"Smoke Sprite" is a song by South Korean musician

So!YoON! Hwang So-yoon (; born 23 May 1997) is a South Korean singer, songwriter and guitarist. She came to prominence as the lead vocalist of the indie rock band Se So Neon, of which she remains the band's only member. Since 2019, Hwang has performed und ...

from her second studio album, '' Episode 1: Love'' (2023). The song was written by Hwang, Chae Lin Suh and RM of

BTS BTS (), also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010. The band consists of Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook, who co-write or co-produce much of their material. Originally a hip hop group, they ...

who features on the track as a guest collaborator. The single was released on March 14, 2023 by

Magic Strawberry Sound Magic Strawberry Sound is an independent record label based in Seoul, South Korea. The label was founded by Kim Hyeongsoo in 2008, and he is a musician who works under the name Oldfish. In 2017, the label founded its sub-label, Peaches Label, and ...

with an accompanying music video to promote the release of the album.

Background

In the summer of 2022, Hwang and RM were working on their individual albums when they met by chance in a recording studio. While sharing their work with each other, Hwang showed RM an early demo of the "Smoke Sprite"

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

, leading the pair to collaborate on developing the song. On the first day of writing the lyrics, RM kneeled down in front of Hwang while suggesting the chorus line "Take on my knees". On March 9, 2023, Hwang released a teaser video for the single which revealed a 10-second snippet of the chorus, along with a variety of shots from the upcoming music video. The music video for "Smoke Sprite" portrays Hwang in a series of surreal scenarios, such as floating in a pool of water, running through snowy mountains with a sunburn, and shooting herself with a bow.

Reception

Upon release, "Smoke Sprite" received positive reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

, with Mary Sirosky of

Consequence Consequence may refer to: Philosophy, science and social sciences * Logical consequence, also known as a ''consequence relation'', or ''entailment'' * Consequent, in logic, the second half of a hypothetical proposition or consequences * Consequent ...

describing the song as "effortlessly cool". The Bias List gave it a rating of 8/10, calling it a "much more alternative sound than the glossy K-pop surrounding it". Dr. Colette Balmain of View of the Arts gave "Smoke Sprite" a rating of 4.5/5, discussing the "visual and lyrical eroticism" of the song, and comparing Hwang's use of personas in the music video to

Cindy Sherman Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Her breakthrough work is often co ...

's ''

Untitled Film Stills ''Untitled Film Stills'' is a series of black and white photographs by American visual artist Cindy Sherman predominantly made between 1977 and 1980, which gained her international recognition. Sherman casts herself in various stereotypical female ...

''.

Chart performance

References

{{reflist Indie rock songs 2023 songs 2023 singles South Korean songs