Single Review: The Boss - "Lady"

From the very beginning, The Boss‘ focus has always been all five members’ strong vocals. Even with their previous singles “Admiring Boy” and “Stumble Stumble“, somehow the songs were made to let their vocals shine through. And, now, with a ballad release under their belts in the form of their newest single “Lady“, they’ve proven once again just how strong their vocals are.

Looking at their past releases, The Boss has never really had a proper, solid ballad for a single, or even an album track. They debuted with the perky, slightly cute, “Admiring Boy”, before moving over to the more serious, catchy and heavy sounds of “Round Round” and “No One.. Anyone“, and so at this point a ballad would be one of the many logical steps to take for a group like The Boss. They’ve grown up, very fast, and this reflects exactly how much they’ve grown, but also what they still have ahead of them.

While everyone else is concentrating on releasing the catchiest, noisiest, most heavily-produced track, these five chose to put out a stunning, jaw-dropping ballad.

And really, the best word to describe “Lady” is “stunning”, in every sense of the word.

“Lady” is gorgeous, with the sweeping melodies, simple piano lines, a crisp guitar line laced with a beautiful string section, and harmonies pulled off by five stunningly rich voices. The song is everything but simple though – it’s elaborate, it’s epic, it stuns you. It starts out simply, but even with the rather toned-down first half, you’re held at the edge of your seat because, at the back of your mind, you know everything you hear will eventually explode into something huge — and it does.

The reason why this song works for an idol group is because all five members of The Boss are not just vocally capable, they’re good singers. It works because they can all stand alone as vocalists, but they also work extremely well as a group — they know when they have to put their all into their vocals and really deliver, but they also know when to step back and let the other members sing. That’s one of the most important skills a vocal group must posses, and to these five it’s almost natural. Listen to the harmonies on the song, they’re very much audible, but at the same time they have a gentleness to them because no one is trying to out-sing anyone else.

Everything about this comeback was thought through, from the song, an epic ballad, to the concept and the simple music video, to show that The Boss don’t need flashy music videos or elaborate choreography to pull off a comeback. Sometimes all they need is a stunning song and their gorgeous vocals.