail of Not an Easy Girl is the use of whisper-like backing vocals in the introduction and to end the instrumental breaks. These contrast with Lizzy’s fuller, deeper singing in the main vocal line. Lizzy’s stylistic choices in this song are more in line with what would be expected in mainstream pop, rather than in trot. She does not use the typical wide, warbling vibrato typical of many trot singers, and her vocals in the last line of the song are almost belted. I do not mean this as a criticism, merely an observation. There’s almost a sense of campiness to the song, from the way Lizzy sings the hook in the chorus to Jung Hyung Don’s rap verse. Speaking of that rap verse, it does not seem out of place in the overall structure of the song, and in fact does a nice job of breaking up the sameness of the sound and thus avoiding the repetitive nature of most trot songs. It doesn’t hurt that lyrically, Jung Hyung Don is offering a rebuttal to Lizzy’s characterization by proclaiming himself to not be an easy guy.
Overall, Not an Easy Girl is a generally fun trot song, even if the composition is rather standard. Lizzy acquits herself decently well, and Jung Hyung Don’s feature is fun and gives the track a jolt of energy at just the right time.
Song Rating: 7.8/10
Cherry Blossom Road 