It’s her first solo release in more than a year.
K-pop veteran SUNMI returned yesterday with STRANGER, her eighth digital single and first solo release in a year and four months. The three-song collection’s standout title track is a genre-hopping exploration of self, and it debuted inside the Top 25 of the Genius Top Songs chart.
Co-written by SUNMI, “STRANGER” opens with an abrupt, clap-driven, chanted chorus that makes it sound like this is going to be some kind of love song.
Mr. Stranger, running into danger
Gotta get to know you
Mr. Stranger, wanna be your angel
Gotta get to know you
The catch is that “STRANGER” is really about SUNMI herself, as the former Wonder Girls member explained during a recent press event.
“I’ve often shared my own experiences in various contexts of my songs, and this time, I found it intriguing to imagine ‘Stranger’ as an alternate version of myself,” SUNMI said. “The song provides a rather narcissistic delve into my persona.”
That information is helpful when listening to the first verse, which comes as the song transitions into a soft-focus synth-pop jam. Here, SUNMI is singing to someone (but really herself) about how they “click so well” together, and they have from the beginning. Is the feeling mutual?
달리 표현할 수 없어
우린 마치 처음부터
알아온 것 같이 딱 맞지
Do you feel the same?
At the pre-chorus, “STRANGER” turns into an electro-reggae song, and SUNMI is looking to push things to the next level.
Let’s cross the line
Baby, I don’t mind
묻지 마 내 마음
난 지금 여기 almost there
Then we’re back to the jagged chanted thing for chorus, where SUNMI seems to acknowledge the perils of getting to know different facets of yourself.
Mr. Stranger, running into danger
Gotta get to know you (Mm)
Mr. Stranger, running into danger
Gotta get to know you (Mm)
On the second verse, SUNMI likens this other version of herself to “a magic spell.”
뭐에 홀린 것처럼
마치 늘 옆에 있던 것
같이 굴지
Do you feel the same? (Oh-oh-oh)
“STRANGER” comes with a seasonally appropriate horror-themed music video in which SUNMI creates a Frankenstein monster of herself.
“The music video features both the authentic me and a fabricated version, and the real me molding the fake one,” SUNMI said. “It symbolizes the process of reinventing myself with each album release. The Sunmi on stage and the one here right now are completely different, and the music video encapsulates that sense of unfamiliarity.”
You can read all the lyrics to “STRANGER”—and its English translation—on Genius now.
