Released: June 2011, Japan
Rating: 4.30
Despite the fact that I'm not your biggest SNSD fan, and there are so many things I find unfair in the way their Japanese career is going, their Japanese album was clearly light years ahead of anything they've put out, and so I had quite a difficult time deciding which song to put on the list. For a while it was "Mr. Taxi", then it became "Bad Girl", then "you-aholic" then actually "I'm In Love With The HERO", before I settled on "Let It Rain".
This is something I don't think they'd ever make a major release in Korea, and that's one of the main reasons why I settled with "Let It Rain" as somewhat the representative Japanese song (even if I hear there's a Korean version). It's something they'd do only in Japan, not because this is better or anything, but because this is simply not Korea's taste. It's too slow to be danced to so it will never be a lead single, but on the other hand it doesn't fit the standard ballad OR midtempo formula, so it'll just be another overlooked album track in Korea.
In one word, the entire song is epic. The bass line is felt rather than heard, and all the instruments, though amazing in themselves, are slightly dulled to let the vocals float. The structure is simple, but the melody is gorgeous and flows so well with the rest of the song. And, above all, "Let It Rain" is so easy to listen to. It has some bite around the edges, courtesy of the vocal treatment, but as a whole it's so smooth.
I have another food analogy for this song. The instrumental kinda reminds me of plain tortilla chips, which are okay on their own, but a bit flat and more focused on texture than taste. But then you add in this awesome tomato or garlic cream dip, which in this case is the melody and vocals laced together, and everything explodes in your mouth. Or in this case, your ears.
