Behold: the best K-Pop music video of 2011.
We’ve covered Sunny Hill before, with Midnight Circus. That alone should’ve been enough to clue you into what sets this group apart: their embrace of the macabre, of vaguely Lovecraftian settings, a particular brand of dreamy horror that doesn’t exactly shock, but instead, perpetuates a kind of lingering melancholy.
Pray, and its accompanying music video, is the best example I could give to back up those conclusions. The video is chock-full of symbolism and little details, tackling dark, mature themes that aren’t easily seen in K-Pop. This is a video worth watching twice.
After Pray, Sunny Hill would go on to brighten their style a little bit, but would still imbue it with their trademark out-of-the-box themes. Just check out this video for 2012's The Grasshopper Song, vaguely inspired by Aesop’s fable, and tell me it’s like anything else you’ve watched and heard in this column so far: