Review: 'Paradise Lost' From Brown Eyed Girls Vocalist Gain Is A Roundhouse Kick To The Heart [VIDEO]

The best pop music sneaks into your soul, commandeering your nervous system before you even have a chance to form an opinion about it.

It would be difficult to find a more hard-hitting pop track than Brown Eyed Girls singer Gain's deeply effecting new single "Paradise Lost" from the EP "Hawwah," released on Thursday.

With the gothic sound of a pipe organ driving "Paradise Lost" and Gain alternating between slinky Britney-esque crooning and a confident delivery on the hook that cuts like a knife, the single has a power that is impossible to ignore.

The anthemic chord progression of "Paradise Lost" recalls other dark K-pop classics of recent years, like EXO's 2014 track "Overdose" or B.A.P's "Whut's Poppin'" from 2013.

Yet, there are also intricate rhythmic breaks in "Paradise Lost" reminiscent of Aphex Twin, strings that swell like an Ennio Morricone soundtrack and heart-wrenching piano that could have come straight from Trent Reznor's home studio.

And there is also a certain type of lightness the song achieves that binds the whole mix together.

Something beyond the lyrics seems to be emanating from Gain's voice, the power of a singer that is not posturing but actually expressing something quite real and personal.

It can be scary to sing that way.

And though songwriters Kim Ee Na and Lee Min Soo did a top-notch job constructing a dynamite pop song, I'm sure they know as well as anyone that it is Gain's performance that pushes "Paradise Lost" into goosebump territory.

Though there is not shortage of experimentation with differing musical genres on "Hawwah," it is amidst the ghostly production of "Paradise Lost" that Gain seems to fully find her footing and the confidence to expose something from deep down, something seemingly more heartfelt and more deeply haunting, in the process.

Watch the music video for Brown Eyed Girls vocalist Gain's new solo single "Paradise Lost" from the EP "Hawwah" RIGHT HERE

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Gain
Brown Eyed Girls
Paradise Lost
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